Announcements
• Read Wiesner, chap. 8 for Friday, and be prepared to discuss.
• Pick up essays and other graded work from Prof. C.
• Note Revised schedule for next week, per online syllabus and as announced last class.
• Go Sox….
The “Middle Ages”
Why this name?
Why is this era important?
Dives and Lazarus
Today’s Agenda
• I. High Middle Ages (900-1300)• Agriculture• Towns• Crusades
• Next week = Late Middle Ages (1200-1400)
• Medieval Society• Universities• Plague, etc.
High Middle Ages (900-1300)
• Major Themes:• Rural Agriculture (manorialism, demesne)• Rise of Towns• Economic expansion (int’l trade, new businesses)• Local Politics (Feudalism) & fragmented empires• Christian expansion (cathedrals, Crusades)• Intellectual growth (universities)• Religious fervor (mendicants, heresy, Inquisition)
• Rural, hierarchical, continuity in daily life = Tradition• Expansion, growth, new opportunities = Innovation
Medieval Agriculture
-everyone is involved in agriculture
-influences the calendar, military strategy, life expectancy, etc.
-prosperity
Medieval Agriculture
Agricultural surplus• New technologies
– more efficient mills– ability to harness horses
• New crops• New cultivation methods
– three-field system• increased land in cultivation every
year from 1/2 to 2/3rds • decreased risk of starvation due to
crop failure
A medieval manor and the “open field” system
Another Medieval Manor map:How does this compare to the previous map?
A new power in European politics: TOWNS
• Recall the link between “civilization” and “cities”– The collapse of Roman civilization was a
collapse of Roman cities and all that went with their culture and society
• c. 1000, towns began to re-emerge throughout Western Europe– revival of trade
• made possible due to growth of European population– 900: approx. 18.5 million– 1300: approx. 49.5 million
Map 11.1Towns Large and Small, c. 1350
Town populations, c. 1350
Where were towns?• Geography:
– trade routes (rivers, ports, roads)• Military:
– near castles built to establish a royal or noble presence in the countryside
• Ecclesiastical– seat of a bishop or archbishop
• Historical– often built on the ruins of a Roman settlement– Always fortified by walls
What town is this?
The Geography of urban growth; Paris, c.1200
“Left Bank” = Rive Gauche = Latin Quarter = Student zone
A Growing TownFlorence, Italy
1200: 15K pop.
1300: 96K pop.
1350: 30K pop.
Various medieval towns/cities(Mont St. Michel; Lucca; Munich; Dordogne)
Walled medieval cities(York, Bergamo, Carcassone)
The Crusades
Religion in the Medieval Mediterranean
Crusades
• 5 Ws• 1096-1215• Eastern Med. & “Crusader States”• Economic expansion; religious conversion; buoyant
optimism; Catholic-Orthodox antagonism; Turks’ invasion; chivalric knighthood.
• Saladin; Richard Lion-Hearted; Pilgrims & Knights
• Crucesignati = signed by the cross• Urban II: Call to Crusaders (p. 308, Noble)
• “Dius le vult!” (God wills it)….
• Ibn Al-Athir’s perspective on Crusades (p. 310, Noble)
Crusader Routes(see also Noble, p. 309)
Crusades I-IV
21st Century Crusades??
The Crusades live on….