Soc stud

• Pointers


  • Early middle ages (the world of LORDS AND VASSALS) p. 329-331
  • High middle ages (Land AND PEOPLE; Culture of the High Middle ages) p. 332-339, p. 347-350
  • Renaissance (the Renaissance) p. 377-381
• During the High Middle Ages, new farming methods enabled Europe's population to grow. The revival of trade led to a money economy and the growth of cities. Many serfs worked the land under the manorial system, while merchants and artisans revived old cities and founded new ones.
• Summary of economic, belief, behavioral, and political systems in the Middle Ages


  • Economic system - manors, lord's estate (set of rights and obligations between serfs and lords), self-sufficient community and producing a variety of goods
  • Belief system - the church (power over people's everyday lives), unifying force of Christian faith, involvement in political affairs
  • Code of behavior (chivalry) - displays of courage and valor in combat, respect toward women, devotion to a feudal lord and heavenly lord
  • Political system (feudalism) - form of government based on LANDHOLDING, alliances between lords and vassals, oaths of loyalty in exchange for land/military service, ranking of power and authority
• The High Middle Ages - population increased DRAMATICALLY (1000-1300 to 38 MILLION TO 74 MIL PEOPLE).
• Reasons for population increase


  • Conditions in Europe were more settled and peaceful after the invasions of the early middle ages had stopped
  • Increased peace, stability, and food production
  • Peasants cultivated more land. By 1200, Europeans had more land for farming than compared to today (note to changes in TECHNOLOGY)
• Labor-saving devices in the Middle Ages


  • Iron - crucial in making the carruca = heavy, wheeled plow, iron wheel share, EXPENSIVE
  • Harnessing the power of water and wind to do jobs once done by human/animal power
  • Inventions of a new horse collar and the horseshoe made it possible for a series of horses to pull the carruca faster and plow more land in NORTHERN EUROPE
  • Shifting from a TWO-FIELD to a THREE-FIELD CROP ROTATION also INCREASED FOOD PRODUCTION
• Two-field crop rotation in the Early Middle Ages


  1. Peasants divided their land into TWO FIELDS OF EQUAL SIZE

  2. Planted one field and let the other to lie unplanted to regain fertility
• Three-field crop rotation in the Middle Ages

  1. Lands were DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS

  2. Peasants planted one field in the fall with grains (rye and wheat) that they harvested during summer

  3. The second field in spring is grains (oats and barley) and vegetables that they harvested in the fall

  4. The third field would lie fallow (UNPLANTED)
• Only 1/3, rather 1/2 the land lay fallow at ANY TIME (rotating crops kept soil fertile and allowed people to grow more crops).
• Commercial Revolution


  Increased trade - more workers needed / more cash/banking/lending services available / merchants wealth and power expand
• Commercial Revolution


  Serfs move to town (workers paid for labor)/ More money available for building business / Merchants' taxes increase the king's power and wealth
• Organization of a manor


  • Manor house - home to THE LORD (and his family) and refuge for the peasants during an attack
  • Village church - site of both religious and public meetings
  • Peasant cottages - where the peasants lived
  • Lord's demesne - fields owned by the lord, where peasants worked
  • Peasant crofts - gardens belonging to the peasants
  • Mill - water-powered mill for grinding grain
  • Common lands - shared areas such as pasture where peasants could graze animals/forest where they could hunt, fish, and gather firewood
  • Cultivated land - spring/fall plantings laid out in long strips to minimize the number of turns required while plowing
  • Fallow land - during crop rotation, land left unplanted to allow recovery
  • Common workshops - shared work areas as a mill, bake house, wine press or barn to shelter and care for animals
  • Woodland - forests provided wood for fuel
• Harshness of manor life - peasants paid a high price, taxes; any attempt to avoid taxes by baking bread elsewhere was A CRIME, paid a tax on marriage.
• Feudalism


  • Feudalism created alliances between nobles (lords and vassals)
  • The landholding nobles were a military elite whose ability to be warriors depended on them having the leisure time to pursue the arts of war
  • Landed estates, located on the FIEFS given to a vassal by his lord and worked by peasants, provided THE ECONOMIC SUPPORT THAT MADE THIS WAY OF LIFE POSSIBLE
• Manor


  An agricultural estate that a lord ran and peasants worked. although free peasants existed, increasing numbers of free peasants became SERFS (peasants LEGALLY BOUND TO THE LAND, provides labor services, pay rents, be subject TO THE LORD'S CONTROL, 3 DAYS A WEEK USUAL TIME)
• Obligations of serfs


  • Working the lord's land (1/3 to 1/2 of the cultivated land scattered throughout the manor)
  • Using the rest of the estate's land to GROW FOOD for themselves
  • Paying rents by giving the lords a share of EVERY PRODUCT THEY RAISED (and pay for things they use around the land)
  • Paying a tithe (tenth of their produce) to their local village churches
• Feudal contract


  Lords and vassals were tied together through MUTUAL OBLIGATIONS TO EACH OTHER. Lords had a variety of legal rights over their serfs, and serfs could not leave the manor without permission and not marry anyone outside the manor WITHOUT the lord's approval. Lords OFTEN had political authority on their lands, which gave them the right to try peasants in their own courts. Peasants were REQUIRED to pay lords for certain services. Serfs = NOT SLAVES; the land assigned to the serfs to support themselves could not be taken away and their responsibilities to the lord remained fairly fixed. Lords duty = PROTECT SERFS, give safety to farm the land.
• Features of a peasant household


  • Cottages had wood frames surrounded by sticks, spaces between sticks filled with straw/rubble and then plastered with clay. Roofs were simply thatched
  • The houses of poorer peasants consisted of a single room while others had at least 2 rooms- a main room for everything else and one for sleeping
  • Little privacy in a medieval household; a hearth was used for heating/cooking
  • Few/no windows/chimney, the smoke created by fires
• Cycle of labor in the peasant household


  1. Spring - busiest season (plowing, planting crops), peasants worked the fields owned by the lords often using medieval implements like wooden plows pulled by oxen

  2. Summer: peasants continued to tend to fields (weeding, protecting crops from pests), repairing builds or roads

  3. Autumn - harvesting is the primary focus, gathered crops and brought in for storage, surplus produce would be collected as taxes for the lord

  4. Winter: outdoor agricultural work slowed down significantly due to harsh weather conditions, focused on indoor tasks. (weaving, prepping food stores, repairing tools/equipment)
• 3 great feasts of the Catholic Church


  • Christmas (birth of Christ)
  • Easter (resurrection of Christ)
  • Pentecost (descent of the Holy Spirit on Christ's disciples)
• Village priests were often peasants themselves. most couldn't read. they ALL SAW GOD AS AN ALL-POWERFUL FORCE WOU NEEDED TO BE APPEASED BY PRAYER TO BRING GOOD HARVESTS.
• Position of a peasant woman

  Important/different culture, expected to work in the fields and bear children at the same time. (manage the household)
• Elements of the peasant diet


  • Bread (staple, made from wheat and rye, dark appearance, very heavy/hard texture)
  • Vegetables, cheese, milk, nuts and berries, fruits, chickens, meat (only eaten on the great feast days - Christmas and easter)
  • Grains - ale and bread; water was hard to obtain so wine was usual for the rich and ale for the poor (enormous quantities consumed- 3 gallons a day or more)
• Medieval Europe was an AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.
• Revival of trade in the 1000s-1100s


  1. Gradual change

  2. Italy, Venice, Flanders, Belgium, Scandinavia, Germany, etc. traded high-quality woolen cloths, etc.

  3. 1100s - regular exchanges became a thing between Flanders and italy; trade fairs were done

  4. Furs, woolen cloth, tin, hemp, honey, silks, sugar, and spices

  5. Demand for gold and silver coins arose at fairs and a money economy began to emerge

  6. New trading companies and banking firms were set up to manage the exchange and sale of goods (COMMERCIAL CAPITALISM - a system in which people invested in trade/goods to make profit)
• The revival of trade led to the revival of cities; towns had greatly declined and old roman cities had continued to exist but they'd dwindled in size/population.
• Factors in the growth of medieval cities


  • Merchants began to settle in old roman cities, followed by craftspeople/artisans = roman cities came alive
  • A group of merchants built a settlement near a castle located near a trade route and the lords would offer protection
  • Merchants + artisans of these cities = burghers/BURGEOISIE. (A WALLED ENCLOSURE)
  • Medieval cities were small compared with ancient/modern. (large trading city - 5000 inhabitants)
  • Most towns were tied to the land around and depended on the food grown in the surrounding manors
  • The towns were part of the territory belonging to a lord, and were subject to his authority
  • Townspeople needed freedom to trade (unique laws) ; 1100 - numerous rights from local lords
  • A written law for an escaped serf to become a free person after living a year and a day in town
  • Medieval cities developed their own governments for running the affairs of the community; specific labeling of citizens, system was rigged so only patricians could be elected
• Features of medieval city life


  • Medieval towns were surrounded by STONE WALLS. (expensive to build- space was tightly filled)
  • Medieval cities burned rapidly once a fire had started
  • The physical environment was often dirty, air polluted
• Medieval cities


  • Small compared to ancient/modern cities (large trading city - 5000 inhabitants)
  • Surrounded by stone walls (expensive to build, space tightly filled)
  • Burned rapidly once a fire had started
  • Physical environment was often dirty, with air pollution, smoke, burning coal, water pollution
  • More men than women lived in medieval cities
• Burghers/Bourgeoisie


  Merchants and artisans of medieval cities (lived in a walled enclosure)
• Medieval towns were tied to the land around and depended on the food grown in the surrounding manors
• Townspeople needed freedom to trade (unique laws); 1100 - numerous rights from local lords
• A written law allowed an escaped serf to become a free person after living a year and a day in town
• Medieval city governments


  • Developed their own governments for running the affairs of the community
  • Specific labeling of citizens
  • System was rigged so only patricians could be elected
• Craft guilds


  • Formed an important part of town life during the medieval period
  • Trained young people in a skilled job
  • Regulated the quality of goods sold
  • Were major forces in community life
• Craft guild membership


  1. Apprentice (parents paid for training, lived with master, 2-7 training years, not allowed to marry)

  2. Journeyman (day worker, worked for a master to earn a salary, 6 days a week, needed to produce a masterpiece to become a master)

  3. Master (owned own shop, worked with other masters to protect their trade, sometimes served in civic government)
• Craft guilds


  • Provided services to members (set working conditions, covered with health insurance, guaranteed quality work, provided funeral expenses)
  • Provided services to the community (built almshouses, took turns policing the streets, donated windows to the church)
• Craft guilds slowly faded away when needed to compete against the efficiency of large-scale productions in factories
• Gothic cathedrals


  • Replacement of romanesque style with ribbed vaults and pointed arches (made churches higher, impression of upward movement reaching up to God)
  • Flying buttresses (heavy arched support of stone built onto the outside of the walls)
  • Thin walls that could be filled with stained glass windows
  • Stained glass windows depicting religious and daily life scenes, play of light that varies with the sun
• Gothic cathedrals remain one of the greatest artistic triumphs of the High Middle Ages