UNIT FOUR
MEDIEVAL EUROPE AND DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY CAPITALISM
Medieval Europe (Age)
- covers the period of European history from 500-1500AD.
- covers the fall of Western Roman Empire and the rise of feudalism to the rise of early
capitalism.
Dark Age
✓ The period of Western European history from 500-1000AD.
✓ It was because of civilization declined in Western Europe.
o Civilization declined in Western Europe due to the decline of Western Roman Empire.
o Western Roman Empire was destroyed by both
- Internal problem — internal division and decay
- Externally problem –invasions ( from Anglo-saxons and Franks from Germanic tribes and
Huns and Magyars from Asiatic tribes)
The invasions brought the following change on Western Europe
- Greco-Roman civilization declined.
- Societies became rural(i.e. cities and towns declined)
- Sharp decline in population and wealth of towns and cities,
- Feudalism became economic and political life in Europe.
However, there were some bright events in Dark Age
Bishop and monks kept old records and learning.
Churches were constructed and palace and castle were built.
Chivalry was practiced by knights.
Two large empires were formed in Western Europe.
- Carolingian Empire (481-882) (Centered in present day France)
- Holy Roman Empire (962-1806) (founded by the German emperor Otto the Great (r. 912-973)
and made up of German and Italian territories.
During the Dark Age the only unified institution in west Europe was Roman Catholic Church.
During the medieval period, Western Europe continued under the pressure from invaders;
➢ in 711AD, the Muslim Arabs from north Africa invaded through Spain. The Muslim forces
✓ confiscated Spain and established Arab Omayyad caliphate cordovan.
✓ stopped their expansion by Carolingian empire .it achieved victory over Arabs armies at the
battle of Tours (in France) in 732. This saved Europe from invasion of Muslim force.
➢ From 8th
-11th century, Northman from Denmark and Norway invaded Europe.
Feudal society
✓ was the political, military, and social system in the middle Ages, based on the holding of landsin
fief or fee and on the resulting relations between lord and vassal.
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✓ covers the period from 500-1500AD.
✓ Started as soon as the collapse of the western roman empire
In feudal system, the society can be classified into three;
A. Upper class(ruling class) consisted kings and royal families, nobles, knight, higher clergies
- they had political power and land. They were privileged class
Knights were come from nobility and were soldier of the middle Ages.
B. Middle class included all lords (had the land and political power, privileged class) - higher lords were connected with the lower lords by a system of vassalage.
- higher lords had gave land called feud to a lower lords. In the return the lords became vassal of
higher lords and fought his war and served them. - Manorial lords were lowest group that exercised real political, economic, judicial and military
powers over manorial and peasants. - Manor means village of medieval period, (it was the basic units of European feudalism.)
C. Lower class contained mass people (peasants, craftsman, trader, all ordinary people, and etc.) - had no land and political powers, unprivileged class
- most of peasants were serfs.
Serfs rented the land, paid tribute, gave free labor service to the lords and fought the wars of their lords.
Western Europe feudal society was exploitive and oppressive.
The Roman Catholic Church also owned lands b/c of clergies were belong to ruling class.
The Byzantine Empire - The Byzantine Empire also known as Easter Roman Empire.
- Constantinople was its capital since 330AD.
- After falls of Western Roman Empire in 476, Eastern Roman Empire continued to exist for another
1000yrs. - The name Byzantine comes from Byzantium, the old name of Constantinople.
- When civilization decline in west Europe, Byzantine remained the center of Greco-Raman and
Christina civilization in characters. - in 1054, the Byzantine Orthodox Church separated from catholic.
- In Byzantine
- Orthodox was the national church
- Greek language used than Latina.
- Palace, libraries and church were building.
St. Sophia church at Constantine was best example of Byzantine architectures.
During the last period, rivalries, plots, murder of emperor was common.
The economy of Byzantine was based Agriculture, Craft and Trade. - Byzantine Empire survived from repeated foreign attacks. However, it protected Western Europe
from attack and invasion in the east. - In 8th century Byzantine defended itself from Muslim Arab attack.
- b/n 7th and 11th centuries attacked from Slavic people called Bulgars and Serbs.
- Since 1071 it attacked by Normans and Seljuk Turkeys.
- Byzantine pushed back Normans but ask help from Christian Europe against Seljuk help. Help
came in the form of crusade.
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Crusades - war of Christian Europe against Muslim Seljuk Turkey who occupied Christian holy land.
- Seven major crusades over period for 200 years, but the most important were the 1st and 3
rd
.
The crusaders failed to crush Muslim from their holy land but able to defended Byzantine Empire until
1453.
Consequence of crusade
The consequences of crusade were
✓ Introduce new products such as sugar, rice and apricots in west Europe.
✓ Encourage commerce.
✓ Weakened the power of nobility.
✓ Strength Catholic Church.
✓ Paved long distance trade routes.
Europe State and The Ottoman Turkey
Seljuk Turkey
✓ Come to power in Asia Minor, Palestine and Arabia.
✓ were a nomadic people, came from Turkistan in central Asia.
✓ Occupied Muslim territories since 1040 AD.
✓ In 1040 it controlled Persian and Syria in 1071.
✓ Fought crusades war with European Christians.
Ottoman Turkey
✓ appeared in Arabia, Palestine and Asia manor at the end of 13th century.
✓ replaced Seljuk turkey power since 1299.
✓ named after their chief know Osman /Ottoman.
✓ had large empire, centered in what is now turkey. - In 1336 it seized Anatolian city of Bursa, in 2nd half of 14th century conquered Balkan Peninsula, in
1356 Adrianople and Salonika in 1587, in 1389 defeated Serbia and Bulgaria in 1339. In 1516 they
conquered Syria and Egypt in 1517.
➢ In 1453 Ottoman army of 150,000 troops led by Mohammed II captured Constantinople; hence,
Byzantine Empire came to end. They rename it as Istanbul and made it their capital. - Suleiman I (r.1520-66), whom European called him as the “Magnificent” conquered Hungary in
1526, Yemen in south and Morocco in the west and Persia in the east.
However, European force successfully defended Vienna in 1529 and defeated Turkey navy at the battle
of Lenpanto, near Greece. And it ended their expansion to the interior of Europe.
Ottoman Turkey Empire was
✓ Became the most powerful stated during 16th and 17th century.
✓ Its highly trained soldiers were called Janissaries.
✓ Its gained great wealth through trade, control trade route from Europe to Asia and prevent
European merchants to Far East.
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Development of Early Capitalism
Early capitalism covers the period b/n 1500-1700 AD.
Among new development that gave rise to early capitalism were;
- Beginning of exploration and discovery,
- Revival of Long Distance Trade,
- Emergence of capitalist relation,
- Renaissance and reformation,
Beginning of exploration and discovery
- During medieval period European knowledge was limited to Europe, North Africa and west Asia.
- Factor that encouraged exploration and discovery were
- European interest in LDT(taste of luxury good enforced them get new trade routes),
- Their interest of geographic knowledge,
- Inventions of different instruments like compass, better ships and maps
- Contribution of different individuals and leaders
Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) of Portugal. Queen Isabella
(1451-1504) of Spain.
In the 15th and 16th centuries Spain and Portugal were the leaders in
exploration and discovery.
- Bartolommeo Dias
In 1488, Portuguese explorer (c. 1450-1500) became the first European
mariner to round the southern tip of Africa and named cope of Good hope.
He showed the Opening the way for a sea route from Europe to Asia. - Viscose da Gamma
Portuguese explorer, viscose da Gamma (1460-
1524) sailed from Lisbon in 1497 on a mission to
reach India and open a sea route from Europe to
the East. After sailing down the western coast of
Africa and rounding the Cape of Good Hope, his
expedition made numerous stops in east Africa
before reaching the trading post of Calicut, India, in May 1498. He
discovered new sea route.
Ferdinand Magellan
In September 1519, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan set sail with a fleet
of five Spanish ships in attempt to find the Spice Islands by heading west.
Although Magellan died during the journey at Philippines he is credited with the
first circumnavigation of Earth. Only one ship with 18 men arrived Spain in
1522 after 3yrs and 12days.
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Christopher Columbus was noted for:
Columbus was Italian explorer but serve of Spain. His voyages started as an
attempt to find a trade route to Asia by sailing from Spain on Aug. 3, 1492 to
west. On Oct. 12, 1492 He got island and named as the West Indies. He was died
without knowing that land but it later came to be known as New world/America.
Amerigo Vespucci was known for:
He was An Italian mapmaker. He Determined that the lands Columbus had
discovered was a completely separate continent from Asia. Both North and South
America bear after his name, a variation on “Amerigo.”
The discovered lands particularly the America became colonies of Europeans. In
18th century British and France were the most dominant. - Spain took Mexico, Peru and new world.
- Portugal took Brazil and other territories in Asia.
- In 1623 Holland controlled New Amsterdam, Mohnton Island, and north-east America.
- In 1664 British took over colonies of Holland and renamed New Amsterdam as New York.
- British established 13th colonies in America, colonies of Lawrence River, Gulf of Mexico and
Mississippi valley after 1608.
British and France fought Seven Years War (1756-63) in North America. At the end British got upper
hand on North America. In 1637 Russia occupied Alaska but sold to USA for $7200, 000 in 1867.
Revival of Long Distance Trade(LDT)
✓ was the result of crusades, because of merchants trade following the footsteps of crusaders.
✓ On the trade routes different cities of Europe participate on trade.
✓ To buy and sell products and luxury goods to and from Far East they conduct through Long
Distance Trade.
The development of LDT marked the beginning of new capitalist economic relation by 1500AD.
Emergence of capitalist relation - Began in 1500AD.
- Some of the elements of capitalist economic relation were LDT and urbanization.
- in 14th C cities emerged,
- in 15th C cities developed into big trading center and
- In 16thC they transferred into big capitalist business center.
- Following the using money Increased, Bank of St. George in Genoa and municipal bank of
Barcelona were founded in 14th C. - Small craft workshop, textiles and metal work also started.
- The factories owner and rich merchants made up Bourgeoisie.
The word Bourgeoisie came from burgher means town dwellers. - Workers (proletariat) were also created.
These all were commonly known as commercial revolution.
