wor hizzzz... T-T

• Middle Ages


  Period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Renaissance, lasting from 500 to 1400–1500 CE
• Dark Ages


  Period when Europe was in disarray and some of the science, technology, and literature of Rome were lost
• Age of Faith


  Period due to the extensive influence of Christianity and Islam
• Periods of the Medieval Era

  • Early Middle Ages (500-1000CE)
  • High Middle Ages (1000-1250)
  • Late Middle Ages (1250-1500)
• Early Middle Ages (500-1000CE)


  • Marked the beginning of Early Middle Ages
  • Saw the fragmentation of Roman authority and the rise of various Germanic kingdoms across Europe
  • Fall of The Western Empire

  
• Dark Age


  Term originated with those who wanted to compare the earlier period unfavorably with their own so-called 'enlightened' age
• Migration Period


  Period that lasted from 375 to 568 with widespread invasions of peoples within or into Europe during and after the decline of the Western Roman Empire
• Kingdom of Ostrogoths (453-526)


  • Eastern Goths who settled in the area around the Black Seas and constantly made incursions into the Roman Provinces
  • Known for their conquest of Rome in 493, shortly after the Roman Empire fell
  • Under Theodoric the Great, established the Gothic kingdom of Italy
• Theodoric the Great


  • Called himself Gothorum Romanorumque rex ("King of the Goths and Romans")
  • Most of the social institutions of the late Western Roman Empire were preserved during his rule
• Before Theodoric became King

  1. 375-450: Ostrogoths were ruled by Huns

  2. When Attila the Hun died, King Theodemir established the Ostrogoth Kingdom

  3. Byzantine emperor Leo the Thracian exerted his dominance over the Ostrogoths and signed a treaty with King Theodemir

  4. Theodoric was held hostage by the Byzantine

  5. Byzantine Emperor Zeno supported him to depose Odoacer in Italy
• Kingdom of Visigoths


  • Located in Spain
  • Inherited and continued to maintain much of the Roman structure of government
  • Roman populations was allowed to maintain Roman institutions
  • Largely excluded from power as a Germanic warrior caste came to dominate the considerably larger native population
• Society of the Germanic Peoples

  • Germans and Romans intermarried and began to form a new society
  • German family structure: men dominant and made all important decisions, women obeyed their father until marriage then fell under legal domination of husband
  • Women's legal status reflected material conditions of their lives: life expectancy 30-40 years, life consisted of domestic labor
• Germanic Law


  • Law was personal, could lead to blood feuds
  • Wergeld: a fine paid by a wrongdoer to the family of the person injured or killed
  • Means of determining guilt or innocence: the ordeal, based on idea of divine intervention
• Role of the Christian Church

  • By the end of the fourth century, Christianity had become the predominant religion of the Roman Empire
  • As the official Roman state disintegrated, the Christian church played an increasingly important role in the growth of the new European civilization
  • Developed a system of government with each city headed by a bishop, and the bishops of four great cities held positions of special power
  • Bishop of Rome claimed he was the sole leader of the western Christian church
• Monastic Movement


  • A structured, ascetic pursuit of the Christian life
  • Saint Benedict founded a monastic house and wrote a set of rules establishing the basic form of monastic life in the western Christian church
  • Divided each day into a series of activities with primary emphasis on prayer and manual labor
  • Strictly ruled by an abbot or 'father' of the monastery
  • Each Benedictine monastery held lands that enabled it to be a self-sustaining community
  • Life of poverty: 'Let all things be common to all, as it is written, lest anyone should say that anything is his own'
  • Only men could be monks, women are called nuns and were the social workers of their communities
• Feudalism


  • A set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries
  • A system for structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labor
  • King was the absolute 'owner' of land, nobles and knights were vassals who held land from the king
  • Manorial system: manor operated by a lord and worked by peasant serfs who were bound to the land they worked on
• High Middle Ages (1000-1250)

  • Population doubled from 38 million to 74 million due to more settled and peaceful conditions, and agricultural production surged
  • Improvements in agriculture like the three-field rotation system, use of the heavy plow, watermills and windmills
  • Daily life of peasantry: cottages with wood frames and thatched roofs, women carried out domestic labor and field work, diet staple was bread
• Nobility of the High Middle Ages

  • Aristocratic women could legally hold property but most remained under control of men
  • When the lord was away, the lady of the castle had to manage the estate
  • Society dominated by men whose chief concern was warfare, with an ideal of chivalry and a code of ethics for knights
• Revival of Trade


  • Cities in Italy took the lead, with Venice becoming the chief western trading center for Byzantine and Islamic commerce
  • Flanders known for high-quality woolen cloth
  • Counts of Champagne held annual fairs to encourage trade
  • Increase in demand for gold and silver led to the emergence of a money economy and commercial capitalism
• Late Middle Ages (1250-1500)


  • Climate change ushered in a 'little ice age'
  • The Black Death plague arrived in Europe in 1347, killing over 20 million people in the next five years
  • Many believed the plague was a punishment from God or caused by the devil, leading to anti-Semitism and attacks on Jews and clergy
• The Black Death plague originated in Asia, spread by rats accompanying Mongol troops, and may have reduced China's population from 120 million to 80 million by 1400
• Nubian Civilization


  Also known as the Kingdom of Kush
• Regions of Nubia


  • Upper Nubia (called Kush and Ethiopia)
  • Lower Nubia (called Wawat)
• Napata


  Capital of Kush, located along the Nile River in Northern Kush, served as the capital during the height of Kush's power
• Meroe


  Further south, also a center for ironworking
• Nubia can be traced from

  c. 2000 BCE onward to 1504 CE
• Kush gained independence from Egypt

  1070 BCE
• Kush ruled Egypt until the Assyrians arrived

  727 BCE
• Kush collapsed


  c. 300 CE
• Nubia later united within the Ottoman Egypt


  19th century
• Nubia united with the Kingdom of Egypt

  1899 to 1956
• Nubia and Ancient Egypt

  • Very similar in many aspects - built pyramids at burial sites, worshipped Egyptian gods, mummified the dead, ruling class of Kush likely considered themselves Egyptian in many ways
• Nubia and Ancient Egypt

  Had periods of both peace and war
• Based on rock art, Nubian rulers and early Egyptian pharaohs used similar royal symbols
• Egyptians called the Nubian region "Ta-Seti," which means "The Land of the Bow"
• Snefru conducted a raid into Nubia and established an Egyptian outpost at Buhen, West of the Nile
• Some Egyptian pharaohs were of Nubian origin
• Some archaeologists suggested that Nubia may have arisen even before the kingdoms of Egypt
• The Nubian kingdom of Kush conquered all of upper and lower Egypt


  700s B.C.
• Piankhi attacked the Egyptian city of Memphis


  751 B.C.