Western Civilization 1 CLEP: Kingdoms

Hurrians

This group of people established the kingdom of Mitanni in the upper Tigris-Euphrates valley, it lasted from 1500-1400 BC when they were conquered by the Hittites.

prehistoric

all events prior to writing (everything before about the Bronze Age in the Fertile Crescent)

First Intermediate Period

from about 2200 to 2050 BC, the pharaohs weren't very authoritative and thus the nobles, or "nomarchs" (the administrators of local districts, or nomes), controlled the government. This decentralization of power led to civil wars (for more power), and this led to widespread famine.

Sumer

started about 3200 BC, in the southern region of Mesopotamia. they had city-states that fought for control of the water.

The Franks

-A Germanic people who obtained control of the Roman province of Gaul in the 5th century, and founded a dynasty by Merovech (448-458) which united the two main groups (Salian and Ripuarian) from the lower and upper reaches of the Rhine River. The most important Merovingian king was Clovis (481-511), the Franks became Roman Catholic Christians during his reign (c. 500). As Christians, they attacked their Arian Christian neighbors and established a large powerful kingdom. Bishop Gregory of Tours (538-594) recorded the events of this age, and we can tell from his flawed writing style, that the Franks had a low literacy quality at this time. -The Franks had a practice of dividing the kingdom among the deceased monarch's sons, which led to phases of civil war. In time, the nobles became so strong that the Merovingian kings became figureheads known as the "do-nothing" kings. -The most powerful Frankish nobles were the members of the Carolingian dynasty, named after its founder Charles Martel (Carolus in Latin). This dynasty controlled the kingdom from the position of Mayor of the Palace. In 732 Charles Martel (c. 688-741) led the Frankish defense against the Muslim raiders and defeated them at the Battle of Tours, preventing Islam from establishing itself beyond Spain. -Charles Martel's son, Pepin (or Pippin) the Short (c. 714-768), wasn't satisfied, so he got rid of the last Merovingian king in 751 and asked the pope to legitimize his power. Pope Stephen II (752-757) needed help against the Lombards, so he crowned Pepin in 754, and Pepin defeated the Lombards and in 755 gave part of their territory to the pope (which was known as the Donation of Pepin and founded the Papal States). This gave the papacy a central state in Italy and recognized the papacy as kingmakers. -Charlemagne (768-814), whose name means "Charles the Great" (Carolus Magnus in Latin), was Pepin's son. Charlemagne inherited the largest territory in the west since the Roman Empire and greatly expanded it. He took northern Italy from the last Lombard king (774), took a strip of land from the Muslims in Spain (778), subjugated the Avars on the Danube (795-796), and forcible converted the pagan Saxons to Christianity after 32-year-long campaigns (772-804). According to his alliance with the papacy, he suppressed an uprising an uprising in Italy, and on Christmas Day 800 AD Pope Leo III (795-816) crowned Charlemagne Roman Emperor. The event displeased the Byzantines, who governed southern Italy, but they eventually recognized his as the legitimate ruler in the north. -Charlemagne regularly met with his counts and bishops, and he sent missi dominici to check up on them. He started schools to train clergy, regulated monastic practice by promoting the use if the Benedictine *Rule*, and gathered the finest scholars from all over western Europe to his court at Aachen (which became an international center of learning). He wanted accurate copies of the Vulgate Bible to be available so he encouraged the development of a more legible script to keep errors from creeping into the text. The script known as Carolingian minuscule was developed at the monastery of Tours under the guidance of Alcuin of York (735-804). Charlemagne encouraged the universal use of Latin and encouraged the careful preservation of Latin classics. -Charlemagne's son, Louis the Pious (814-840), was unable to keep the kingdom intact, and his sons fought for over the kingdom and eventually came to an agreement, known as the Treaty of Verdun (843), which divided the realm into three parts: the western part whet to Charles the Bald, the central part (along with the imperial title) went to Lothair, and the eastern part went to Louis the German. By 870, the northern parts of the middle kingdom had been taken by its neighbors, and the new boundaries were formalized by the Treaty of Mersen. These divisions roughly established the borders of the modern European countries of France and Germany. Disagreements of over the division of the middle kingdom (particularly the regions of Alsace and Lorraine, which is named after Lothair) were a cause of friction between France and Germany as late as the 20th century.

Medieval Culture (architecture and arts)

-About 1000 there was a lot of church-building that evolved the architectural styles of Romanesque, "Roman-like" (buildings in this style were mostly established by monastic houses in the 11th and 12th centuries), and Gothic (buildings in this style were often founded by the rising merchant class and arose between the 12th and 15th centuries). -Characteristics of the Romanesque architecture include using the rounded arch, barrel vault, towers as a prominent feature, thick walls and small windows to support high ceilings (which made the interior dark), and sculpture to adorn the building (which had an elongated unreal quality, depicting religious themes such as demonic figures and the Last Judgement, floral patterns, etc). -The first Gothic church was built at the Abbey Church of St. Denis (outside Paris by the Abbot Sugar) in the 1140s. The greatest cathedrals were mainly built in the 13th century (mostly in northern Europe). Gothic architecture is more homogeneous than Romanesque and includes characteristics such as the pointed arch (possibly inspired by Muslim architecture), larger windows and stained glass (including rose or wheel windows), and flying buttresses to support the walls so that large windows could be used. Gothic was "skeletal" looking, church towers became more ornate (with angular motifs, like fleur-de-lis), and sculptures included fantastic creatures (such as gargoyles). -By the 12th century handwriting had changed from the simplistic Carolingian minuscule (which modern typography is based on) to the more elaborate and ornate Gothic minuscule (which inspired black-letter typography). The letter-forms originally used by Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1400-1468) were based on Gothic script, but they were changed to the clearer Carolingian script by Italian humanists who preferred it (and which they erroneously thought had been used by the ancient Romans). "Gothic" art and script were named such by humanists of the Renaissance who thought the styles were inspired by the barbarians who had invaded the classical world. -Frescoes (watercolor paintings on plaster) were sometimes used on walls of medieval churches, however most paintings appeared in books called "illuminations" (illustrations) or "miniatures" (referring to the fact that they used lead oxide, called minium, as a pigment, not there size). The early Celtic style used very intricate, abstract designs. The much later Gothic style was a lively departure from the flat Byzantine models that dominated Romanesque art. Gothic manuscript art tended to adorn the margins with fantastic creatures (dragons, birds with human heads, etc.) known as "grotesques" or "drolleries," as well as using the "historiated initial" (figures painted within an oversized first letter of the first word of a chapter, in order to visually and symbolically summarize the text). -The preeminent fresco painter of the medieval period was Giotto (c. 1267-1337), who transformed the two-dimensional quality of Gothic painting by adding the illusion of depth (emphasizing a move toward naturalism and emphasizing human rather than divine). His innovations inspired art of the Italian Renaissance.

Early Modern England

-After a brief attempt by Mary I Tudor (1553-1558) to forcibly restore Catholicism, England became more fully Protestant. Parliament passed the Act of Uniformity (establishing the ceremonies of the Anglican Church and the Book of Common Prayer) in 1559, and it passed the Thirty-Nine Articles (outlining the nation's theological stance) in 1563. Elizabeth I (1558-1603) tried to establish a moderate religious position, but faced severe challenges in her religious reforms. In 1569 she repressed a Catholic uprising, and in 1587 she executed her cousin Mary, the exiled Queen of Scots, for her involvement in a Catholic plot, and she opposed Puritans (religious extremists who wanted to eliminate all Catholicism). Elizabeth's moderate position is summed up in her refusal "to make windows into men's souls" (meaning that she respected private dissent as long as it did not express itself in open opposition). -When Elizabeth came to power in 1558, following Mary I's war against France, she was forced to abandon the city of Calais (the last of England's holdings on the Continent). Elizabeth's foreign policy was dominated by her efforts to aid Protestants against their Catholic monarchs (including Scotland, France, and the Netherlands). Her aiding the Dutch rebel against Spain (1585-1587) provoked Philip II to send the Spanish Armada against England in 1588, but this grand fleet was destroyed by a storm (called the "Protestant wind") and the English fleet (whose smaller vessels were more maneuverable and could fire cannonballs faster than the larger but slower galleons). The victory over the Spanish Armada boosted English nationalism and made the rise of the British Empire possible. -Elizabeth I strengthened the monarchy by cooperating with Parliament and tactfully establishing their respective spheres of power. Because she never marred, she didn't have any heirs, and the rules of succession gave the crown of England to the Stuart dynasty of Scotland, whose tactless treatment of Parliament led to the English Civil War (1642-1649). James I (1603-1625) and his son Charles I (1625-1649) maintained the doctrine of the divine right of kings. James used his supreme authority to persecute Catholics (provoking Guy Fawkes's failed Gunpowder Plot in 1605) and authorized the translation of the Bible known as the King James Version (1611). His son Charles married the Catholic princess of France, Henrietta Maria, as part of an alliance against Spain. Parliament opposed James' and Charles' reign by approving less money than was required to meet expenses (so they tried to raise funds without Parliament's approval, Charles' methods included income from royal property, the sale of monopolies, the levying of ship money, and forced loans). Parliament protested Charles' forced loans through the Petition of Right in 1628, after which Charles dismissed Parliament and ruled without them from 1629 through 1640. Charles was able to raise enough money as long as there was no war, but when Scotland invaded northern England (to protest the use of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer) Charles called Parliament to approve funds in order to defend the realm. -The Long Parliament (1640-1653) immediately instituted a series of reforms that weakened the monarchy (passing an act requiring the king to summon Parliament at least every three years, outlawing all forms of taxation without parliamentary approval, and abolishing special courts such as the Court of the Star Chamber). Soon Puritans tried to push through their radical agenda of church reform, published the Great Remonstrance (detailing grievances against Charles), and demanded control of the army. Impatient, Charles entered the House of Commons with an armed escort to arrest five men for treason. Later he refused the radical measures demanded by Parliament's Nineteen Propositions (1642). The country drifted into civil war (with Roundheads supporting Parliament and Cavaliers supporting the king), and after initial royal victories, the Roundheads (led by Oliver Cromwell) captured the king and abolished the monarchy. Charles was beheaded.

Church and State

-At the time that trade and towns were being revived, the Church also began a process of renewal (trying to establish worship which wasn't controlled by laymen), however, since the Church also had political power, the rulers saw the reform as a challenge to their authority and there was conflict between the church and state. -Monasteries had often become wealthy from endowments given by secular rulers who wanted God on their side. The lords often used their generosity as an excuse to interfere with the operations of the monasteries. An attempt to free monasticism from lay control and revive strict use of the Benedictine *Rule* began in the monastery of Cluny (in France), founded in 910. By 1200 AD, about 1,500 monasteries had joined the movement and formed an international association that spanned western Europe. The Cluniacs used their influence to reform the Church in general (including the papacy, which had sunk to a low point during the 10th century). -Roman nobles hoping to expand their power began to treat the papacy as a secular office that could be used to dominate local politics (so they fought to get their own son elected as pope). In the 10th century there was a series of worldly popes, most notoriously John XII (955-964) who became pope when he was 18 and was infamous for his sinful behavior. John XII asked the German ruler, Otto I, for aid against his enemies in Italy, and in return he revived the imperial title, crowning Otto the Holy Roman Emperor in 962. Otto I (962-973) later replaced John XII with the worthier pope Leo VIII (emperors thereafter regularly intervened in papal elections). Otto III (996-1002) appointed his former tutor, and best scholar in western Europe, Gerbert of Aurillac, as Pope Sylvester II (999-1003), who was committed to reform (but the fact that he was the first Frenchman/outsider in the office wasn't liked by many, and his intelligence led to gossip that he was a magician of the devil). -Many churchmen, including the Cluniacs, disapproved of imperial interference in the Church. In 1059 the reformers established the College of Cardinals (consisting of only the highest-ranking members of the church hierarchy, known as cardinals, and excluding the emperor) to elect the pope. -The most extreme reformer pope was an Italian named Hildebrand, who took the papal name Gregory VII (1073-1085). The main goals of the Gregorian reform were to enforce clerical celibacy (priests often had wives or concubines until this time), to end the sale of church offices (known as simony), and to end lay interference in ecclesiastical appointments. -In order to institute clerical celibacy they promoted the canons regular (a semi-monastic order following the Rule of St. Augustine) recommending that diocesan priests live together in a community rather than private homes where they are more easily tempted. -(The Investiture Controversy:) Gregory VII demanded that the emperors stop appointing bishops to key political offices. The emperor at that time, Henry IV (1056-1106), was faced with a problem so he convened a council at Worms to depose Gregory VII (who then excommunicated Henry IV). Henry IV's nobles required him to seek absolution so the humiliated emperor went to the pope's winter retreat at Canossa in 1077, where he stood outside in the snow for three days before Gregory VII absolved him. Henry IV's position was more secure in Germany in 1084 and he challenged Gregory VII again, capturing Rome with an army and forcing the pope into exile. Controversy over the appointment of bishops raged until 1122, when (at the Concordat of Worms) an agreement was reached which allowed churchmen to elect bishops who had spiritual authority, but who required the approval of the emperor who gave the bishops their political authority. Tension continued on this issue throughout the later Middle Ages. -Beginning in the late 11th century, people began to work towards a centralization of power. Although the king was theoretically supreme, his nobles often had more power than he did. Centralization of power was best achieved in England and France. Spain did not become a strong centralized state until the 15th century. Germany and Italy remained politically divided well into the 19th century.

Christian Humanism

-Beginning in the 14th century the laity in northern Europe sought to bring the experience of God into daily life. This movement was inspired by the preaching of the German mystic, Meister Eckhart (1260-1327) and became known as the Modern Devotion (preached by the Dutch layman Gerard Groote (1349-1384), whose followers founded the Brethren of the Common Life). Their ideals are expressed in *The Imitation of Christ* by Thomas a Kempis (c. 1380-1471). Many of them were also inspired from the revival of classicism that spread form Italy, and taught Latin and Greek in their schools. -Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (c. 1466-1536) used his classical education to acquire a deeper understanding of early Christianity. He prepared a Greek edition of the New Testament, provided a commentary and a Latin translation that corrected errors in St. Jerome's Vulgate, wanted to bring Christianity back to a simpler form based on a careful reading of the Bible (which he thought all Christians should study), and wrote his satirical *Praise of Folly* (1509) to demonstrate how far Christianity had strayed from its roots. (He did not oppose the papacy, but hoped to reform the church from within.) He also traveled throughout Europe and corresponded with leading thinkers, such as the English statesman Thomas More (1478-1535) who criticized English society in his satirical essay, *Utopia* (1516), which describes an ideal society (free from poverty and other social evils because the people renounce money and private property). -The German humanist Johannes Reuchlin (1455-1522) advocated studying languages to better understand Scripture. He mastered Greek to read the New Testament, then mastered Hebrew to read the Old Testament. In 1506 he published a Hebrew grammar, and in 1509 he convinced the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (1493-1519) to reject the Inquisition's call to burn the Talmud. -Erasmus, More, Reuchlin, as well as the French theologian Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples (c. 1450-1536) hoped to reform Christian society through humanistic education. They remained faithful to the Roman Catholic Church throughout their lives but their works inspired more radical reformers.

Modern Advancements and Culture

-Belief in magic was common during the Greco-Roman antiquity and continued throughout the Middle Ages, but large-scale persecutions of witches were uncommon until the late 15th century, following the publication of the *Hammer of Witches* (1486, a manual for witch-hunting written by two Dominican Inquisitioners). During the religious wars, Catholics and Protestants both used this book for detection, trail, and execution of witches (mostly targeting elderly women who live alone). The persecutions did not end until about 1700, when the Scientific Revolution inspired an era of skepticism known as the Age of Enlightenment. -Although the Hellenistic astronomer Aristarchus (c. 310-250 BC) had first maintained that the earth orbits the sun, this heliocentric theory was largely ignored until the 16th century when the geocentric theory (advocated by Ptolemy) was finally challenged by the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543). His book *On the Revolutions of the Celestial Orbs* (1543) applied the principle of logical economy ("Ockham's Razor") to simplify the cosmic model: he concluded that the heliocentric model better explained the observed motions of the planets than the geocentric model does (which involved a complicated system of imaginary epicycles). The heliocentric model of Copernicus was not perfect, but heliocentric problems were resolved by Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) who discovered (based on the precise observations collected by Tycho Brache, 1546-1601) that planetary orbits are elliptical instead of circular. This refined heliocentric model was popularized by Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who spread the idea to a general audience by writing in Italian instead of the more specialized Latin. -Precise observations and a revival of mathematics (both central to modern science) were promoted by the English scientific popularizer and theorist Francis Bacon (1561-1626). Although he was a statesman not a scientist, his theoretical writings advanced the cause of science by downplaying the traditional deductive method of reasoning (general to specific) and advocating the inductive method (specific to general), which became the basic procedure of new science. Bacon also advocated the empirical method, which emphasized the importance of conducting experiments in order to provide accurate data for induction. -Bacon's empirical method was challenged by thinkers known as rationalists, who thought that accurate knowledge about the world could be attained through human reason alone. The leading proponent of this method was the French philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-1650), who proved the position's validity by making contributions to mathematics that remain in use today. Cartesian coordinates (the graphic depiction of algebraic equations as geometric lines on a two-dimensional grid) were named after him. He is particularly known for his statement, "I think, therefore I am" (in Latin, Cogito, ergo sum), which served as a foundation of his skeptical system of philosophy. He also used his own existence to construct an argument for the existence of God. -The French Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) made important contributions to mathematics (especially probability theory and conic sections in geometry) and science (such as observations of atmospheric pressure), and he found the relative absence of God in the new world view a troubling development. He joined the Catholic reform movement known as Jansenism, which emphasized faith over reason and insisted on the human need for God's grace. -The Belgian physician Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) dissected animals and human corpses in order to dispute the ancient authority Galen (c. 129-199 AD), and shared his discoveries in his book *On the Structure of the Human Body* (1543). The Spanish physician Michael Servetus (who was executed for heresy by the Calvinists in 1553) made an important contribution toward the study of the pulmonary circulatory system. Later, the English physician William Harvey (1578-1657) published his discovery of the role of the heart in the circulatory system in his book *On the Motion of the Heart* (1628). The alchemist Paracelsus (c. 1493-1541) mad an important contribution to medicine by arguing that diseases arise from the presence of foreign bodies (which he recommended be neutralized by using minerals). -French literature was represented by the satires of Francois Rabelais (c.1494-1553), who ridiculed European society often in tales about two giants named Garganrua and Pantagruel, and by Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), who established the essay as a literary form and used it in his skeptical enterprise of questioning dogmatic opinions that lack rational foundation. The finest Spanish response to the crisis presented by the clash of world views was the satirical novel *Don Quixote* by Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), which depicts an idealistic nobleman who finds that chivalry is useless in the modern world. Cervantes was himself motivated by idealistic impulses and fought at the navel Battle of Lepanto (1571) but found that crusading was no longer truly appreciated in his society. The finest English spokesman for the new attitudes was William Shakespeare (1564-1616), whose collection of plays and sonnets constitute a kind of secular Bible for the early modern humanistic attitude. -The form of art and architecture of the early 17th century is known as Baroque, which is generally characterized by its dramatic, often flamboyant, qualities. Baroque architecture emphasized grandiose designs with rich ornamentation, and its sculpture has passionate quality (as demonstrated in the Ecstasy of St. Teresa by Bernini, 1598-1680). The path to Baroque painting, as represented by Velazquez (1599-1660), was blazed by the school known as Mannerism, whose dramatic qualities are demonstrated by El Greco (1541-1614). The Dutch masters of Baroque painting were Rubens (1577-1640) and Rembrandt (1606-1669), and their works exploit light and shadow for rich emotional effects. The theatricality of Baroque art was represented in music by the new form known as opera. -Non-religious arguments for absolutism were put forward by the French philosopher Jean Bodin (1530-1596, in who argues in *Republic*, 1576, that the king of each nation should not have to answer to anyone or be bound by any laws other than natural law) and the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679, who argued in his *Leviathan*, 1651, that human life in the "state of nature" "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" and the only hope of order is an absolute monarchy). Another philosopher who wrote in response to the chaos of his age was Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), who used natural law to outline principles for international relations (including a theory of the just war) in his book *On the Law of War and Peace* (1625). -By the middle of the 17th century, Europe had undergone crucial changes in many fields, altering its character. After the rise of centralized monarchies, experiments in parliamentary democracy, new ways of organizing society and its wealth, new ways of thinking about the universe, and new technologies transformed the world into what we know today, while European states spread features of Western civilization around the globe.

Holy Roman Empire

-In the 10th century there was a series of worldly popes, most notoriously John XII (955-964) who became pope when he was 18 and was infamous for his sinful behavior. John XII asked the German ruler, Otto I, for aid against his enemies in Italy, and in return he revived the imperial title, crowning Otto the Holy Roman Emperor in 962. Otto I (962-973) later replaced John XII with the worthier pope Leo VIII (emperors thereafter regularly intervened in papal elections). -The Investiture Controversy weakened the Holy Roman Empire. The emperor was "indebted" to the nobles who elected him, and although they usually respected the system, they insisted on special privileges in their own domains (which hindered centralized power). Antagonism between the emperors and the popes continued even after the Concordat of Worms (mainly because of imperial claims to Italy). The Holy Roman Empire was a German state, but it theoretically also included Rome and the northern half of Italy. However, the Italian city-states were independent and often joined the pope to oppose imperial attempts to control their lands. -The Hohenstaufen dynasty tried to control the lands south of he Alps but the Lombard League (an alliance of northern Italian cities) defeated Frederick I Barbarossa (1152-1190) at Legnano in 1176 and forced his to end his political ambitions there. Frederick II (1215-1250) was more successful in subduing his Italian subjects, but upon his death the nobles did not accept his infant son as emperor. This resulted in the Great Interregnum (1254-1273) which was a time with no emperor. As rivals fought to be emperor, nobles strengthened their hold over their own territories. -In Italy people were divided over whether to oppose the emperor and acknowledge the pope's political power or vise versa. Those who supported the pope were called Guelfs, and those who supported emperor were called Ghibellines. These groups dominated events from the 12th-14th centuries, and were Italian adaptations of the German family names Welf and Wailblingen (better known as Hohenstaufen) who had contended for the imperial throne. In Italy, after the emperors gave up their Italian ambitions, the labels were separated from their original contexts and were used to indicate support of or opposition to the papal claims to temporal power. -The Great Interregnum was finally ended when the German nobles elected Rudolf I Hasburg (1273-1291) of Austria. The medieval Hapsburgs usually did not try to impose their authority over Germany or Italy, but were content with the imperial title based on their actual power and possessions. Their attempt to add Swiss territories as part of their hereditary lands started a revolt in 1291 (when a group of local governments, known as cantons, banded together to defend their lands). Over time, neighboring states joined the Swiss Cantons, forming the core of Switzerland. -Hoping to prevent popes from meddling in imperial elections, and to streamline the often difficult process of imperial succession, Emperor Charles IV of Luxemburg (1347-1378) issued the Golden Bull (1356) which fixed an electoral college at seven members: the archbishops of Cologne, Mainz, and Trier, and the secular rulers of Bohemia, Brandenburg, Saxony, and the Rhineland-Palatinate.

Medieval England

-In the 10th century, the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in England were united by Wessex, whose most illustrious ruler was Alfred the Great (871-899). Alfred led the resistance against the Danish Vikings who settled in the region of England that became known as the Danelaw, which was later conquered by his successors. The English kingdom was the most advanced state in Europe (having an efficient system of taxation and balanced local and national governments). The kingdom was divided into shires, each governed by an officer of the king called a shire-reeve (or sheriff) who linked the local government with the centralized national monarchy/government. -In the 11th century, the Anglo-Saxons lost control of England to two groups who were descended from the Vikings: the Danes and the Normans (both groups were Christians). King Canute (1016-1035) added England to his North Sea empire, which included Norway and Denmark (but this empire disintegrated after Canute's death and an Anglo-Saxon king, Edward the Confessor (1042-1066), once again ruled England). When Edward the Confessor died without an heir, Harold Godwinson (Earl of Wessex), Harald Hardrada (King of Norway), and William (Duke of Normandy) struggled for control of the kingdom. Harold Godwinson defeated Harald Hardrata at Stamford Bridge in September of 1066, but he was defeated in October at Hastings by William, who was thereafter known as the Conqueror (1066-1087). -William the Conqueror was a good warrior and administrator. He combined the system of shires with the feudal system of government in Normandy to create a powerful, centrally organized realm. In 1086 he conducted a systematic inventory of all property in England known as the *Doomsday Book* in order to determine taxes accurately. -After a period of chaos (1135-1154), Henry II (1154-1189), a member of the Angevin (or Plantagenet) dynasty, inherited the County of Anjou and the Duchy of Normandy from his father. He acquired territories in southwestern France through marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, and he claimed the Kingdom of England through his mother Matilda (Maud). Henry later invaded Ireland, and he forced Wales and Scotland to recognize his authority. This empire's rise shows how marriage and dynastic ties can be used to make a large state quickly, as well as how the feudal system tended toward decentralization of power (although Henry II was king of England, he was a vassal of the king of France, as Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and controlled more of France than the French king did). -Henry II also promoted common law through his system of justice which was available to all freemen, used juries, and was administered by judges who traveled around the country on a regular basis (which took some of the power away from the feudal lords, although he was unable to get rid of the separate ecclesiastical courts). The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas A Becket, would not allow Henry to try churchmen accused of wrongdoing in the royal courts rather than the ecclesiastical courts. After much conflict, Becket was murdered in 1170 by four of Henry's knights (although Henry denied any knowledge of the plot). Because Becket was widely regarded as a martyr and soon declared a saint, Henry had to accept the existence of ecclesiastical courts. During Henry's last years, his sons (enticed by his wife Eleanor) rebelled. -Richard I (1189-1199), known as "the Lion-Hearted," was an adventurer who spent nearly his entire reign outside of England. His younger brother, John (1199-1216), was an inept ruler who tried to raise new taxes for a war against France without consulting his barons (which was required by feudal law), which caused a rebellion. Finally, John made a concession known as the Magna Carta (1215), or "Great Charter," which guaranteed that feudal privileges traditionally held by the English barons would be protected from royal attempts to expand monarch power. -English kings and their barons often quarreled. In 1263-1267, Simon de Montfort led the barons in a revolt against Henry III (1216-1272), who refused to recognize the amendments to the Magna Carta known as the Provisions of Oxford (1258). The barons took Henry III prisoner in 1264, and in 1265 Montfort summoned an assembly with representatives from the towns (the first Parliament), they only met on special occasions when the king wished to institute an innovation (such as a new tax). They did not initially pass legislation, but served as a body of council and a court of justice. As Parliament was increasingly called into session, it acquired a broader range of powers. In the 14th century it was divided into the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and was empowered to assume responsibilities concerning laws, taxation, and impeachment.

The Germanic Kingdoms

-During Islam's rapid conquest, the Germanic peoples established kingdoms in the west. Those in Gaul and Britain established the foundations for modern France and England. -After sacking Rome in 410, the Visigoths settled in Spain and southern Gaul (but were kicked out of Gaul in 507 by the Franks). In Spain, the Visigoths lost some territory to the Byzantine Empire during Justinian's wars. Their kingdom was overthrown by Muslims from North Africa in 711. -In 5th century, the Celts at the northern end of Britain and the Germanic invaders who occupied the southern and central parts of the island were pagan. In the 6th century, both groups were converted to Catholicism by monastic missionaries, one group from Ireland (which St. Patrick converted around 430), and the other from Rome. Irish monks led by St. Columba began converting the Picts (in Scotland) in 563, and Roman monks sent by Pope Gregory the Great and led by Augustine of Canterbury began to convert the Anglo-Saxons in 597. The Irish monks preserved ancient texts and made lavishly illuminated religious texts. Their art influenced the Anglo-Saxons. By the mid-7th century the foundation for Christianity was laid but the Celtic and Roman missionaries disagreed regarding the specifics of religious practice, such as the calculation of the date of Easter and questions of ritual. The conflict was resolved by the Synod of Whitby in 664 when the Celtic church accepted Latin practices. -The Germanic invaders of Britain established seven kingdoms (known as the Heptarchy), which fought against each other until the Kingdom of Wessex united them all in the 10th century. The Northumbrian monk the Venerable Bede (c. 673-735) wrote an important early history of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain called the *History of the English Church and People* which demonstrates the high quality of education in English monastaries. -Around 800 AD, England, Ireland, and the northern coasts of the Continent began to suffer raids from Scandinavian pagans known as the Vikings. These Northmen used their longships to conduct hit-and-run tactics along the coasts and up rivers, while initially avoiding pitched battles. -Eventually the Vikings began to settle in Ireland, Normandy (which was named after these "Northmen" or Normans), and in England (in the region known as the Danelaw, named after Vikings from Denmark). During the time of the Vikings, the Muslims (whom medieval Christians generally called "Saracens") attacked Europe from the south and gained control of the Mediterranean, established several bases outside of Spain, and raided along the southern coasts of Europe as pirates (they even attacked Rome in 843). In the east, a nomadic people called the Magyars entered Europe c. 900 and raided the remnants of the Carolingian empire. After the German ruler Otto the Great defeated them at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955, the Magyars settled in Hungary. By 1000 AD, the devastating raids in Europe were over.

Feudalism and Manorialism

-The barbarian kings who took control of the crumbling Roman Empire treated the land as personal possessions. The Carolingians granted estates called benefices to support troops as long as they remained in service. It wasn't until 1000 AD that land grants became hereditary and began to be called fiefs, which gave rise to the new political form called "feudalism" (the name being derived from the word "fief" or in Latin "feudum,"it is not derived from the word "feud"). The term feudalism is sometimes used somewhat loosely or broadly, as there was much variation and it was not actually everywhere. What historians call feudalism did not appear until the 11th century (mainly in the region of northern France, the Low Countries, and England, where it was most fully developed in the 12th and 13th centuries). Feudalism is most associated with the Normans, because after this adventurous group conquered southern Italy, Sicily, and the Holy Land, feudal practices were exported to these regions as well. -Feudalism was basically when a land grant (a fief) was given by a lord to a vassal (a lower member of the nobility). The lord would also protect the vassal from enemies. In return, the vassal swore oaths of homage (respect) and fealty (loyalty), thereby agreeing to use the wealth produced by the fief to provide military service for the lord (in addition to his other duties, such as serving in his lord's court of law). Fiefs were hereditary as long as the vassal's heir paid an inheritance tax and swore homage and fealty to the lord or the lord's heir. If the vassal's fief was big enough he could parcel it out to lower members of the nobility (in which case the vassal became a lord to his own vassals). This process was called subinfeudation, and it created a social pyramid of nobles (with knights at the bottom and the king at the top). Although the king owned all the land, feudalism was characterized by weak central authority (which poor long-distance communication contributed to), and the fief became the foundation of political power. -Manorialism is the economic organization associated with feudalism. While feudalism describes the relationship between a lord and his vassals, manorialism describes the relationship between the owner of a fief and his laborers. The manor (the same as a fief, but from an economic perspective) was derived from the large agricultural estates of the Roman Empire. In the 3rd century, the emperors decreed that agricultural laborers (slave or tenant) could not leave the land, and in the Middle Ages these laborers (called serfs) were unfree. Although they did have some rights (for example, because they could not leave the land they worked, they could not be sold as slaves). -The serfs had to work the demesne (the best portion of the manor which was reserved for the lord) as well as the strips of land that were assigned to them in order to support themselves. The strips of land assigned to the serfs was scattered in order that everyone shared the good and the bad land. Much of the land was not cultivated, but instead used as the lord's hunting ground. When they needed more fields they would clear some of the woodland (these newly cleared regions were called assarts). The manor was a self-sufficient economic unit (which was necessary due to poor transportation and little trade).

Medieval Culture (education and advancements)

-Medieval thought depended largely on the study of the ancient classics of Greece and Rome, as well as the Bible and writings of Church Fathers in the study of theology. There was a distinction between practical (used in technical vocations) and liberal arts (worthy of "free" men, liberalis is Latin for "free"). Liberal arts were categorized into two groups: the three disciplines of the trivium were linguistic (grammar, rhetoric, and logic or "dialectic") and the four mathematical disciplines of the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music). The word "trivial" comes from the trivium, since the linguistic disciplines were considered prerequisites for the more advanced mathematical studies. The most prominent of the Middle Ages' liberal arts was logic, which relied on the writings of Aristotle. The Roman scholar Boethius (480-525) devoted himself to studying Plato and Aristotle and is most famous for his Neoplatonic text *The Consolation of Philosophy,* he also prepared a translation of Aristotelian texts known as the *Organon* ("tool"). The liberal arts were summarized in encyclopedias, the most important preservers of early learning were Martianus Capella (c. 400), Cassiodorus (c. 490-585), and Isidore of Seville (c. 560-636), who were commonly read in the medieval schools. -About 1000 AD, medieval scholars became aware that they had lost much of the ancient tradition, but that the Muslims of Spain and Sicily had preserved most of this tradition in Arabic translations of the Greek classics. During the 12th century, Christian scholars, such as Gerbert of Aurillac (who later became Pope Sylvester II, 999-1003), traveled to Spain and met with Arab scholars in order to acquire this learning (the Jews acted as interpretations) as they translated Aristotle's' works from Arabic into Latin. These imperfect translations increased interest in Aristotle, so in the 13th century an effort was made to translate Aristotle directly from Greek into Latin, using texts acquired from the Byzantines. -Until the 12th century, Plato was the most respected ancient philosopher, and his description of the creation of the world in the *Timaeus* (the only of Plato's works to be translated into Latin during the period of the late empire, therefore available in the west) was avidly read and compared to the account in Genesis. In the 12th century, only two more Platonic dialogues were translated into Latin (*Meno* and *Phaedo*). Aristotle became more popular than Plato because Aristotle taught every subject, whereas Plato only wrote about a few topics. Medieval scholars appreciated Aristotle's work even if they sometimes disagreed with him (for example, rejecting his doctrine of the eternity of the world), and by the 13th century he was simply known as "the Philosopher." -Aristotle was often read with a commentary on his works by the Muslim Arab scholar Averroes (1126-1198). Other Arab philosophers who influenced medieval scholarship were Alfarabi (c. 870-950) and Avicenna (980-1037). The most influential Jewish thinker was Maimonides (1135-1204), who is best known for his *Guide for the Perplexed* which tries to harmonize reason and revelation. -The new translations of Greek philosophy were mainly studied in the cathedral schools that arose during the cultural flowering known as the "Twelfth-Century Renaissance" (just at Carolingian Renaissance that was before it and the Italian Renaissance which was after it, it focused on reviving the study of the ancient classics). Cathedral schools were a counterpart to monastic schools; they were attached to a church of a bishop and educated secular clergy (churchmen who did not follow a monastic rule but still served as diocesan priests). The most famous cathedral schools of northern France were Paris, Chartres, Orleans, and Laon. -Medieval universities arose in towns in the 12th and 13th centuries. Teachers and students organized themselves in guilds in order to set the curriculum, fair prices for instruction, and negotiate with townsmen (on whom they depended for food and accommodation). The Latin word universitas (which "universities" is derived from) originally meant "guild" or "corporation," and could describe any formal association of individuals. Since the early universities were associations of scholars who banded together for economic and legal protection, they did not have a permanent location and classes were held in a rented hall or teacher's house. This was useful in early instances of "town and gown" fights, a group a scholars could protest the high costs of room and board by leaving the town thus weakening the local economy. Kings often became patrons of universities and relied on them for skilled men to staff their bureaucracies. The earliest universities grew out of Bologna and Paris (Oxford was soon founded by scholars who had studied in Paris). Universities started granting degrees in order to prove that a student had passed all the rigorous requirements for becoming a master in the guild and was qualified to teach others. -Wealthy benefactors founded colleges in the 13th century (such as the one built by Robert de Sorbon in 1257) which attributed permanent physical identities to universities. Colleges were originally residence halls for students who could not afford living expenses, but they were also a convenient place to hold classes (thus eventually became associated with instruction). -Universities recognized four faculties: liberal arts, law, medicine, and theology (the last three being advanced and universities initially specialized in one or two of them). The two kinds of law were civil law (Roman law) and canon law (church law). Students would study established textbooks, which the teacher would read publicly and explain by way of commentary (eventually the comments, or "glosses," of important teachers would be written into the margins of a text as a special edition for study). The textbook for Roman law was Justinian's *Corpus Juris Civilis*, and canon law (which was based mainly on decrees of the church, church councils, and papal decrees) was studied with help from the *Decretum* of Gratian (c. 1140). Medicine was largely based on the works of the ancient physician Galen (c. 129-199). Theology used the *Sentences* of Peter Lombard (c. 1100-1160), a 12th century theologian who made a thorough outline of topics that every theologian should cover. Theology was the most prestigious and called the "queen of the faculties" but it was actually the least studied (most of the advanced degrees were granted in law or medicine, which were more financially lucrative than theology). -The rise of Paris as a center of the study of theology is associated with Peter Abelard (1079-1142) who promoted using logic in his *Sic et Non* ("Yes and No"). Anselm of Canterbury (c. 1033-1109) had recently demonstrated how logic could be used to prove God's existence, and Abelard demonstrated how logic could be used to resolve seeming contradictions in Scripture and the Church Fathers. Abelard made many enemies among conservative thinkers who condemned his doctrines. (Abelard also became notorious for secretly marrying a young woman named Heloise, whom he was hired to tutor. When her family found out they had Abelard castrated, and he and Heloise became a monk and nun, respectively.) -Abelard's method of using logic to resolve theological contradictions became a standard feature of "scholasticism," which treated logic as the "handmaiden" of theology. -The best example of scholastic philosophy is the *Summa Theologiae* (Summary of Theology), by the Dominican friar St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), which proposes the reconciliation of faith and reason, and became the favored theological work of the Catholic Church. He uses Aristotle's concepts ("substance" and "accident") to explain transubstantiation (the bread and wine become the actual substance of the body and blood of Jesus even though they don't change their appearance, which is an accidental quality). -A long-lasting debate that generated interest in the 12th century was about the relationship between words and reality. One school of though (which was influenced by Plato's doctrine of Forms) was called realism, who believed that universal concepts substantially exist in an intelligible word. The rival school of though called nominalism thought that universals are merely words (nomina) that are used to describe abstractions and do not correspond to any substantial reality. In the 14th century a prominent nominalist named William Ockham (c. 1285-c. 1349) made a principle of logical economy (which would later be used in the scientific method) called "Ockham's razor," which requires a logical explanation for the existence of a presumed entity, thus reducing any system to the smallest possible number of elements. Ockham used this "razor" against elaborate scholastic systems of theology but not against central Christian doctrines. His teaching was condemned for its rejection of Thomism (the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, which had become a standard teaching of the Catholic Church). -One principal political thinker of the Middle Ages was John Salisbury (c. 1115-1180), who described medieval society as an organic unity in the form of the human body whose head was the king. Another one was Marsilius of Padua (c. 1275-1343), whose *Defender of the Peace* (1324) argued that all political authority is derived from the people, and who opposed papal claims to political power (and that they could not even justify their claim to spiritual leadership) and preferred councils organized by laymen to govern the Church. -Gerbert of Aurillac (Pope Sylvester II) visited Spain and introduced Arabic numerals (from which we get our numbers 0 through 9) into Christian Europe. His example inspired later generations of Latin scholars to visit Spain or Sicily to translate ancient scientific texts into Latin. By 1000, Westerners acquired texts on astrology as well as useful devices for measuring celestial bodies, known as astrolabels, for legitimate astronomy. Magnetic compasses for navigation came into use around 1100 or after. Roger Bacon (c. 1214-1294), who knew the formula for gunpowder which had been discovered by the Chinese and later used during the Hundred Years' War, along with another English thinker, Robert Grosseteste (c. 1175-1253), began to develop a theory of experimental science. Albert the Great (c. 1200-1280) demonstrated a tradition of making careful observations of nature. Significant advances were made in studying optics (lenses began to be used to correct vision during the 13th century). Many natural philosophy was conducted by "thought-experiments" (such as when the French thinkers Jean Buridan (c. 1297-1358) and Nicole Oresme (c. 1330-1382) challenged Aristotle's theory of motion by coming up with a theory of "impetus," which was fairly close to the correct theory of momentum). Gerbert of Aurillac was credited with inventing the pendulum clock in the 10th century, and by the 14th century fairly sophisticated mechanical clocks were being made. Paper came from the Muslims (who got it from the Chinese) and began being used in Europe during the 14th century. Paper was relatively inexpensive compared to parchment and would become the standard writing surface when the printing press was invented in the 15th century (c. 1450).

Neolithic Period

(aka New Stone Age) Beginning in 8000 BC this time saw the adaptation of sedentary agriculture (farming) and the domestication of plants and animals.

Sargon

(c. 2371-2316 BC) King of the Akkadians, he established the first empire in Mesopotamian civilization conquering and uniting the Sumerian city-states under a centralized bureaucratic government. Installed himself as the mediator between the gods and man, above the priests. (His dynasty ruled Mesopotamia, into the Iranian plateau in the east and as far west as Lebanon for about 200 years)

the "Sea Peoples"

(so called by the Egyptians) These people upset the Egyptian-Hittite balance of power. These invaders overthrew the empires of the eastern Mediterranean between about 1250 and 1150 BC.

The Northern Renaissance

-Architecture and sculpture north of the Alps remained closely tied to the Gothic culture of the Middle Ages and did not have the revival of the classical techniques. The most innovative form of art was painting (led by Flemish painters). They had a religious subject matter and style like Gothic book illumination, but images were now more commonly painted on wooden panels (often as part of alter-pieces for the decoration of churches). Early Flemish masters, such as Jan van Eyck (c. 1390-1441) and Rogier van der Weyden (c. 1400-1464), had a keen interest in naturalism (often expressed in minute detail, such as folds in drapery, textures, and background landscapes), but they relied on aerial perspective (atmospheric effects of light and haze between foreground and background to express the illusion of distance) instead of linear perspective. Northern art had extremely vibrant colors (mainly because the Flemish invented oil-based paints) which allowed a wider range of technical possibilities. (Oil paint were not used in Italy until the time of Leonardo da Vinci, who was among the first to use them.) Later northern artists were influenced by Italian art and excelled in realism, as seen in the portraits painted by the Germans Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) and Hans Holbein the hunger (1497-1543). Two prominent Dutch painters were Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450-1516), who is famous for his allegorical works depicting scenes of devils tormenting people, and Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569), who made lively intricate scenes of peasant life. -The printing press with movable type (generally attributed to Johannes Gutenberg, c. 1400-1468, of Mainz in Germany) was invented around 1450. Gutenberg's books were intended to reduce the labor in producing literature, as well as to be attractive. The printing press quickly spread to Venice in 1469, and England in 1476. A prominent printer in Venice, Aldus Minutius (1450-1515) replaced the Gothic-style black-letter casts of Gutenberg with more elegant letter-forms known as italics. The Italian humanists changed the Gothic letters by reviving the Carolingian minuscule (which led to modern typography). -Northern Europeans also came up with the wood-cut, which allowed the mass production of identical images by impressing them onto paper (typically pages in books). Since woodcuts wore-out with use, they were replaced with metal plates (which also allowed finer lines, thus more intricate engravings). Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) was a prominent northern artist who became skilled at this and used it to quickly spread the principles of Italian art (which he had studied in Italy) throughout north of the Alps. -Northern Europeans developed polyphony (music of several voices singing in harmony), from the 12th century to the early 15th century. Until then music was predominantly monophonic (like Gregorian chant).

Renaissance Culture

-Italian architects revived the use of the dome, which had been neglected in the Middle Ages (although Muslims frequently used this Roman design in their mosques). According to the Florentine architect Brunelleschi's design, the earliest Renaissance dome was built for the cathedral of Florence between 1420 and 1436. St. Peter's Basilica in Rome received a magnificent dome designed by Michelangelo and begun in 1546. Renaissance architectures also showed a renewed sensitivity to the use of classical columns. -Italian sculpture revived the use of nude and equestrian statues (both of which were pioneered by Donatello, whose bronze statue of David (c. 1430-1435) and bronze sculpture of the mercenary general Gattamelata (1447-1450) mark the first nude and equestrian statue of the Renaissance, respectively). Later Renaissance statuary was dominated by Michelangelo Buonarroti, whose Pieta (1497-1500) emotionally depicts the Mother of Christ holding her dead son in her arms, and whose David (1501-1504) is a monumental 17-foot-tall nude with realistic detail (such as the slight bulging of the veins in the figure's hands). Michelangelo could not do all of the commissions that were requested, but he did sculpt David for Florence, and a majority of works for the papacy (including the Pieta on display in the Vatican, the paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508-1512), and the tomb of Pope Julius II for which Michelangelo sculpted a statue of Moses with "horns of light" on his head (in 1515) to symbolize the wisdom Moses received from God). -Renaissance painting developed out of Giotto's late medieval frescoes, which were marked by their naturalism, humanistic focus, and use of light and shadow (chiaroscuro) to indicate a sense of depth. Masaccio (1401-1428) improved Giotto's efforts by applying linear perspective for an accurate 3D illusion. (Three-dimensional rules were scientifically studied by Brunelleschi, and later formulated by Leon Battista Alberti in his highly influential *On Painting*, 1436.) -Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) mastered painting, sculpture, and architecture, but was also a renowned engineer, scientist, inventor, and musician. (His most famous paintings are the *Last Supper* (c. 1495-1497) and the *Mona Lisa* (1503-1506), but he also designed cannons and canal-locks, and theorized about flying machines centuries before the technology existed to make flight possible.) Michelangelo (1475-1564) mastered painting, sculpture, and architecture, and also wrote quality poetry. (Perhaps his most significant contribution to Western civilization was his personality, whereby he defined the artist as a tormented genius whose inspiration leads him to test his powers to the limits.) Da Vinci and Michelangelo are the best examples of "Renaissance men" (a genius who mastered a broad range of talents in a display of individualistic virtuosity that defined Renaissance Humanism). -The *Oration on the Dignity of Man* (1486) by Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) was the classic statement of confidence in human reason and ability which characterized Renaissance Humanism. Pico was a student of Marsilio Ficino and later set out to develop a universal theory of human knowledge (which was to include a Jewish form of mysticism, called the Cabbala, as well as magic), but he fell under the influence of Savonarola and abandoned his grand design. Historical literature began to be written in the language of the ordinary people. There were Machiavelli's *Prince* and *Discourses*, Francesco Guicciardini's (1483-1540) *History of Italy*, which was based on a critical use of sources, and Giorgio Vasari's (1511-1574) *Lives of the Artists* (1550), which is an early history of art. *The Book of the Courtier* by Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529) outlines the education and rules of etiquette which well-rounded statesmen should embody (thus showing the refined cultural ideals of Renaissance Humanism). -New financial practices during the recovery from the Black Death generated wealth. These practices included double-entry bookkeeping to record transactions properly, bills of exchange (a prototype of the modern check), maritime insurance (called "sea loans") to minimize the effects of the loss of cargo, and the use of branch offices to establish international finance empires. The church still forbade usury, but wealthy merchants could exploit loopholes in order to make profits by charging interest on loaned money. (The Medici were in fact bankers for the papacy.) Italians formed short-term partnerships called commenda by which an investor would contribute capital while the recipient would conduct the actual commercial activity (allowing investors to change their business along with changes in the market).

The Church in the late Middle Ages

-While the Holy Roman Empire was weakened by the Investiture Controversy, and the popes challenged the emperors to adopt Gregorian reforms, the popes tried to reshape Christian society which gave them a great deal of political power, extending even outside of the Papal States (as the invasions which they initiated, known as Crusades, show). Pope Urban II (1088-1099) began the crusading movement at the Council of Clermont in France (1095), when he urged Christians to stop fighting against each other and instead devote their energy to recapturing Jerusalem from the Seljuk Turks (a group of Muslims who hindered Christian pilgrims from visiting the Holy Land). The Turks (who were from central Asia) had accepted Islam in the 10th century and invaded the eastern Mediterranean in the 11th century. They defeated the Byzantine armies at Manzikert in Anatolia in 1071. So the desperate Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus (1081-1118) asked the pope to organize military support (despite the unresolved schism between the Latin a Greek churches). The First Crusade was the result of this conquest. -In 1096, several groups led by the lesser Frankish nobles or demagogues set out for Jerusalem, the captured it and killed all of the inhabitants in 1099. Four feudal states, known collectively as Outremer ("Beyond the Sea"), were carved out by their conquests: the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli, and the County of Edessa (all were located on the coast, except for the last one which was inland on the upper reaches of the Euphrates River). This was the First Crusade, and it succeeded partially because the Muslims were divided against each other. -In 1144 the Muslims counterattacked and overthrew the County of Edessa. The Cistercian monk Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) preached a crusade to win back Edessa, and the crusade was led by the Holy Roman Emperor Conrad III (1138-1152) and French King Louis VII (1137-1180), but the Second Crusade was a failure. -In 1187 the Muslim warrior Saladin (Prince of Egypt) defeated the crusading armies at the Battle of Hattin and captured Jerusalem. Richard I the Lion-Hearted of England (1189-1199), Philip II Augustus of France (1180-1223), and Frederick I Barbarossa of the Holy Roman Empire (1152-1190) all crusaded to get Jerusalem back, but this Third Crusade was also failed. Frederick died on the way to the Holy Land, Philip found it impossible to cooperate with his rival Richard and thus returned to France. And Richard stayed to fight Saladin, but only won back a few coastal cities (most notably Acre, where he killed over 2,000 Muslim prisoners of war), and Jerusalem was still under Muslim control when Richard returned to England. -In the Fourth Crusade the crusaders were unable to pay the Venetians for passage to the Holy Land, so the Venetians persuaded them to get the money by raiding the Christian city of Zara (a rival of the Venetians) on the Adriatic Sea, and then to sack Constantinople (which the crusaders did in 1203 and 1204, respectively). The Byzantine imperial dynasty set up a government while in exile, and the crusaders set up a Latin Empire in the Balkans (which the Venetians had trading privileges in). Because the crusaders got distracted by the wealth of Byzantium, they never reached Muslim lands. Pope Innocent III was initially displeased, but eventually accepted it, since the new Latin patriarch of Constantinople was cooperative (unlike the old Greek patriarchs). The Latin Empire lasted until 1261, when the Byzantines regained control of Constantinople. -The crusading movement then lost its momentum. Emperor Frederick II (1215-1250) took an army to the Holy Land in 1228, but this Fifth Crusade relied on diplomacy instead of fighting (he negotiated a treaty in which the Muslims gave Christians access to Jerusalem). In 1249 Saint Louis IX of France (1226-1270) organized the Sixth Crusade, which struck Egypt and took the coastal city of Damietta (but he was forced to surrender the next year and pay a huge ransom). Louis IX organized the Seventh Crusade (the last major effort) in 1270, in which he tried to conquer Tunisia, but it was called off when Louis died during the campaign. In 1291 the Muslims took back the city of Acre (the last outpost in the Holy Lands), which ended the crusader states. People talked about reviving the Crusades for centuries but no significant action was taken against the Holy Land. What were called Crusades shifted to other places, such as the reconquest of Spain, the suppression of a heretical movement in southern France (known as the Albigensian Crusade), and the conquest of the pagans in the Baltic region. -The Crusades led to the rise of military religious orders (men who took the monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but also provided military service). The three main orders began in the Holy Land: the Templars, the Hospitallers, and the Teutonic Knights. The Templars made an innovative method of funding their military activities thus becoming wealthy and powerful (and having chapters all over Europe). Their wealth made the French king Philip IV envious, and he spread rumors that the Templars were immoral devil worshipers which suppressed the order in 1312 (after which he took their money). The Teutonic Knights waged crusades against pagans in the Baltic region of Europe. The Hospitallers got their name from their initial service of providing charity for pilgrims, and they later acquired military functions, such as providing escort. -Although the Cluniacs were a reform from the 10th century, they had become too worldly themselves and new reformers founded new orders. The most popular one was the Cistercians, who were founded at Citeaux (France) by Robert of Molesmes in 1098 with the intention of following an even stricter interpretation of the Benedictine *Rule* (their most prominent spokesman was Bernard of Clairvaux, 1090-1153). Other orders (all beginning in the 12th century) included: the Carmelites (founded at Mt. Carmel, Palestine), the Carthusians (founded in the Chartreuse valley, France), and the Premonstratensians or Norbertines (founded at Premontre, France). -Sometimes heretical movements arose as devout Christians were appalled by the luxurious lifestyle of some Catholic bishops and openly denounced the clerical hierarchy. One group of these Christians that banded together are the Cathars ("pure ones"), who were a dualist sect akin to the ancient Manichees and believed that the material world was created by an evil god who opposed the creator of the spiritual world (they rejected the Old Testament and organized a rival church in southern France centered at the town of Albi, thus they were sometimes called Albigensians). Another organized heretical group was the Waldensians (named after Waldo of Lyons, a rich merchant who embraced a life of poverty after reading the New Testament) who traveled Europe preaching against the luxurious lifestyle of many Catholic bishops, and winning converts. -The ecclesiastical hierarchy responded to the Cathars and Waldensians by declaring them heretics and excommunicating them, but they continued to grow. Pope Innocent III declared a crusade against the Cathars which was known as the Albigensian Crusade (1208-1229). The northern French nobility participated in the campaign in hopes of seizing the lands of the heretics. The fighting was brutal (entire towns were razed if they were suspected of harboring heretics, without regard for killing innocent Catholics). A Cistercian abbot named Arnaud Amaury (who served as papal legate) is said to have recommended killing all 20,000 citizens of Beziers so that some 200 heretics who were thought to be hiding there would not escape, exclaiming, "Kill them all--God will know his own!" -Pope Gregory IX (1227-1241) established the Inquisition in 1231 in order to find Cathars who had escaped the Albigensian Crusade and gone into hiding. It was entrusted to the Dominicans (a new monastic order), and they also persecuted the Waldensians and all who opposed the authority of the Catholic Church. -The papacy had acquired power during the 12th century, and the most prominent representative of this politically forceful "papal monarchy" was Innocent III (1198-1216). Innocent III was the one who declared the Albigensian Crusade, he frequently interfered in the affairs of kings. Innocent III refused to allow Philip II Augustus to divorce his wife and forbade him from invading England. He also put England under interdict (a suspension from celebrating the sacraments) when Innocent excommunicated King John for resisting his choice for the office of Archbishop of Canterbury (to end the conflict, King John was forced to submit the kingdom of England as a papal fief). -Innocent III's most significant achievement was the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, which was the largest church council in the Middle Ages (consisting of some 400 bishops and 800 monastic leaders, as well as secular rulers or their representatives). Even the Latin patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem were there. The council defined the requirements of membership in the Roman Catholic Church (all adults receive confession and communion at least once a year and accept the doctrine of transubstantiation, which was that the bread and water used in Mass actually became the body and blood of Jesus Christ). The council also condemned the Cathars and Waldensains as heretics and forbade the foundation of new monastic orders. -Just before founding new religious orders was banned, Innocent III approved two new "mendicant" orders of friars, which he wanted to promote. The friars (from the Latin word frater, "brother") differed from traditional monks in that they lived in the secular world as traveling preachers (bringing the Gospel to the people) instead of in monasteries. Friars owned no property and relied on donations from the faithful who appreciated their service (thus they are called "mendicant" derived from the Latin word for "beggers"). The friars quickly became quite wealthy from donations and constructed churches as well as friaries where they slept after a day's preaching (unlike monasteries, friaries were not economically self-sufficient). St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) founded the first mendicant order known as Franciscans. And St. Dominic Guzman (c. 1170-1221) later founded the Dominicans. -After Innocent III, popes were less successful at controlling the rulers of Europe. A low point came while Boniface VIII (1294-1303) was pope. He tried to reassert papal supremacy, as formulated in the papal bull called the *Unam Sanctam* (1302), which was met with hostility, while simultaneously he was arguing with Philip IV of France about the king's right to tax the clergy (during which a band of French soldiers raided the papal residence and kidnapped Boniface, who escaped but later died from the ordeal). -Philip IV and the French cardinals persuaded the next pope, Clement V (1305-1314), to move the papal residence from Rome to Avignon on the Rhone River (where the papacy came under the influence of the French monarchy). The papal residence was in Avignon 1309-1377, which is known as the "Babylonian Captivity," and all of the popes were French. -Many Christians demanded that the papacy return to Rome. The last pope at Avignon, Gregory XI (1370-1378), finally obliged, and after his death the College of Cardinals elected an Italian successor named Urban VI (1378-1389). However, when Urban VI refused to make compromises with the cardinals, they declared the election invalid (blaming a mob who had demanded that they elect an Italian) and chose an antipope named Clement VII (1378-1394) who established himself in Avignon and created his own College of Cardinals. Unsure of the true pope, France, the Spanish kingdoms, the Kingdom of Naples, and Scotland supported Clement VII in Avignon, but the Italian city-states, England, Ireland, Scandinavia, Hungary, and Poland-Lithuania supported Urban VI in Rome. The schism continued after their deaths when each group of cardinals elected a rival successor. The two colleges tried to end the schism in 1409 by electing the antipope John XXIII, but the other two popes refused to resign, resulting in three men claiming papal office. -In order to resolve this predicament, John XXIII was persuaded to call a general council (introducing the idea that ultimate authority does not reside in the papacy but the body of believers, so that a representative council of church leaders could make decisions in emergencies). The Council of Constance (1414-1418) took place and they deposed the other popes and elected Martin V (1417-1431) as the true pope, which ended the Great Schism (1378-1417). The papacy could no longer exert significant political influence outside of Italy. -The Council of Constance also took measures to curb heresy. They burned a Bohemian (Czech) reformer (who had come to the council to defend his beliefs) named John Huss (or Jan Hus, c. 1370-1415) at the stake. John Huss was influenced by the writings of John Wycliffe (c. 1330-1384), an English reformer whose theology had been condemned because he was critical of the church and emphasized the primacy of the Bible over the teachings of councils. Wycliffe rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation, and he translated the Vulgate (Latin Bible) into English, which was used by his followers (called Lollards) to interpret Scripture as they saw fit. John Huss' death started a patriotic conflict in Bohemia known as the Hussite Wars (1419-1436), which ended in a compromise between the Hussites and the Catholic Church. -After the Council of Constance there was a momentum for regular meetings of councils which cooperated with the pope, but it soon dissipated. Pope Martin V called the Council of Basel (1431-1449) for general reform of the church, but it later ran into conflict when it tried to depose Martin's successor, Eugene IV (1431-1447), in 1437 by electing a new pope. Eugene IV reasserted papal authority over church councils by convening the Council of Florence (1438-1445) at the same time. The Council of Ferrara and Florence tried to end the schism between the Eastern and Western churches, but the draft that was worked out with the Byzantines in 1439 was rejected by the Eastern Church in 1472 (although it had ceased to be effective in 1453 when the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople and forbade the Eastern Christians from maintaining relations with the Western church).

Medieval Economics

About 1000 AD, invasions finally stopped, and the Vikings and Magyars converted to Christianity. European population experienced an explosion that was aided by agricultural improvement. A new three-field system replaced the previous two-field system, allowing one-third of the land to lie fallow every three years while crops rotated in the other two fields (so that the nutrients in the soil were replenished without hurting their harvest as much). The horse-collar replaced oxen with horses as draft animals, and allowed the use of a heavier plow (which was fitted with a moldboard that could turn over the dense soils of northern Europe better). A long spell of warmer weather also extended the growing season during this time. -Water mills and windmills were in use by the 12th century and increased the quantity of produce that could be processed. Mills, as were communal ovens for baking bread, were owned by the lord of the manor who charged a fee for their use. As coinage circulation increased, lords preferred payment of manorial dues from their peasants in the form of money rent instead of service or a share in produce. -The peasant life generally improved. And they became able to win their freedom by escaping to one of the new towns that were starting all over Europe; if they stayed there for a certain amount of time, they became burghers (citizens of that town) and could do any specialized trade that was done there. As the medieval proverb said, "town air makes one free." -Due to the population explosion of the 11th century, trade and towns became more common and travel was safer. The agricultural society was divided into three classes or orders: "those who fight, those who pray, and those who work" (each of which depended on the others). As trade and towns arose, so did the new class called merchants (who lived in towns and therefore called burghers, or bourgeois, after the medieval word for town which was burg or bourg). Merchants were initially disliked, and the Church even denounced their interest in making money as the sin of avarice, and tried to forbid profits from the charging of interest (aka usury) and they recommended the "just price" which only earned merchants a modest profit. Merchants became important in society and kings even formed alliances with merchants in order to increase their power and to rely on them for loans. -Although travel had become safer by the 11th century, merchants banded together in caravans for protection against highway robbery. This cooperation was the origin of merchant guilds (corporations) which tended to dominate economic life of the towns. Merchants in a guild (which were allowed in by the approval of the existing members) were better able to regulate prices, quality control, and help one another in legal disputes, thus preventing unwanted competition from outsiders. -Trade benefited the places where it happened so rulers or towns would organize fairs to attract merchants. (The most famous medieval fairs were those of Champagne in France.) Trade flourished most along the coasts because ships could move goods better than land alternatives. By the 12th century, the Muslims lost control of the Mediterranean and trade was dominated by Italian cities (most notably Venice and Genoa, who fought each other in naval battles as an extension of their commercial rivalry). Trade was also good along the coasts of the Baltic and North Seas, where the cities of the Netherlands and coastal German cities dominated commerce. -Sometimes merchants from neighboring towns joined forces. The most notable example was the Hanseatic League (or Hansa) which began among German towns such as Lubeck, Hamburg, and Breman, for protection against piracy. It dominated trade between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. The Hansa arose in the 12th century, was at its height in the 14th, and made obsolete by the commercial ventures of nation-states during the 16th century. -The craftsmen who bought raw materials from merchants also began to form guilds, and by the end of the 12th century they were challenging the merchants for economic dominance in towns. Craftsmen were organized in specific trade guilds (shoemakers, weavers, butchers, etc.) and members of the same guild would live in the same quarter of town. The guilds regulated all aspects of their trade (quality control, limiting production and prices) and they tried to make sure that no members got driven out of business. Candidates for membership began as apprentices who learned a trade by assisting a master, and were eventually promoted the the rank of journeyman (and they received a fixed wage). Then they might become masters if they were good enough. The craft guilds were eventually overshadowed by the rise of capitalism during the early modern age.

Macedonian empire divided (Hellenistic Age:)

Alexander the Great's sudden death left a power vacuum that resulted in a struggle among his generals. After some forty years of warfare, the territory was divided between three kingdoms, each named after the general who founded a new dynasty: the Antigonid kingdom, the Seleucid kingdom, and the Ptolemaic kingdom. Many of the Greek city-states were able to reassert their independence, banding together in either of two alliances: the Aeolian League in the north and the Achaean League in the south. The borders between states shifted constantly as a series of wars kept Greece and the Near East politically fragmented (until the Roman Empire established unity in the region). Many Greeks and Macedonians migrated to the Near East, colonizing the new cities founded by Alexander and his generals. Urban culture flourished as new trade routes linking Europe and Asia stimulated the accumulation of wealth for the upper classes. The city of Alexandria in Egypt had one million inhabitants, two harbors, a huge lighthouse, a museum, and a world famous library that served leading thinkers of the day.

Archaic (or Early Dynastic), Old Kingdom, First Intermediate Period, Middle Kingdom, Second Intermediate Period, and New Kingdom

The first 3,000 years of Egypt's history were broken into these periods, during which 31 royal families/dynasties ruled Egypt. Egyptian kings had the title "pharaoh" which meant "great house" (indicting the palace they lived in). Cleopatra was the last ruler of Egypt before the Romans incorporated it into their empire in 30 BC.

The Pax Romana

("Roman peace") was a period of about 200 years, from the reign of Augustus (27 BC-14 AD) to the death of Marcus Aurelius (161-180 AD), that had stability and prosperity. Foreign wars of conquest continued on the borders, but Rome was free of civil wars (with the exception of the year 68 AD, when four rivals claimed the imperial throne upon Nero's death). Augustus managed to unit the Mediterranean, but his invasion of Germany failed in 9 AD. The Empire continued to expand elsewhere for over a hundred years (most notably into Britain in 43 AD and Dacia, in the Balkan peninsula, in 106 AD). The Roman Empire was at its greatest extent in 117 AD, when Roman legions briefly occupied Mesopotamia.

Phillip II of Macedon (Hellenistic Age:)

(359-336 BC) king of a semi-Greek state, invaded Greece in 338 BC and established unity after winning the battle of Chaeronea. He organized the city-states into an alliance known as the League of Corinth, whose members nominally enjoyed self-rule but had to follow Macedon's lead in foreign affairs. Phillip's great ambition was to lead the Greeks in a war of revenge against the Persian Empire, but he was assassinated in 336 BC and the undertaking was left to his son Alexander the Great.

The Germanic Migrations

-The German migrations began with the Visigoths ("West Goths") who got permission from the Emperor Valens to enter the Balkans in 376 AD in order to escape the Huns (an Asiatic group of marauding nomads). But due to abuse by Roman administrators, they revolted and Valens was killed in 378 AD at the Battle of Adrianople (in the Balkans). Then they made peace with Rome and lived in the northern Balkans until 395 AD, when a new leader named Alaric led them to plunder wealthy Greece and Rome. They plundered Rome in 410 AD (which was the first time Rome had been seized by outsiders in 800 years, since the Gauls in 390 BC). But they did not kill everyone because they had been converted to Christianity by Ulfilas (c. 311-382 AD), an Arian who translated the Bible into Gothic. After Alaric died, they were led by his successor into southern Gaul and Spain, where they settled. They were Arian (believed Jesus to be subordinate to the Father) Christians, thus persecuted by the Orthodox (Catholic) Christians. -In 406 AD many tribes, including the Suevi, Vandals, and Alans (a non-Germanic group), crossed the Rhine into Gaul and eventually some came to North Africa. They were led by the Vandals and passed through Visigith-occupied Spain and reached North Africa in 429 AD under their king, Gaiseric (428-477 AD). In 455 AD they raided Italy across the Mediterranean and sacked Rome (the word "vandalism" is derived from them). They were also Arian (believed Jesus to be subordinate to the Father) Christians, thus persecuted by the Orthodox (Catholic) Christians. -By 410 AD the Romans pulled their forces out of Britain in order to defend their provinces on the Continent. For protection against the Picts (ancient inhabitants of Scotland), the Britons asked the Germanic tribes for help, who then turned against the Britons, forcing the Britons into Wales and occupying most of the island. The three main Germanic tribes who did this were the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes who became one people over time (the part of Britain occupied by the invaders was named England after the most predominate group, the Angles). The Germanic invaders were not Christian. -Around the 440s AD, a group called the Burgundians established themselves in southeastern Gaul, which was renamed Burgundy. One of their achievements was an early Germanic law code that extended to the Roman subjects within their domain. -The Huns were a pagan group from central Asia which had established an empire over several Germanic tribes in Europe. Under their leader Attila (433-453 AD) , known as the "Scourge of God," they invaded Gaul in 451 AD but were stopped near Chalons by the Romans and Visigoths. In 452 AD Attila threatened to sack Rome, but Pope Leo I (440-461 AD) convinced him to spare the city. The next year Attila died and his empire disintegrated. -The Franks were the most successful barbarian group. They were pagan when they entered Gaul (which was later named France after the Franks), but converted to Catholicism instead of Arian Christianity around 500 AD under their king Clovis (481-511 AD), thus getting on the clergy's good side. The Frankish kingdom was ruled by two dynasties (the Merovingian and Carolingian) whose policies shaped the early Middle Ages in western Europe.

The Thirty Years' War

-The Peace of Augsburg (1555) had resolved the initial religious war by allowing the ruler of each state within the Holy Roman Empire to determine its religion, but there was conflict between neighbors of rivaling faiths and it did not take into account the religious inclination of the majority of citizens in each state. The Empire became divided into two rivals: the Evangelical Union (1608) and the Catholic League (1609). When the people of Bohemia (who were mostly Protestant) revolted against their Catholic Hapsburg ruler in 1618 and threw two imperial ministers out a window in an act known as the Defenestration of Prague, it started a conflict that became known as the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), which occurred in four stages. -In the Bohemian phase (1618-1625), Catholic forces suppressed the rebellion within the Empire. -Then in the Danish phase (1625-1629) foreign intervention by Christian IV of Denmark alone fought the Catholics (who were led by the mercenary Count Wallenstein) and was defeated in 1629, and the Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II (1619-1637), issued the Edict of Restitution (which transferred lands that the Protestants had seized from the Catholic Church). Foreign intervention by Protestants who wished to reverse the Edict of Restitution and by Catholic France (who were scared by the Hapsburgs' strength), whose Cardinal Richelieu (d. 1642) agreed to financially support the Protestants if they agreed to respect the religious freedoms of Catholics in the territories they conquered. -The Swedish phase (1630-1635) began when the Lutheran king of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus (1611-1632), liberated northern Germany from the Hapsburg occupation and seized Catholic lands in southern Germany. Gustavus Adolphus died in 1632 and the cause was carried on by his chancellor, Oxenstierna. In 1635 the Swedes and Hapsburgs came to an agreement known as the Peace of Prague (ending the religious aspects of the war by editing the Edict of Restitution and settling territorial issues with Catholics and Lutherans). -The French phase (1635-1648) started when Cardinal Richelieu declared war on Hapsburg Spain and sending French troops into the Holy Roman Empire. This phase was a dynastic struggle in which Catholic Bourbons allied with Protestant (mostly Swedish) forces. As the fighting dragged on, Germany was devastated (losing about a third of its population to war, famine, and plague). -After several years of negotiation, they ended the war in 1648 through the Treaty of Westphalia (which also granted Alsace to France and certain Baltic regions to Sweden, recognized the Swiss Confederacy and the Dutch Republic of the United Provinces as sovereign nations which were independent of Hapsburg control, as well as the sovereignty of about 300 constituent states of the Holy Roman Empire which effectively eliminated the Empire as a meaningful political entity). Among the German states was the new duchy of Prussia (formed from the lands of the Teutonic Knights when its last grand master, Albrecht von Hohenzollern, converted to Lutheranism in 1525). The Treaty of Westphalia accepted the religious status quo, but reaffirmed that the ruler of each state should determine its faith (and, in order to stop the spread of Protestantism, any prince who changes his faith in the future forfeits his rule), it also recognized both Calvinism and Lutheranism. The division between Protestants and Catholics was recognized as a permanent schism, and France became the most powerful state on the Continent.

The Germanic Tribes and the Roman Empire

-The Romans first encountered Germanic tribes when the Teutones and Cimbri tried to invade Italy but were defeated by Marius in 102-101 BC. About 50 BC, Julius Caesar challenged the Germans across the Rhine during his conquest of Celtic Gaul. Augustus Caesar later sent three legions against the Germans, but they were defeated in 9 AD by German general Arminius (Hermann) in the Teutoburger Forest, which ended the Roman attempt to add Germany to their empire. The Romans and Germans mostly traded peacefully, but toward the 2nd century AD Germanic tribes began to raid provinces, forcing Marcus Aurelius (161-180 AD) to spend years campaigning to protect the northern borders. Due to shortages of manpower, he established alliances with some of the Germanic tribes, known as foederati ("federates"), who were allowed to live within the borders of the empire in exchange for them defending against other Germanic tribes. Eventually, many of the German tribes were foederati, which was effective short term but ultimately contributed to the empire's decline. -In the 3rd century AD Germanic groups seized the Roman province of Dacia and invaded the Balkans, plundering Greece and Anatolia. German pirates even raided Mediterranean shipping for a time, but then the borders were stabilized. In the 4th and 5th centuries AD the northern borders disintegrated: German tribes entered at will, but most of them did not want to destroy, they were impressed by their civilization and wealth which they wanted to have. The invasions are often called "migrations" because so many Germans came there like nomads. The Germanic peoples presence was a strain on the economy despite the fact that violence was not the norm. -In the 5th century, the western emperor moved to the more defensible city of Ravenna on the Adraitic coast in order to protect against the Visigoths, but in 467 AD, a Roman general who was Gothic, named Odoacer (Odovacar), and his German troops took over, seized Ravenna, and killed the emperor Augustulus (475-476 AD). He then became king of Italy which ended the western line of Roman emperors. -The eastern Roman emperor at that time, Zeno (474-491 AD), sent his ally Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths (474-526 AD), to overthrow Odoacer in Ravenna, and Theodoric became king of Italy in 493 AD. The Ostrogoths ("East Goths") ruled with the eastern Roman emperor's approval until Justinian the Great (527-565 AD) launched a war, lasting 535-555 AD, against them and reclaimed Italy. -Justinian had Italy taken away from him when the pagan Lombards invaded in 568 AD and established a kingdom in the Po valley by 572 AD, named Lombardy. Constantinople still controlled southern Italy and a few coastal cities in the north, including Ravenna. The city of Rome was claimed by the eastern emperors but not effectively defended by them. The Lombards finally converted to Christianity, but often threatened the popes, who eventually asked the Franks for protection. The Lombard kingdom was overthrown by the Frankish king, Charlemagne, in 774 AD.

The Renaissance and Reformation Monarchies

-The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, revived a powerful Muslim presence in Europe. The Ottomans were a Turkish dynasty established c. 1300 in western Anatolia. The Ottomans were mercenaries for the Byzantines for awhile, but by c. 1350 they established a base in the Balkans and started expanding. European crusades against them in the early 1400s were ineffective, and the Ottomans captured Constantinople (led by Mehmet, or Muhammad, II the Conqueror, 1451-1481), which firmly established their control over the southeastern corner of Europe. The greatest Ottoman ruler was Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566), whose forces capture Serbia and later Hungary (Battle of Mohacs, 1526). In 1529 the Ottomans attacked Vienna and, although they never took the city, were a constant threat to central Europe well into modern times. -After the Hundred Years' War, the Duchy of Burgundy (which extended along the eastern boarder of French domains from Switzerland to Flanders, and threatened to become a centralized state) challenged the rise of France. In 1477, Louis XI (1461-1483) hired Swiss mercenaries to defeat the Burgundian duke, Charles the Bold. Then the Valois kings set out to dominate their Italian neighbors, starting with Charles VIII (1483-1498), who had seized the Kingdom of Naples, and Louis XII (1498-1515), who seized Milan in 1499. -The French claims in Italy entangled them with the Hapsburgs, and Francis I (1515-1547) fought four wars against Charles V called the Valois-Hapsburg Wars. Francis I was captured in 1525 and had to give back his land in Burgundy and Italy. Charles and Francis had signed the Treaty of Cambrai in 1529, but the wars soon continued and Charles invaded southern France (1530-1538). Desperate, Francis made an alliance with the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, who relived the pressure on France by attacking the Holy Roman Empire from the east (forcing Charles V to focus on defending his own land). The French reaped considerable commercial benefits from their alliance with the Ottomans and were given control of the Holy Land. The Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis (which required France to admit defeat) in 1559 ended the Valois and Hapsburgs' struggle for control of Italy. -After the Hundred Years' War, the English descended into a period of civil strife known as the Wars of the Roses (1455-1485) as the two noble houses Lancaster and York fought over control of the kingdom. In the end, a third dynasty (the House of Tudor) won. Henry VII (1485-1509) established England as a new monarchy by defeating Richard III of York (1483-1485) at Bosworth Field. Henry continued working with Parliament, streamlined the administration, and acquired lucrative commercial contracts for English merchants in Italy. He enhanced royal power by establishing the Court of the Star Chamber, which was designed to weaken troublesome nobles by trying them without the benefit of a jury and allowing torture to extract confessions. -Henry VIII (1509-1547) broke England's ties with Rome and strengthened the monarchy in other ways. He used the lands he seized from the church to build up a new class of loyal nobles who were dependent on his dynasty for their position, and worked with Parliament (showing the people that the government was a partnership of the monarchy and the people), was assisted by able administrators (like Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell), and built up the English fleet and fought limited wars on the Continent to maintain the balance of power. -Most of the Iberian peninsula had been won back from the Muslims by the 15th century. Spain began to turn into a strong centralized monarchy with the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon (d. 1516) and Isabella of Castile (d. 1504) in 1469. They were able to dominate the cortes (parliamentary assemblies), reduce the power of the nobles, and streamline the bureaucracy. Because they were both devout Catholics, the papacy approved the Spanish Inquisition in 1478, and they controlled it as an arm of the state in order to establish religious unity. The first grand inquisitor was the dreaded Dominican friar Tomas de Torquemada (1420-1498). The Spanish Inquisition initially focused on the Marranos (Jews who converted to Christianity but were suspected of secretly practicing Judaism) and later the Moriscos (Muslim converts), and later it prevented Protestantism from establishing itself in Spain. The Spanish Inquisition also reformed the Catholic Church in Spain (a task guided by Cardinal Ximenes). Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the Jews from Spain in 1492, and completed the Reconquista with the invasion of Granada. -In 1516, the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon passed to Ferdinand's grandson, who is known as Charles I (1516-1556) of Spain, who was later elected Holy Roman Emperor and known as Charles V (1519-1558). In these roles, Charles inherited a large amount of land (including the Netherlands, Sicily, and southern Italy), which totaled to more than that of Charlemagne. Charles didn't spend much time in Spain (his early rule started a revolt, but it was under control in 1521, after Charles made some compromises in order to maintain peace). He used his Spanish soldiers for wars against the French, the Ottoman, the Protestants, and the Italians. Charles, weary of endless wars, divided his empire, giving Spain and the Netherlands to his son, Philip II (1556-1598), and arranging for his brother, Ferdinand I (1558-1564), to receive the imperial title. Charles then retired to a monastery in Spain, where he soon died.

Bronze Age

Period from 4000 BC to 1500 BC when bronze (an alloy of copper and tin) tools were first introduced in the Middle East. (Different cultures transitioned to this stage at different times, but the Fertile Crescent began this stage around 3000 BC)

Middle Kingdom

centralized government in Egypt was restored and maintained under the 11th and 12th dynasties from about 2050 to 1700 BC. This period of stability ended when foreigners, known as the Hyksos, invaded the Nile delta and overran the Egyptian army in their horse-drawn chariots.

Akkadians

during the fourth millennium BC, these semi-nomadic people (who spoke a Semitic language) began to leave the deserts of west Mesopotamia and settle in the central region of the Tigris-Euphrates valley under the leadership of their king Sargon.

Second Intermediate Period

from about 1700 to 1550 BC the Hyksos dominated Egypt (they were strong in the Nile delta, but unable to assert control over the upper reaches of the valley). The Hyksos were finally expelled by a nobleman named Ahmose, who founded the 18th dynasty and inaugurated the era of the New Kingdom.

New Kingdom

the 18th-20th dynasties governed Egypt from about 1550 to 1100 BC. The pharaohs reasserted their power and expanded beyond traditional frontiers, reaching southward up the Nile River into Africa and sending armies northeastward across the Sinai peninsula into the Levant and Anatolia. The Egyptians hoped to prevent future invasions of the Nile Valley by dominating the eastern shoreline of the Mediterranean (Palestine and Syria), which was the direction from which the Hyksos had come. The Egyptians came into conflict with the Hittites, who claimed the same territory resulting in many wars over the course of several centuries. Among their battles with the Hittites, one was fought at Megiddo (1457 BC) - a place where so many battles were fought over the centuries that it became immortalized in the Christian Bible as the apocalyptic battlefield of "Armageddon". Egypt's wars with the Hittites finally resulted in a peace treaty after a great battle at Kadesh in 1274 BC.

Old Kingdom

the 3rd-6th dynasties governed Egypt from about 2700 to 2200 BC, during which the power of the pharaohs was the most supreme. Pharaohs were regarded not merely as representatives of the gods (as in Mesopotamia), but as gods themselves. Thus, ancient Egyptian government was a theocracy. The greatest pyramids were built during this time, particularly during the Fourth Dynasty (at Giza). Pyramids were tombs for the pharaohs and their families to hold their mummified/embalmed bodies and their possessions that they would need for the afterlife (since only pharaohs and their households were thought to be immortal).

Archaic (or Early Dynastic)

the first two dynasties governed Egypt from about 3100 to 2700 BC, during which time they unified the Nile valley. Unlike the Tigris and the Euphrates, the Nile flooded predictably and gently (which was helpful for successful farming). Prosperity strengthened the pharaoh politically and religiously in the eyes of the people.

Alexander the Great (Hellenistic Age:)

(336-323 BC) was a youthful and energetic king who overthrew the Persians, unified the eastern Mediterraean and the Near East. He created the largest empire the world had yet seen before he reached the age of 33. He started out with only 35,000 men in 334 BC, and he outwitted and defeated much larger armies in three battles (Granicus River, Issus, and Gaugamela) until he finally assumed the title of the king of Persia in 328 BC. He pressed on and added to his empire Asian territories that Persia had not controlled, until his war-weary men mutinied on the borders of India. He then returned to Persia and adopted many Near Eastern customs and ruled like a Near Eastern tyrant. He died suddenly, of uncertain causes, in 323 BC.

Amorites

(aka Old Babylonian Dynasty, because their capital was at Babylon which was along the Euphrates) They unified Mesopotamia for 300 years (c. 1900-1600 BC). Their greatest king was Hammurabi, who is famous for his code.

Paleolithic Age

(aka Old Stone Age) The period prior to 8000 BC, characterized by the use of crude stone tools (including the bow and arrow) and hunting and gathering for subsistence (which made them nomadic).

Mesopotamia

(means "land between the rivers") in the Tigris-Euphrates valley (which is in modern Iraq)

Hellenistic Age

-It means "Greek-like" in order to distinguish it from Hellenic (Greek) culture. The Greeks called themselves "Hellenes" and they called Greece "Hellas," after the legendary hero, Helen, from whom they claimed decent. The Greeks were actually just one of the Hellenic tribes, but since they colonized southern Italy and were the first to come into contact with the Romans, the Romans misnamed all the Hellenes "Greeks." -The Macedonian empire was established by Phillip II (359-336 BC) and his son Alexander the Great (336-323 BC) who extended the empire into the Near East. Hellenistic culture after Alexander the Great's death lasted until Rome's conquest of Egypt, the last of the Hellenistic kingdoms, in 30 BC.

Mycenaeans

(pre-Greeks) The earliest villages appeared on the Greek mainland around 6500 BC, and the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea were settled about 3000 BC. (The earliest speakers of Greek, a Indo-European language, migrated into the region about 2300 BC.) They lived in small communities until about 1700 BC, the greatest of these new cities was Mycenae (others included Tiryns, Pylos, and Athens) which was renowned for its royal tombs with interiors shaped like honeycomb, the city's "Cyclopean" walls, and sculptured entryway known as the Lion's Gate. They gained wealth by trading with their neighbors and sometimes raiding them. Around 1550 BC they challenged the Minoans for supremacy in the Aegean Sea by invading and occupying Crete. They were at their peak of prosperity from about 1400 to 1200 BC. After conquering Crete, they adopted the Minoan form of writing and system of economic management (which was based on the palace being an administrative center). Politically, they were divided among small kingdoms of heroic warriors who might band together from time to time under the empire's king. The legendary war against Troy depicted in the Homeric epic poem the Iliad (composed around 800-750 BC) seems to have been such an expedition which may be based on true events occurring around 1250 BC (which would have made the Trojan war one of this empire's last major undertakings). Within a century this empire fell prey to the Sea Peoples who devastated the empires of the eastern Mediterranean from about 1250-1150 BC.

The Hundred Years' War

-(1337-1453) A long series of conflicts between the centralized monarchies of France and England. England had lost most of its French possessions (the most important French land they still controlled was Gascony in the southwest). The English Angevins hoped to obtain the French throne according to the rules of succession. In 1328 the last Capetian king died without a male heir, and the Angevins claimed the throne based on the fact that the English king, Edward III (1327-1377), was the son of the French princess Isabella (daughter of Phillip IV). But the French refused to recognize the English claim and cited an early Frankish law which forbade women from inheriting the crown or transmitting it to their sons. The French chose a new dynasty, the Valois, to receive the crown. Fighting commenced in Flanders and, due to close commercial ties between the two regions due to wool trade, it was a success for the English. At the Battle of Crecy (1346), English longbowmen repeatedly halted charges by mounted French knights, which proved the superiority of ranged weapons against cavalry. At the Battle of Poitiers (1356), Edward the Black Prince (son of Edward III) captured the French king of the new Valois dynasty, John II (1350-1364), and took him to England as a prisoner. Although the French still didn't recognize Edward III's claim to the throne, the French gave him the province of Aquitaine (about a third of the country) in the Peace of Bretigny (1360). -The fighting resumed in 1369 by the next French king, Charles V (1364-1380), who pushed the English back to the coastlands. His sudden death resulted in a truce that started in 1389, and France and England both fell into internal conflict. Fighting resumed when Henry V of England (1413-1422) invaded northern France and quickly won the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. With help from Philip the Good (the Duke of Burgundy), the English were able to seize Normandy and parts of northwest France. Under the leadership of the peasant girl Joan of Arc (who convinced her king, Charles VII (1422-1461) to go on offensive), the French struck back in 1429. Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians in 1430 and executed the next year when she was handed over to the English, but the French rallied. In 1435 Philip the Good stopped helping the English. After some desperate battle, the English stopped trying to take France and retained only the coastal city of Calais. The last few battles were decided decided by the use of the new weapon of artillery.

Phoenicians

-(They were one of the many small people groups/kingdoms who were flourishing from about 1150 to 750 BC.) They were divided among a number of independent and often warring city-states (mainly Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos) centered on the coast of what is now mostly Lebanon. They ventured out on the Mediterranean in the wake of the Sea Peoples' raids and dominated maritime commerce for several centuries. -They settled the island of Cyprus and then ventured into the western Mediterranean where they established lots of colonies, beginning in the 9th century BC, along the shores of North Africa, Malta, Sicily, Sardinia, the Balearic islands, and Iberia (modern Spain). They also traded beyond the Mediterranean, they regularly visited Britain to get tin for making bronze. According to Egyptian sources, these people circumnavigated Africa in their explorations. The most important colony was Carthage, founded about 750 BC by Tyre. When this people group's homeland was overrun by the Assyrians, many colonies became independent while others accepted the authority of Carthage (which became the center of a powerful empire that threatened Rome during the 3rd century BC).

Chaldeans

-(aka Neo-Babylonians) Their empire arose late in the 7th century and was much like the Assyrian in extent (except, unlike the Assyrians, they did not conquer Egypt). They were less brutal than the Assyrians, but continued the policy of deporting rebellious populations. Including when Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC), after conquering Jerusalem, deported the Hebrews living in the kingdom of Judah by bringing them to Babylon (known as the Babylonian Captivity). -Cultural development was important to them and they expressed their commitment to the arts and sciences through rebuilding Babylon (including advancing the study of astronomy, even though much of it was motivated by astrology). King Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC) built a temple/ziggurat with plants for his Median wife (the ancient wonder of the world, the Hanging Gardens). He also made the Ishtar Gate. -Like the Assyrian empire, they were also short lived and was overthrown in 539 BC (less than a century after it was founded) by the Persian King, Cyrus the Great.

The Age of Exploration

-A Portuguese prince known as Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) funded voyages of discovery, established a school for navigation (which had an observatory) at Sagres, improved shipbuilding (and the caravel became the favored vessel for exploration). His patronage of exploration began after he participated in the 1415 capture of Ceuta (a Muslim stronghold in North Africa across from the straight of Gibraltar), in hopes that a better knowledge of African geography would help Christian forces to gain a strategic advantage over Muslims. Henry also hoped to make contact with the legendary Preston John (who was rumored to rule a Christian kingdom in distant lands, possibly Ethiopia), discover and convert pagans who lived on the edge of Muslim territories, as well as to find deposits of gold (developing wealth for Portugal), and to establish a trade route to the Indies that could bypass the Mediterranean (which was dominated by the Italians and Turks). -Supported by prince Henry, Portuguese explorers discovered the Azores, Canary, and Cape Verde Islands in the Atlantic Ocean and followed the African coast as far as Sierra Leone near the equator. They established lucrative trade in gold, ivory, and slaves. In 1488 Bartholomew Diaz was the first to sail around the tip of Africa (or the Cape of Good Hope). In 1497-1499 Vasco da Gama sailed to India and back, opening a trade route for spices and other luxury goods. In 1509-1515 Alfonso de Albuquerque established Portuguese trading posts (along the west coast of India, the islands of Indonesia, and at the mouth of the Persian Gulf), thereby laying the foundations of the Portuguese Empire in the East, which was linked back to the capital of Lisbon through trading posts that dotted the African coast. In 1500, Pedro Cabral claimed Brazil (the only Portuguese territory in the New World). -After the early successes of Portugal, the Spanish realized the potential for wealth that exploration could generate. In 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella decided to fund the voyage of Christopher Columbus (1451-1504) from Genoa, who claimed that he could find a direct western route to the Far East without having to sail around Africa. Columbus had miscalculated the circumference of the earth, so when he discovered the Caribbean islands (West Indies) and Central America, he thought he had reached Asia. Columbus established contact with the natives in four voyages (the last ending in 1504). -Spain and Portugal decided to prevent rivalry by dividing the world between them. In the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) they agreed upon making an invisible longitude line (running from pole to pole at an arbitrary distance from the Atlantic Ocean) which Portugal could claim any land east of (the Portuguese Empire focusing on Africa, India, Indonesia, and Brazil, which was east of the Tordesillas line), and Spain could have any land west of (the Spanish Empire based mainly in the New World and the Philippines). -Spain sent adventurers known as conquistadors or "conquerors" to explore the New World and claim it for the Spanish. They came up against great empires (such as the Aztec Empire which Hernando Cortez conquered in Mexico in 1519-1521, and the Inca Empire in Peru which Francisco Pizarro conquered in 1532-1533) and were able to defeat them using the superior technology of firearms, and the Europeans also unknowingly brought diseases that killed many natives. The conquistadors took the gold and silver of the empires they conquered and sent it back to Spain. Around 1550, silver was mined in Mexico and especially Bolivia (at Potosi). -The New World was economically exploited by Spain and further explored. Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 and discovered the Pacific Ocean. In 1520-1522 a voyage commanded by Ferdinand Magellan (a Portuguese employed by Spain) circumnavigated the world by rounding South America (although Magellan did not finish the trip because he was killed by natives in the Philippines in 1521). Hernando De Soto explored Florida and the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, where he died in 1542. -Spanish colonists began to settle the Caribbean islands in small numbers in order to profit form establishing plantations (mostly sugar cane). The Spanish forced the natives to work for them on estates (known as encomiendas) which were granted by the Spanish king, thus establishing the model of medieval manor into the New World. One of the colonizers, Bartolome de Las Casas (1474-1566), campaigned against the harsh treatment of natives, and wrote many pamphlets and a history of Spanish colonization in the New World. -The new continents were named "America" after a Latin adaption of the first name of the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512, who recognized that new continents had been discovered) by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemuller (who labeled the new land masses "America" on a map published in 1516). -In 1497, Henry VIII hired the Italian John Cabot to seek a direct route to Asia in the Northern Hemisphere, but no English expedition circumnavigated the globe until Sir Francis Drake landed on the west coast of North America and claimed it for Queen Elizabeth in 1577-1580. Drake brought back loot (spices and treasure) from Spanish shipping, and was knighted aboard his flagship, the *Golden Hind*, he later was governor of English colonies in North America as well as a member of Parliament. Sir Walter Raleigh launched two failed attempts to colonize Roanoke Island, North Carolina (1585 and 1587) . The first permanent English settlement was Jamestown in Virginia in 1607. Plymouth Colony was established in 1620, after which colonization gained momentum. -The leading French explorer was Jacques Carrier (1491-1557), who sought a northwest passage to the Far East, explored the St. Lawrence River valley (which France later colonized). Samuel de Champlain founded a French trading post in 1608 which later became Quebec City. Colonization of New France did not gain momentum until c. 1650. -The Netherlands' most famous explorer was an Englishman named Henry Hudson (whom the Hudson River is named after in commemoration of his voyage there in 1609). Dutch colonists founded New Amsterdam in 1624 (which later became New York City) and settled the Hudson Valley. This colonization was organized by the Dutch West India Company (a joint-stock company that reflected the new forms of financial organization that arose in the aftermath of the age of discovery).

The Division of the Roman Empire

-After the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161-180 AD), the Roman Empire faced a series of threats that nearly destroyed it. The barbarians breached the borders in the north, while a new Persian dynasty (the Sassanians) campaigned against the Romans from the east. Manpower shortages hurt defense, economics, and aggravated waves of disease, plus the generals fought each other for control of the empire and ruled through puppet emperors who were often murdered. -Diocletian (284-305 AD) initiated a series of reforms which saved the empire. He instituted the Tetrarchy (rule by four emperors), consisting of two seniors named Augusti and two juniors named Caesars (each in charge of a quarter of the empire, known as a prefecture). He broke large provinces into small ones, and the provinces were organized into twelve units (three per prefecture) called dioceses, each managed by a vicar who answered to a Caesar or Augustus. He also required farmers remain tied to their land (setting the foundation for serfdom in the Middle Ages) and sons carry on their father's trade (foreshadowing the guild system). He tried to stop inflation by fixing prices and wages (but it didn't work for lack of ability to enforce it), he severely punished dissent, and tried to get rid of Christianity because they didn't worship the emperor. -Constantine (the Great) was one of the four emperors along with Diocletian. After Diocletian retired from being senior Augustus in 305 AD, the other emperors came into conflict and by 312 AD there were only two left: Constantine in the west and Licinius in the east. They ruled their halves until Constantine won and became the only emperor in 324 AD. -In 330 AD, Constantine (306-337 AD) moved the capital from Rome to Constantinople (a defensible position in the northeast of the empire), upon the site of the ancient city Byzantium at the entrance of the Black Sea. This was in more prosperous provinces. (Diocletian had moved the capital to Nicomedia in Anatolia for similar reasons, and emperors before had moved the capital to Milan in northern Italy.) Although this permanent move of the capital was intended to strengthen the empire, it foreshadowed the decline of the city of Rome and the western empire in the following century.

The Commercial Revolution

-Around 1500 the main financial centers were Venice, Lisbon, and Madrid. However, by 1600, the centers of finance had shifted to London, Paris, and Amsterdam as England, France, and the Netherlands were becoming wealthy at least partially due to their overseas discoveries. -As gold and silver poured into Europe via Portugal and Spain, prices quadrupled between 1500 and 1600. Since wages did not increase with inflation, poverty became widespread, and nobles also suffered because their income was based on fixed rents which had not increased with inflation either. -Wealth from new commercial ventures was only obtained by entrepreneurs (individuals who risked capital in order to turn a profit). The most successful entrepreneurs diversified their investments once they established themselves and commanded financial empires with branch offices in major cities throughout Europe, and often founded dynasties (such as the Medici family who married into the French royal family and were made grand dukes of Tuscany in the 16th century). The French merchant and banker Jacques Coeur (c. 1395-1456) was ennobled by King Charles VI and received a position of great influence in the government of Charles VII, but was prevented from founding a dynasty by envious courtiers who plotted his downfall. The most successful entrepreneurial family was the Fuggers of Augsburg, who began as cloth merchants and came to dominate mining in central Europe (they also had great political influence because they were bankers for the Hapsburgs). -Entrepreneurs were flexible and changed their business when the market changed. Some popular industries were overseas imports, shipbuilding, printing, mining, and metallurgy (to satisfy the demand for canons). Once profit was made in one of these industries it could be used to invest in another industry. Accelerating the specialization of production (which had already begun in the Middle Ages), in the 16th century, wealthy Englishmen would buy lands that were once shared by peasants for common use and convert them into pastures (known as the "enclosure movement"). -The transformation of economics and the new emphasis on private ownership of the means of production caused guilds to cease being effective. Guilds could not supply the volume of goods being demanded by the 16th century economy. This made entrepreneurs extremely wealthy and met demand but it dislocated workers and disintegrated social norms. -The "putting-out system" had appeared by the Middle Ages in the textile industry and used unskilled labor by hiring peasants to specialize in various stages of, for example, manufacturing cloth. The entrepreneurs would supply the resources and sell the products. -The "gathering-in system" was an early form of the factory system (which was used in the industries of shipbuilding, printing, and iron-founding), where entrepreneurs would gather workers into one place and supervise them (cutting down on the coast of transportation and quality control). -Investors began to organize in associations known as "joint-stock companies," in order to finance risky long-distance commerce ventures, sharing the risk in order to lessen the blow of failures. These evolved from "regulated companies," which were associations of professional traders. These types of companies were both supported by governments (which granted monopolies in specific areas of commerce). Unlike regulated companies, joint-stock companies were investors who bought shares in a business but entrusted the business itself to professionals. Joint-stock companies initially focused on trade, but were later used in industry. An early joint-stock company, called the Russia Company, was sponsored by England in 1553. Other English joint-stock companies included the East India Company and Bank of England. The Netherlands sponsored the lucrative Dutch East India Company (1602) for trade in Asia and the Dutch West India Company (1621) for trade in the New World and Africa. -Government intervention in economics is known as mercantilism (which was based on the belief that the wealth of a nation is defined by the quantity of precious metals within its boarders, thus kings wanted to have more exports than imports and raised tariffs to discourage purchasing foreign goods, as well as tried to reduce internal trade barriers, such as tolls). However this also caused exploitation, as overseas colonies were a source of cheap raw materials which were better than exported material from other countries. -Spices were the most common import during the earlier phase of colonialism, but by 1650 the Europeans market had plenty of spices and traders started including more cotton fabrics, silk, coffee, and tea. Beginning c. 1450, slaves were also imported from Africa (the slave trade in Europe was relatively modest, although Portugal and Spain did use slaves for agricultural labor, and entrepreneurs purchased slaves for use in the colonies of the New World). -New technologies, such as the canon, greatly shortened the length of sieges and led to changes in military tactics. The Ottoman Turks were able to beat down the walls of Constantinople for the first time using canons in 1453, and European monarchs used canons against rebellious nobles, who could no longer hide within their castles. Cannons were also a vital ingredient to navel power, which made the vast overseas empires possible.

Diversification of Protestantism

-By 1555, Lutheran were no longer the only Protestants. Luther's opposition to indulgences won the support of the Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531), Swiss reformers wanted to promote religious change through political activism and he persuaded the town council of ZUrich to reject the authority of the pope and abolish many Catholic practices (such as fasting, monasticism, clerical celibacy, processions, the use of music in religious services, the adoration of saints through images, and the veneration of saintly relics). The Mass was simplified and transubstantiation and Luther's consubstantiation were rejected, as Zwingli believed that the Lord's Supper was merely commemorative or symbolic. (Zwingli met Luther in 1529 but they were unable to resolve their differences.) Zwingli turned his efforts to converting those outside of Zurich and won over half the Swiss Cantons; the others (known as the "Forest Cantons") remained Catholic and went to war with Zwingli's followers. Zwingli was killed in the Battle of Kappel (1531), while serving as a chaplain for the Protestant forces. -The call of individual conscience inspired many small sects who pursued their own interpretation of Scripture. Many of these groups required converts to be baptized again, thus were called Anabaptists (ana means "again" in Greek). Anabaptists were despised by the other main Christian groups. Many Anabaptists were peaceful but some participated in the Peasant Revolt (1525), and another group (led by John of Leiden) seized the town of Munster, where they established a theocracy ("New Zion") in 1534 which practiced polygamy (like in the Old Testament) and communal ownership of property (like in the New Testament), but the city was recaptured and John Leiden was executed in 1536. -After the generation of Zwingli and Luther, the Protestant movement was dominated by the French theologian John Calvin (1509-1564), who established a theocracy in Geneva, Switzerland. He supported the execution of Michael Serverus (1511-1553) for denying the existence of the Trinity. He founded Calvinism, or the Reformed tradition, branch of Protestantism and it was centered in Switzerland, although there were Calvinist minorities throughout Europe (those in France were called Huguenots). His systematic theology, *Institutes of the Christian Religion* (1536-1559), stresses the sovereignty of God and utter human dependence on God's mercy. He believed that it was only the power of God (not good works or faith) that guarantees salvation, and taught the doctrine of predestination (that God has predetermined who will be saved and who will be condemned). The Scottish reformer John Knox (1513-1572) established Calvinism in Scotland, founding its Presbyterian Church. Calvin's Genevan Academy (which was designed to train preachers) was instrumental in spreading his reform movement. -In England, Henry VIII (1491-1547) wanted his marriage with Catherine of Aragon to be declared invalid (because she did not give him a male heir), but Pope Clement VII (1523-1534) would not do it because the Emperor Charles V (nephew of Catherine) controlled Clement. Henry played up popular discontent with the Catholic Church and received support from Parliament in 1532 for his break from Rome, making the king the authority over the Church of England instead of the pope. Henry divorced Catherine and married Anne Boleyn (he married six times total), took possession of church property, closed monasteries, and required his subjects to take an oath recognizing his religious authority (those who refused were executed, including the former chancellor and humanist Thomas More, 1478-1535). Henry was conservative about religious doctrine, as demonstrated by his Six Articles (1539) outlining the theology of the Anglican Church. Religious doctrine didn't significantly change until his successors' reigns, his son Edward VI (1547-1553) and his daughter Elizabeth I (1558-1603).

Hebrews under foreign rule

-In 721 BC the Assyrians deported people from the kingdom of Israel but allowed Judah to remain in their land as a vassal state. (Those Israelites never returned to their home but disappeared as a distinct group of people, they are referred to as the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.) The kingdom of Judah was deported by the Neo-Babylonians in 586 BC. The people of Judah maintained their religious integrity during the Babylonian Captivity/Exile and later became known as Jews (because they were from Judea/Judah). -When Cyrus the Great overthrew the Neo-Babylonian dynasty in 539 BC, the Jews were allowed to return home and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem (which was destroyed by the Babylonians). Around this time, the Jews began to see themselves as God's chosen and hoped to make the pagans/Gentiles aware that Yahweh was the one true God. -The Diaspora began when Cyrus the Great allowed the Jews to return home, but many chose to stay in Babylon. Diaspora (from the Greek word meaning "dispersion") refers to Jews living outside Judea who continued to maintain their Jewish identity. Later, during the Hellenistic period, Jewish communities thrived in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, and during the Roman period, in many cities of Anatolia and Europe.

The Roman Republic

-By 265 BC, the Romans united the entire Italian peninsula as far as the Po River. They demonstrated their determination in the 270s BC when they kept fighting against the defender of the Greeks in southern Italy, King Pyrrhus of Epirus (307-272 BC), even after suffering several defeats. Dismayed by Roman tenacity, Pyrrhus is said to have remarked, "If we win another battle against the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined," thereby originating the concept of the Pyrrhic victory (a victory so costly that the victor cannot afford to go on fighting). -The 3 Punic Wars -The Romans methodically conquered all the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. After fighting four wars with Macedon, in which the Romans demonstrated the superiority of the legion over the phalanx (especially at the Battle of Cynocephale in 197 BC), they subjugated Greece and moved through Anatolia into the Near East. The Romans did not have to fight for all of their acquisitions. The heir-less king of Pergamum in western Anatolia willed his kingdom to the Romans in 133 BC, and the kingdom of Bithynia in northern Anatolia was granted to Rome by a similar agreement in 74 BC. The last major state to resist the Romans was Egypt, which fell in 30 BC. -First Triumvirate (Pompey, Crassus, and Julius Caesar) -Second Triumvirate (Marc Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian) -The Romans looked to Octavian (27 BC-14 AD) to restore order. Octavian was a cunning politician, he assured the Romans that he intended to restore the Republic (and he maintained the outward forms of traditional government), but behind the scenes he worked to replace it with a political system which he was in complete authority over. In 27 BC, the Senate gave Octavian the title "Augustus" ("revered one"), but he said that he preferred the title "princeps" (the traditional republican term which meant "first citizen"). He also used the title "imperator" (indicating one who held the power of "imperium") from which the term "emperor" is derived. Although he was deceptive and cunning, his changes were much-needed (the Republic was intended for a small agricultural community, not an immense empire). He established a civil service that was open to men of talent rather than birth, gave Rome its first police and fire departments, improved the roads, and sponsored a civic building program. In his published memoirs Augustus boasted, "I found Rome a city of brick and left it a city of marble." He also tried to reform Roman morals through laws that were intended to revive the sanctity of marriage and the centrality of family, this effort was not successful.

Early Modern Spain

-Charles V gave the crown of Spain to his son Philip II (1556-1598, who had already received control of Milan in 1540, the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily in 1554, and the Netherlands in 1555). His father had neglected Spain, but Philip used his other lands for the good of the Spanish kingdom. Philip strongly opposed Protestantism and introduced the Inquisition into the Netherlands (which prompted a revolt in 1566, which Philip sent the Duke of Alba to suppress, however it only made matters worse, and in 1572 opposition rallied around William the Silent, Prince of Orange). Philip's suppression of religious dissidents extended to the former Muslims of Spain (converts called Moriscos, and who were suspected of secretly practicing Islam), and nearly all of them were exiled in 1571. In 1571 Philip also sent a fleet commanded by his brother, John of Austria, to lead the Holy League (which included Spain, Venice, and the Papacy) against the Turks at Lepanto off the coast of Greece. John's victory did not obtain new territories but it did free thousands of Christian galley slaves and proved that the Turks were not invincible. Philip annexed Portugal in 1580, but his attempt to conquer England ended in failure in 1588. Philip's last years were spent aiding the forces of the French Catholics in their war against Henry of Navarre.

The Medieval Church

-Christianity was a major influence in Europe during the Middle Ages. The Church was modeled after the structure of the imperial Roman administration which was organized into regional units called dioceses. In many cases the bishops who ran the ecclesiastical dioceses assumed some of the political functions that Roman governors had previously performed (especially the papacy). The bishops of Rome used the title "pope" ("papa" in Latin meaning "father"). They claimed apostolic succession, meaning that they were descendants of the Apostle Peter, who Jesus made the leader of the Apostles and who was the first bishop of Rome. As the Roman Empire disintegrated, the papacy began to obtain an important political authority. For example, when the western emperor was hiding from Attila the Hun at Ravenna, Pope Leo I (440-461) persuaded Attila not to sack Rome. The weakness, and later absence, of the western emperors was the main reason the papacy became so powerful. However, the patriarchs in Constantinople did not obtain such authority because they were overshadowed by the eastern emperors, who often interfered with the governance of the Greek Church. Despite the papacy's spiritual freedom, they had to endure political instability. -When Rome was threatened by the Lombards, St. Gregory I (590-604), known as the Great, negotiated with them and paid them tribute, which he raised from the papal estates. He also used this wealth to feed the poor of Rome and maintain public works (which was previously done by the imperial civil service). He maintained that the papacy was more important than the patriarch of Constantinople. In Gregory the Great's regular communication with the eastern empire, he wrote voluminous theological works for educating the Christian people, which earned him the title of "Doctor of the Church." His works include a large commentary on the Book of Job titled the "Moralia," and his "Dialogues" which recount the life of St. Benedict of Nursia (who founded the dominant monastic order in the Latin west). Gregory was also a monk and he promoted Benedictine monasticism which helped it to become popular in Medieval Europe. -Gregory's successors made an alliance with the Carolingians against the Lombards, and received part of the Lombard's land as a state in 755 (called the Donation of Pepin). In the 8th century the papal chancery forged a document which granted the papacy sovereignty from Constantine the Great (306-337). This so-called Donation of Constantine was proved a forgery by the Renaissance humanist Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457), but it was used to support papal claims to power until the 15th century. The popes' political power, including the authority to convene church councils (which once belonged to the emperors), caused tension with the eastern empire and church. -In the 8th century, the Greek church had a detrimental Iconoclastic Controversy. It started in 726 when the Byzantine Emperor Leo III (717-741) forbid the veneration of icons (paintings of saints), which he condemned as idolatry. However, the papacy supported the use of icons in devotions and condemned the imperial decrees which were finally reversed in 843 by the Byzantine Empress Theodora II. -Tensions between the eastern and western church flared again when the popes added a filioque clause to the Nicene Creed, which said that the Holy Spirit proceeds not only from the Father but also "from the Son" (thus, giving the Son a greater role than the original creed did), in order to clarify the Church's teaching on the Trinity. In the 9th century, this and the argument regarding papal supremacy resulted in a schism between the Greek church led by the Patriarch Photius and the Latin church led by Pope Nicholas I (858-867). This division became permanent in 1054 when Pope Leo IX (1048-1054) tried to extend papal jurisdiction over the Byzantine churches in southern Italy and was rejected by Michael Caerularius (the Patriarch of Constantinople). The two churches declared the other to be heretical and they used the filioque clause to justify their action. -Christian society often turned to monks for guidance because monks were people who took their faith as of serious importance. Therefore, monasteries were not as isolated, because the monks were involved in ministry (including converting pagans). Monasticism was independent of the church structure. In the 5th and 6th centuries, there were much variety among monks and what monasticism should look like. An Italian monk, St. Benedict of Nursia (c. 480-547) revised on set of monastic "rules" and added important innovations which made his monastic order superior to others. The Benedictine order began at Monte Cassino in Italy and became the dominant form in western Europe until the 12th century. -St. Benedict's *Rule* (a book) was similar to the norm (requiring renouncing private property, sex, and free will aka having poverty, chastity, and obedience), but it also struck an ideal balance between work (which was needed to make the monastery economically self-sufficient), study (which was necessary to ensure the community's orthodoxy), and prayer (which was the main goal of monasticism). Benedict's *Rule* also made a spiritual life within the reach of any devout soul, rather than only the advanced individual. Benedict wanted monks to have enough food and sleep so they could concentrate on prayer, and he did not encourage physical pain. However, he did allow corporal punishment for monks who did not respond to more lenient forms of correction. The fact that popes (like Gregory the Great) and the Carolingians promoted this rule also helped it to be successful. -Benedictine monastery was governed by an abbot ("father") who was chosen by the monks in the community. The abbot had complete authority and appointed lower offices (the "prior" being the most important). He discussed it with his monks when important decisions had to be made. These monasteries were completely self-sufficient and meant to be contained. The monks made books that they needed for prayer and study in a room called the scriptorium (where they wrote on parchment made out of animal skins because paper was unknown). The monks even preserved much classical pagan literature because they were good models of Latin which the monks tried to imitate in their own writing. -The Peace of God was a movement of the Church which began in northwestern Europe during the 10th century as an effort to protect non-combatants (such as priests and peasants). The nobles initially resisted it, but in the 11th century they tended to promote it in order to stop fighting between their henchmen. The Truce of God was another movement by the Church, which began in the 11th century, that tried to limit how many days combat could take place. It tried to keep Sundays and major holidays (such as Easter and Christmas) free from fighting, by punishing violators with excommunication.

Italian Politics

-Coluccio Salutati (1331-1406) and Leonardo Bruni (1369-1444), whom both advocated "civic humanism," served in the city-state of Florence (which was the preeminent center of culture in Renaissance Italy). Politics in 15th century Florence was dominated by the wealthy Medici family (who arose in the 13th century as merchants and bankers). They were the effective rulers of Florence during the leadership of Cosimo (1389-1464) and Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-1492), and their influence eventually extended far beyond Florence. Three members of the family became popes (Leo X, Clement VII, Leo XI) and two became queens of France (Catherine and Marie). The Medici were great patrons of the arts (funding artists like Botticelli and Michelangelo), and patronizing humanists (such as Marsillio Ficino (1433-1499) who translated the complete works of Plato from Greek into Latin for the first time, translated the works of Neoplatonists such as Plotinus, and wrote his own works on philosophy and theology). The Medici suffered exile twice after Lorenzo died, but they were able to return to power each time with help from Spain. -When the French invaded Italy and seized Florentine's territory it prompted the people to depose the Medici (going into their first exile in 1494) and restore the republic. Florence then came under the influence of a Dominican preacher named Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498), who spoke against the luxury and corruption of the Medici age. He convinced the Florentines to destroy works of art in repentance (the "bonfire of the vanities"), but he lost popular support and was burned at the stake after Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503) excommunicated him as a dangerous fanatic. -The Italian city-states arose from the medieval communes (towns holding charters from a feudal lord) and became self-governing after successfully resisting the Holy Roman Emperors. Although many of the city-states were republics, they were often ruled by despots (either behind-the-scenes or overtly). Italian city-state politics was chaotic within the city-state and between city-states. The environment was ideal for condottieri (mercenary generals) like the successful Gattamelata and Bartolommeo Colleoni, both of whom were commemorated in equestrian statues modeled on the ancient statue of Marcus Aurelius. The most successful condottiere was Francesco Sforza (1401-1466), who seized Milan in 1450 and established a dynasty there. -In 1454 the Treaty of Lodi organized an alliance between three of the five major Italian powers (the northern city-states of Florence, Milan, and Venice) against the other two (the centrally located Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples in the south). The Papal States had nearly vanished during the Avignon papacy, when local rulers seized much of the territory, but the popes had fought to get their territory back when they moved back to Italy. The Kingdom of Naples (which included Sicily, and was sometimes called the Kingdom of Two Sicilies) had changed been ruled by many peoples in the Middle Ages (Byzantines, Muslims, Normans, Hohenstaufens, French, and Spanish rulers all claimed it at one time or another; in the 15th century it was ruled by the Spanish house of Aragon). -In 1494 the French king Charles VIII (1483-1498) claimed the throne of Naples and invaded Italy and seized Naples from its Spanish ruler, but was driven out by the alliance of Italian city-states who banded together. In 1499 Charles' successor, Louis XII (1498-1515) invaded Italy to claim Milan, but was driven out by a temporary Italian alliance. Francis I (1515-1547) continued these invasions of Italy and was aggravated by counter-invasions led by the Spanish king and Holy Roman Emperor, Charles of the Hapsburg dynasty. Each invasion devastated Italy, and in 1527 the Hapsburg forces sacked Rome out of frustration after their pay had been long delayed. -At this time, some statesmen urged political unification of Italy. The most vocal advocate of this was Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), who wrote *The Prince* in 1513 (depicting the ideal ruler as an unscrupulous despot who uses any means to attain his ends, being flexible and ignoring the teaching of Christianity that would limit his strategy) as an appeal to the Medici to provide a leader that all Italians could rally around. Machiavelli blamed the use of mercenaries for Italy's chaos, and the papacy for preventing Italy's unification. He recommended and organized militias of citizen soldiers, because he reasoned that troops who were defending their homes and families were more reliable than those serving for pay. Machiavelli's historical study of ancient Rome, *The Discourses* (1531), identifies representative government as the ideal, rather than despotism. Machiavelli wrote both works in exile and he drew upon his experience in politics he served Florence as a diplomat) as well as his humanistic study of history for his arguments.

The Black Death

-During the Hundred Years' War, most of Europe was struck with bubonic plague (or perhaps a collection of epidemics) which became known as the "Black Death." After the initial wave (1347-1351), the plague reoccurred at intervals in parts of Europe until the 18th century. It was spread by flees living in the fur of rats which Italian merchant ships brought to Europe from Asia (possibly originating in China) which sailed on the Black Sea. The disease followed the trade routes (from which we see that trade, especially with China, was vigorous in the 14th century). The Italian explorer Marco Polo (1254-1324) pioneered these overland routes through central Asia called the "Silk Road" (and describes it in *Travels*). The plague first struck Constantinople, then Italy (a center of commerce), then it spread through France to Spain, England, and Germany. (Poland and other parts of east central Europe were minimally effected, due to the low volume of trade there.) -In just a few years, the plague killed about one-third of its population (some regions had lost half of their population). People were not really aware that the plague could spread so easily, doctors couldn't explain the disease, and the devastating effects created mass hysteria. Many people believed that the plague was a punishment from God, which prompted processions of flagellants (people who publicly beat themselves with whips to show repentance). -There was also a decline in population earlier in the 14th century, when there was a series of crop failure (due to the climate being colder and wetter making the growing season become shorter), which resulted in widespread famines (the most serious occurring between 1315 and 1317, as tax records indicate that the number of households in some places decreased at that time). After population growth c. 1000-1400 Europe's agriculture couldn't sustain that many people, which led to shortages of food, malnutrition, and weakened immune systems, which left them more susceptible to the plague. -The high mortality rate of the plague caused businesses and banking institutions to collapse. Before the plague there was a high unemployment rate, but afterwards labor was in high demand and low supply, resulting in greatly increased wages. After the plague, the price of food decreased because the demand was able to be met. Employers and governments initially resisted granting concessions to laborers, which prompted a series of peasant rebellions (aggravated in England and France by the Hundred Years' War), such as the Jacquerie in France (1358) and the Peasants' Revolt led by Wat Tyler in England (1381). There was also a revolt of the wool-workers in Florence in 1378.

Protestant Reformation

-During the Italian Renaissance, the papacy became a worldly power and noble Italian families were again fighting to get the title. Once in office, popes behaved as secular despots and misused the papal treasury for their own luxuries. (Pope Leo X (1513-1521), a member of the Medici family, is reputed to have said, "God has given us the papacy--now let us enjoy it!") This corruption made it difficult for the papacy to deal with the crises that it faced. -The popes spent so much money on military forces, patronage of the arts, and grandiose building programs that they tried to get money by dubious means. Leo X started selling indulgences (pardons for sin given by the papacy which were thought to shorten the time spent in Purgatory). Leo X also let the Dominican preacher Johann Tetzel sell indulgences on a tour in Germany, in hopes of raising money for building St. Peter's Basilica. When Martin Luther (1483-1546), a theologian at the University of Wittenberg, learned about this he published the "Ninety-Five Theses" (a collection of propositions opposing the sale of indulgences) in 1517. -Many people agreed with Martin Luther, and the movement became a schism that changed the character of Western Christianity. Luther was excommunicated in 1521 (and he refused to recant at the Diet of Worms, saying, "Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise.") Martin Luther said that Scripture and individual conscience were the only sources of religious authority, denying the right of the papacy and councils to govern the church. Luther might have been burned at Worms, but he was protected by a secular prince, Frederick, the Elector of Saxony. Soon other German princes in the northern part of the Empire sided with Luther (because they did not want to send their money to Italy to fund projects by corrupt popes). The Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, was busy with wars against the French and the Turks so he didn't intervene militarily. Luther and German reformers used the new printing press to spread their message quickly. -As a young man, Luther struggled with sin, guilt, and the security of his salvation. He joined the Augustinian friars and practiced good works but it did not give him peace, until his reading of St. Paul's letters led him to conclude that salvation is only achieved only by God's gift of grace on those who make a sincere profession of faith, thus rejecting the efficacy good works and indulgences and relied on justification by faith alone. Luther also rejected the exalted position of the priesthood and taught that the Church is a "priesthood of all believers" (thus rejecting Mass, which could only be done by a priest). He also replaced the doctrine of transubstantiation with consubstantiation (although the bread and wine do not become the actual substance of Christ's body and blood, he is still present in them). He also rejected celibacy as a superior way of life and married a former nun and raised a family. Luther wrote many works, most notably *On Christian Liberty* (1519), which outlined the Lutheran creed, and he prepared the first German translation of the Bible (1534). -In 1525 German peasants revolted in order to better their economic situation and cited Luther's works in support of their cause. Luther thought they misunderstood his message, but tried to help them reach a compromise with the lords. However, when the peasants resorted to violence, he sided with the lords and urged a forceful suppression of the revolt. Similarly, Luther initially tolerated the Jews (hoping that they would convert to his reformed version of Christianity), but by 1537 it was clear that they would not convert so he wrote bitter attacks against them. -In 1526 the princes of the Empire met at the Diet of Speyer and established a compromise allowing Lutheran princes freedom to worship as they chose, but a second Diet of Speyer in 1529 repealed this agreement, which caused the Lutheran princes to rise in protest (thus becoming known as "Protestant"). In 1530 the reformer Melanchthon drew up the Lutheran creed called the Augsburg Confession, and in 1531 the Lutheran princes organized themselves in a defensive alliance called the Schmalkaldic League. In 1546 Emperor Charles V became free of international wars and attacked the Schmalkaldic League, in which Charles V was initially victorious but which ended in a draw. The Peace of Augsburg (1555) allowed each ruler (of approx. 300 states in the Holy Roman Empire) to decide if their state was Catholic or Lutheran. (About half of Germany, mostly in the north, became Lutheran, as did their Scandinavian neighbors.)

Medieval Eastern Europe

-Eastern Europe did not enter recorded history until Christian missionaries brought literacy to the pagan peoples. This started in the 9th century by the Byzantine Church when the monks Cyril and Methodius converted the Czechs and Slovaks to Greek Orthodoxy and gave them the Cyrillic alphabet (which was based on Greek). The Slavs of Ukraine, centered at Kiev under their Varangian (Viking) rulers, adopted Greek Christianity late in the 10th century (however, by then the Czechs and Slovaks had changed to Roman Catholic as Latin missionaries converted their Polish neighbors). In the 14th century the pagan Lithuanians (surrounded by Latin Christians in the west and Greek Christians in the east) decided to accept Catholicism. The Lithuanian ruler, the grand duke Jagiello (1386-1434), became Christian in order to meet the conditions of the wedding (between himself and the Polish queen Jadwiga) which would his people with the Poles. (The earlier Lithuanian ruler Mindaugas had converted to Catholicism in 1251, but his people remained pagan after his assassination in 1263.) -The Teutonic Knights were one of several military religious orders founded during the Crusades. They crusaded in Europe (instead of the Holy Land) and in 1226 they received Prussia on the Baltic Sea as a fief from the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (1215-1250), who gave them the task of converting the pagans who lived there. In 1234 Pope Gregory IX (1227-1241) gave the Teutonic Knights permission to expand their land through additional conquests of pagans. By 1300 the Knights had become the most powerful state in the Baltic region, invited German settlers to colonize the lands which they conquered, and made an alliance with the Hanseatic League. When the last European pagans (the Lithuanians) converted to Christianity in 1386, the Teutonic Knights faced a crisis of purpose. They ended up fighting with Poland-Lithuania and were defeated at the Battle of Tannenberg in 1410. In 1525 the grand master of the Teutonic Knight order, Albrecht of Hohenzollern, converted to Lutheranism and established a Prussian duchy on the basis of the lands the Knights had held. His Hohenzollern dynasty would unify Germany in the 19th century. -The Vikings who founded colonies in eastern Europe during the 9th century were known as Varangians or Rus (and their land became known as Russia or "lands of the Rus"). In 862 a legendary Russian chieftains named Rurik became ruler of the northern city-state Novgorod, which became part of the state of Kiev in 882, which had been taken over by the Varangians in 860 (the combined state is known as Kievan Rus). Kievan Rus reached its peak in the 11th century under Jaroslav the Wise, but after his death in 1054 it broke into about a dozen rival principalities which were often at war with each other. Novgorod became dominant by the 13th century, especially under Alexander Nevsky (1236-1263), who halted the eastward expansion of the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Lake Peipus in 1242. -Europe was again attacked by another wave of invasions from the east. The Mongols were a nomadic people who formed an immense empire across Asia (including east into China and west into Europe) in the 13th century while led by Genghis Khan (c. 1167-1227). A group of Mongols seized Russia in 1237 and founded a state called the Golden Horde (which included Tatars). Alexander Nevsky cooperated with them and they appointed him lieutenant in Kiev. Willingness to collaborate with and pay tribute to the Mongols was crucial to survival and success. The rulers of Muscovy (Moscow) did so and were able to maneuver into a dominant position among the other subjugated Russian states. When Ivan III the Great (1462-1505) finally overthrew the Golden Horde in the 15th century, the Muscovites were poised to assume control of the other Russian principalities.

Ancient Rome

-It was founded in the eighth century BC (traditionally 753 BC) near the mouth of the Tiber River by speakers of the Latin language, who lived in a region called Latium. Far from the powerful centers of advanced civilization, Italy was protected from land invasions by the waters surrounding it on three sides and by the Alps, which provided a barrier that was infrequently crossed by invaders. The Italian peninsula is not very mountainous: the range of the Apennines running down the center does not greatly inhibit overland travel (which enabled Rome to conquer and control the various peoples of Italy). Rome's central location in Italy gave it an advantage because its armies did not have to travel far to get to any point on the peninsula, and its situation on seven hills helped them defend the city from attackers. Once the Romans unified Italy, they found that their position in the center of the Mediterranean gave them an advantage in controlling the entire area. The mild climate of Italy and its good farmland were beneficial to the Romans. -The early Romans were governed by a neighboring group called the Etruscans, who lived to the north in Etruria. Etruscan kings governed Rome until the Romans rebelled and drove them out in 509 BC. The Romans were indebted to the Etruscans for many things, including engineering techniques (draining marshes and constructing sewers), the use of the arch in architecture, the alphabet (which the Etruscans had acquired from the Greeks), and many religious rituals (especially techniques of divination by observing omens such as the entrails of sacrificial animals and the flight of birds).

Medieval Culture (literature)

-Latin was the common language spoken by educated men throughout Europe (all university instruction was in Latin), but national languages (initiating with literature) became prominent during the Middle Ages. -The anglo-Saxons translated the Bible into their language, called Old English, soon after they became Christians, and developed quality religious poetry. Their major epic, *Beowolf* (describing a hero's quest to vanquish terrible monsters), was not written down until c. 1000, but was based on an earlier tradition. After the Norman Conquest of 1066, the language absorbed many French words and became Middle English. The most famous Middle English author was Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400) who famously wrote *The Canterbury Tales,* which is a collection of short stories in verse told by pilgrims on their way to visit the shrine of St. Thomas A Becket (and which provides a cross-section of English society). -One of the earliest works in Old French is *The Song of Roland,* which was written c. 1000, which describes Charlemagne's reargaurd's heroic defense during his campaign against the Muslims in Spain. The French developed a tradition of courtly literature, which described the ideals of chivalry (the culture of mounted knights, a key part of which being a complex form of romantic love which drew parallels between feudal law and love and which was inspired by the troubadors of southern France) in ballads known as chansons degeste (songs of deeds). A favorite theme of chivalric poets was the cycle of Arthurian legends (based on the legendary leader of the Britons who fought the invading Anglo-Saxons), which inspired the 12th century poets Chretien de Troyes and Marie de France. The most popular French literary work was a long allegorical poem called *The Romance of the Rose* (a 13th century epic began by Guillaume de Lorris and later expanded by Jean de Meun), whose characters are abstract personifications depicting the virtues and vices of the time. -The Christians in Spain hosted a tradition of troubadors and courtly love poets, who wrote about the Reconquista (for example, the legends of El Cid). -German courtly love poets were also inspired by the Arthurian cycle (as in *Parzifal* by Wolfram von Eschenbach). The tragic love-story of *Tristan and Isolt* by Gottfried von Strassburg was a legend of Celtic inspiration. The Germans recorded their pre-Christian heritage in the *Nibelungenlied* (Song of the Nibelungs), which drew upon material in the Scandinavian saga of the Volsungs. -The oral traditions of the Vikings were not recorded until after the Scandinavians became Christians. The tales were preserved in Old Norse by Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241), whose *Younger Edda* (a prose work) along with what it was a compliment to, the *Elder Edda* (a collection of poems), preserve the pre-Christian mythology of the Northmen. -The most impressive example of vernacular literature was the *Divine Comedy* of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), who wrote in the Tuscan dialect of his native city, Florence. He also wrote love poems about a young woman named Beatrice, was involved in Italian politics (and eventually suffered exile during which he wrote *Divine Comedy*). *Divine Comedy* was an epic written in three parts (*Inferno*, *Purgatorio*, *Paradiso*) depicting a mystical journey through hell, purgatory (where saved people are purified from their sins), and heaven. It summarized the history of Western Civilization while exploring virtue and vice, and reveals the influence of classical tradition (for example, Dante's guide through hell is the Latin poet Virgil) thus pointing to the Renaissance (which was essentially a revival of classical culture). Prominent Italian poets Florentine authors Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375, who wrote the *Decameron*, a group of stories by people living in the country to avoid the Black Death) and especially Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) helped usher in the Renaissance. Petrarch championed the revival of a pure form of Latin (which he believed had been corrupted in the Middle Ages), but his most popular works were love poems (sonnets) which idealized his love for a woman named Laura.

Jewish revolts and the Roman Empire

-Led by the Hasmonean dynasty (the Maccabees), the Jews of Palestine rebelled against the Hellenistic rule of the Seleucids in 175-164 BC and were allies with Rome in 161 and 134 BC. After obtaining their independence they began to fight among themselves. When Pompey the Great visited the region in 63 BC, he found two brothers struggling for the throne and stopped the civil war by imposing Roman rule. At first the Romans tried to rule Judea indirectly, through local kings such as Herod (37-4 BC), but it wasn't effective so they changed the region from a client state to a province ruled directly by a Roman governor. The Zealots were violently opposed the the Roman occupation. The Sadducees collaborated with the Romans. The Pharisees resisted assimilation into Greco-Roman culture by adhering carefully to Mosaic Law. And the Essenes fled to the wilderness and lived a kind of isolated monastic lifestyle. To maintain peace, the Romans granted them certain concessions, including an exception from both the cult of the emperor and military service. -A revolt in Judea which started in 66 AD and was bloodily suppressed in 73 AD, after the last Jewish fortress, Masada, was taken. The Romans destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem in 70 AD and deported many Jews. The emperor Hadrian's attempt to Romanize Judea, especially his decision to build a pagan temple in the holy city, started a revolt, led by the Messianic leader Bar-Kochba (132-135 AD), which was ruthlessly suppressed. -After Bar-Kochba's rebellion was suppressed, Jerusalem was no longer the center of Jewish life: Synagogues replaced the Temple as the center of worship, and Jewish culture was dispersed in the Diaspora. Jewish theological development continued in rabbinic schools, which established the Mishnah (a comprehensive body of Jewish civil and religious law) around 200 AD. Until about 600 AD, the Mishnah received commentary called the Gemara (which had two versions: one compiled in Palestine and the other in Babylonia) which were collectively called the Talmud. The Babylonian version became authoritative.

Islamic Arab Empire

-Soon after Muhammad's death in 632, the Arabs began conquests which, within one hundred years, established their empire as stretching from India to Spain. One thing that benefited the Muslim Arabs was that the wars between the Byzantines and the Sassanians had weakened both of their empires. Another beneficial factor was that the Byzantines were religiously divided: the Monophyites in Syria and Egypt preferred Arab masters who allowed them religious freedom rather than Christian masters who did not. The Arab migrations also helped them not be dependent on imported food in their desert homeland. By 656 the Arabs had conquered Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. -When Muhammad died, there was arguments about who his successor should be. The Muslim community (or Umma) elected an early convert to Islam named Abu Bakr to be Muhammad's "successor" (or caliph), an office which combined religious and political power. Abu Bakr's (632-634) short time as caliph was spent putting down revolts and maintaining unity. The next caliph, Umar (634-644), started the conquests. His successor, Uthman (644-656), alienated many Muslims by giving important positions to members of the old Meccan elite. Uthman was assassinated and the Shiites (sectarians) believed the caliph should be a descendant of Muhammad (they chose his son-in-law Ali) but the Sunnites (traditionalists) sided with Muawiyah, who was related to Uthman and wanted to avenge Uthman's death. The civil war ended in 661 with Ali's murder, and another flared up in 680 at the next succession, which ended with the death of Ali's son, Hussein. The Sunnites and the Shiites had long-lasting animosity between them. -The two civil wars established Muawiyah's dynasty, the Umayyads (661-750), which enabled them to continue their conquests. They transferred their capital to Damascus from Mecca for better conquest strategy, they were aided by Christian administrators, adopted many Byzantine government techniques, however, they did not encourage mass conversions to Islam (so that they could still heavily tax the people). -The Umayyads' lack of devotion to Islam, antagonized many devout Muslims. In 750, Abul Abbas overthrew them and founded the Abbasid dynasty. He moved the capital from Damascus to the newly built city of Baghdad beside the Tigress River (which became the advanced center of learning as their scholars translated the philosophy, science, and medicine of the ancient world into Arabic). Most of the Near East and North Africa converted to Islam during their reign. -One of the Umayyads escaped the purge and set up a rival caliph in Spain, with Cordoba as its capital. They made Cordoba a magnificent cultural center with libraries, a mosque that combined Roman architecture (such as rounded arches and domes) with geometric designs characteristic of Arabic art (which shunned the use of representational images in public places). Over the centuries,both caliphs became politically fragmented. A third caliph, that of the Fatmids, established itself in North Africa during the 10th century and challenged the Abbasids, who eventually became puppets of their Turkish soldiers. They were finally overthrown by the Mongols in 1258.

Medieval Spain

-Spain was divided in order to foster a centralized monarchy, but the Reconquista ("reconquest") of the Iberian peninsula from the Muslims laid the foundation for a single centralized monarchy. Most of Spain was overrun by Muslims in the invasion that began in 711, but the Visigothic Christians were able to hold out in a small northern region known as the kingdom of Asturias. Over the course of eight centuries, the successors of these Christian warriors gradually pushed the Muslims back. The reconquest was not continuous or unified, there were long periods of peace when the Muslims and Christians were both politically fragmented and cooperated with each other in a beneficial cultural exchange. Many of the early fighters were adventurers like El Cid (Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, 1043-1099), but the reconquest eventually became more religious and was declared part of the crusading movement. Several Christian kingdoms emerged (most notably Navarre, Castile, Leon, and Aragon) who sometimes combined but also often fragmented. Most notably, Portugal declared its independence from the combined kingdom of Castile-Leon in 1139 and was recognized by the pope in 1179.

Hittites

-This group of warlike people from Anatolia (Asia Minor), north of Mesopotamia, invaded and plundered the Amorites/Old Babylonian empire which contributed to it's fall about 1600 BC. -Later they came into conflict with Egypt (in Syria and Palestine) and after much war (namely the battle of Kadesh in 1274 BC, they were led by Muwatalli II and the Egyptians were led by Ramses II), they agreed to share power in the region as a border-territory and signed the first international peace treaty in history (c. 13th century BC). -Unlike most of the other peoples of the ancient Near East, these people spoke an Indo-European language (instead of the common Semitic languages).

Medieval France

-The Carolingians ruled the western Frankish kingdom until 987, when the title of king was seized by Hugh Capet (987-996), a powerful noble, Count of Paris. His Capetian dynasty saw West Francia transform into France (and the Franks become the French), his dynasty lasted until 1328. The realm turning from a feudal state into a national monarchy was very gradual because the nobles were often stronger than the king and unwilling to give up their power and privileges. As late as the 12th century, the kings only directly controlled a small region in the northeast centered on Paris and Orleans, known as the Ile de France ("Isle of France"). -Until the reign of Phillip II Augustus (1180-1223), the Capetians focused on consolidating their power around Paris. Phillip was finally able to challenge his most powerful and menacing vassals, the Angevins (Plantagenets), who possessed many French lands and also ruled England. Phillip seized many territories from King John (including Normandy). After Phillip's victory at the Flemish town of Bouvines in 1214, he threatened to invade England, but then Pope Innocent III forbid him to do so. Phillip made the Capetians the most powerful family in France. -During the reign of Louis IX (1226-1270), the monarch's authority in his vassals lands was strengthened and royal bureaucracy was built up. Louis committed to regularizing the system of justice in his realm, and he participated in the Crusades. Due to his deep personal piety, which motivated his service to the French people, he was recognized as a saint after his death. -St. Louis' grandson was Phillip IV (1285-1314), known as the Fair, and he also strengthened French monarchy. Phillip used his power to crush his enemies, including Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303) who died after Phillip's henchmen manhandled him during a dispute over the taxation of the clergy. Phillip sent much of his reign trying to raise money for wars against England and the Flanders. Phillip destroyed the Knights Templar (a military monastic order founded during the Crusades) in order to seize their assets. He also expelled the Jews from France and seized their property (Jews had been expelled from England in 1290), and he debased the currency. Phillip also used his bureaucracy of lawyers to negotiate tax agreements with the provinces by reinterpreting and manipulating feudal law. Phillip was, however, a popular king. During his quarrel with the pope, he called the first meeting of the Estates-General (which was composed of three orders: clergy, nobles, and burghers), and received their support.

The Catholic Reformation

-The Catholic Church was slow to respond to the Protestants because it didn't have an effective leader until Pope Paul III (1534-1549), whose most important action was to initiate the Council of Trent (which met three times between 1545 and 1563, and established a thorough reform of the Roman Catholic Church and defined its theological position in response to the issues raised by the Protestants). The Catholic Reformation is also known as the Counter Reformation, but in addition to responding to Protestantism, it was also born of faith and piety among faithful Catholics. -During the Catholic Reformation several new religious orders were started, the most prominent was the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, founded in 1534 by St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) and was approved by Paul III in 1540. Ignatius was a soldier who turned to religious life during hospitalization for a battlefield injury in 1521, and who wrote a manual for meditation known as the *Spiritual Exercises*, and soon attracted followers. The Jesuits founded quality schools for educating Catholics and converted Protestants through well-informed preaching, and missionary activity throughout the world was a major part of their work. In the 1540s, the Jesuit St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552) preached in the Far East (including India, Southeast Asia, and Japan), and died on his way to China. The Jesuits were reputed for fanatical devotion to the papacy. Other new Catholic religious orders included Theatines, Ursulines, and Capuchins (a rival of the Franciscans). The Carmelite order was rejuvenated by the mystic St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) and her disciple St. John of the Cross (1542-1591). -Paul III also tried to revive Catholicism by founding the Roman Inquisition (also called the Holy Office) in 1542. It was not directly related to the medieval Inquisition, and was different from the Spanish Inquisition (which was established in 1478). The Roman Inquisition focused on monitoring newly published books for heretical theology, thus focusing on the intellectual elite (such as Martin Luther and John Calvin). The Roman Inquisition published an *Index of Prohibited Books* (the first edition appearing in 1559) in order to identify books that were dangerous to the Roman Catholic faith. The Roman Inquisition threatened to excommunicate any Catholic who read or distributed books on the index without special permission.

Dutch Independence

-The Dutch revolt beginning in 1566 (and led by William the Silent between 1572 and 1584) continued for about 80 years before the independence of the Netherlands was recognized. In 1579 the northern Dutch provinces formed the Union of Utrecht, which formally declared independence in 1581 and became the core of the Dutch Republic of the United Provinces. Spanish troops were expelled by 1600, and a truce stopped fighting between 1609 and 1621. After more fighting, Spain finally recognized Dutch sovereignty in 1648 through the Treaty of Westphalia. The Dutch had become a world power and had a fleet better than any other European nation. The Dutch took advantage of Philip II's attack against Portugal in 1580 to seize Portuguese colonies in the Far East and take over the spice trade, on which the Portuguese had a near monopoly on. This eastern commerce was controlled by the Dutch East India Company (a joint-stock company formed in 1602 and run by the United Provinces), which was later joined by the Dutch West India Company (which was active in North America, where it founded New Amsterdam in 1624 at the mouth of the Hudson, later called Newark City).

Ancient Greece

-The earliest people living here were called Mycenaeans (c. 2300-1100 BC known as the Mycenaean Bronze Age). Then the maritime empire of the Mycenaeans was destroyed during the raids of the Sea Peoples, and the mainland centers were overrun by the Dorians (a people who spoke a dialect of Greek that differed by the one spoken by the Mycenaeans). -The Dorian Greeks were culturally less advanced than the Mycenaeans (many of whom fled across the Aegean Sea to Anatolia, where they established Greek culture along the coast in a region known as Ionia.) At this time the art of writing was lost, as well as the administrative skill that made writing possible. Since the cultural level of the Greeks declined and little is known of their history from about 1100-800 BC, the era is known as the Dark Age of Greece. -During the Archaic Period (c. 800-500 BC) the culture was revived and the basic social, economic, and political organization that emerged was the polis (or city-state; plural: poleis; the word "politics" comes from this). In the context of the polis, these people developed the theory and practice of the various forms of government that have been prominent in Western civilization. A polis unified people of the area it was in, but loyalty to their local polis caused fierce regionalism which led to warfare between neighboring poleis. Their disunity was also contributed to by the mountainous terrain of the Balkan which made land travel difficult (thus, traveling by sea became an important part of their lives and the Aegean Sea became the geographical center of their civilization). -From about 750-500 BC they established a lot of colonies outside of their homeland (around the Black Sea, and Iberia [modern Spain], southern Gaul [the Mediterranean coast of France], Corsica, Sicily, southern Italy, Libya, and even the Egyptian Delta [at the port of Naucratis]). They most intensively settled southern Italy (which became known to the Romans as Magna Graecia or "Great Greece").

Assyrians

-They conquered the entire Near East (including all of Mesopotamia, southern Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt) from the 8th-7th centuries BC. They came from their homeland in northern Mesopotamia and used iron weapons, which were more durable than bronze, ushering in the Iron Age (although the Hittites were the first to begin smelting iron). By conquering Egypt in the 660s BC, they became the first power to control both the Nile and Tigris-Euphrates valleys. -In order to hold their extensive empire together, they applied a systematic policy of terror to discourage rebellion, and became notorious in the ancient world for cruelty. They also deported rebellious populations and replaced them with their own colonists. The purpose of deportation was to assimilate unruly subjects into the ruler's culture so that they would lose any sense of national identity and desire for independence (this happened to the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel). -Their harsh methods were effective in the short term, but generated too much hatred among their subjects to ensure long-term stability; and by invading Egypt they had overextended themselves. When a new dynasty of the Babylonians (with help from the Medes from the region of modern Iran) raised a major revolt in Mesopotamia, they were unable to stop it. The Neo-Babylonians (sometimes called Chaldeans) conquered their capital, Nineveh which was on the Tigris river, in 612 BC.

The Byzantine Empire

-The eastern half of the Roman Empire which survived the Germanic invasions was known to historians as the Byzantine Empire. They still called themselves Romans, but the common language was now Greek instead of Latin. They were more able to afford armies for defense, thus outliving the western half of the Roman Empire. -Constantinople was founded in 330 AD when the Roman Empire was ruled by Constantine the Great (306-337 AD). In 395 AD the empire was divided in half to make it easier to maintain. In 476 AD the last western emperor was disposed and the eastern emperors could not control the western half through barbarian allies. Justinian the Great (527-565 AD) tried to reclaim the west and successfully retook North Africa, Spain, and Italy, most of which were lost a few years after Justinian died. The Byzantines only had southern Italy and a few northern coastal cities (including Ravenna), they also claimed Rome but had no control over it. -Justinian I, or Justinian the Great, (527-565) was an early Byzantine emperor who owed much of his success to his wife Empress Theodora, who had been a dancing girl in her youth. In 532 a political fight broke out at the chariot races, known as Nika riots, and Justinian's wife convinced him not to flee, but rather to stay and suppress the rebellion. -Justinian's successors had to deal with bankruptcy, and rebellion at the edges of the empire. They gave up the west and turned eastward, where they had to fight a lot with the Sassanians. Heraclius (610-641) finally achieved victory in 628, but his empire was weakened by war and internal dissension that the southeastern provinces soon fell to the armies of Islam which recently erupted from the Arabian peninsula in 634. -The division among the Muslims saved the Byzantine Empire from being completely destroyed by the Arab invaders. Constantinople was attacked several times by the Arabs, first in 672 and most seriously in 717-718, but it survived because of its strong defenses (including a secret weapon called "Greek fire" which even burned on water and could devastate enemy forces that came near the walls). Additionally, their provinces in the Balkans were harassed by Avars (a Turkic group from central Asia), as well as Slavic groups such as the Bulgarians, and even by Vikings (known as Varangians). All of which attacked Constantinople at one time or another. The Byzantines remained defensive until the 9th century, but in the 10th century they were able to reconquer Anatolia from the Muslims and much of the Balkans from the Slavs. By 1000 AD their empire had expanded again to include much of the Balkans, Anatolia, southern Italy (which they held since the wars of Justinian), and the islands of Crete and Cyprus.

Minoans

-The history of this Cretan (lived on the island of Crete) people is shrouded in mystery. Named after the Greek myth of King Minos (who made a labyrinth to imprison his wife's monstrous son, the Minotaur) -Their civilization was flourishing by 2000 BC. They had a strong navy and dominated peoples living on the shores of the Aegean Sea (and they didn't see a need to build a protective wall for many centuries). They become wealthy through trading with the Aegean peoples, Hittites, and Egyptians. This group of people built grand palaces, which often had plumbing and were decorated with frescoes depicting joyous scenes (as well as athletic scenes). -Even at their geographical height, they sometimes suffered from terrible natural disasters (including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tidal waves). They quickly recovered from the earthquakes that destroyed their palaces around 1800 BC, but later disasters may have contributed to their eventual demise. An extraordinarily violent volcanic eruption around 1627 BC annihilated their colony on the island of Thera and spawned a tidal wave that destroyed the coastal settlements of Crete, which was 70 miles away. Their palaces were destroyed between about 1550 and 1375 BC, probably by the Mycenaeans from the Balkan peninsula (modern Greece). It seems that their civilization lingered on in isolated pockets until about 1200 BC. -One writing (Linear B) implies that the early Greeks occupied Crete toward the end of this peoples' history. (Another writing, called Linear A, represents their language but it has not been deciphered.)

The Triumvirates (The Roman Republic:)

-The most ambitious men at this time, whose power rested in their private armies, were Pompey, Crassus, and Julius Caesar. Although they were rivals, they established a three way alliance known as a Triumvirate (it was the first of two) in order to oppose the Senate, which thwarted their design for personal aggrandizement. This delicate three way balance was upset in 53 BC when Crassus died and the other two could not agree on redrawing their spheres of influence (in part because of Caesar's stunning conquest of the Celts in Gaul, modern France, during the 50s BC). The situation exploded into civil war (49-45 BC) when Caesar, returning from Gaul, crossed the Rubicon River on the border of Italy without disbanding his army (as demanded by Pompey and the Senate). Pompey was defeated by Caesar at Pharsalus in Greece (48 BC) and died a fugitive in Egypt. Although Caesar showed generosity to his defeated opponents, alarmed senators led by conservatives Brutus and Cassius feared he would try to proclaim himself king. In hopes of saving the Republic, the organized a conspiracy that assassinated Julius Caesar on the Ides of March (March 15) 44 BC. Caesar's supporters were outraged and Rome suffered another civil war (44-42 BC) which ended in the defeat of the assassins. Among Julius Caesar's achievements, his most far-reaching was adding leap years to the calendar, this Julian calendar (with minor adjustments) is still in use. -Caesar's supporters were led by three men who formed a second triumvirate to dominate affairs in Rome: Marc Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian (Julius Caesar's grandnephew). Eventually Marc Antony and Octavian squeezed Lepidus out, then fought each other for supremacy. Octavian, a shrewd propagandist, undercut Marc Antony's support by drawing attention to his love affair with Cleopatra (the Ptolemaic queen of Egypt) and raising fears that Marc Antony would try to rule Rome as an oriental despot. In 31 BC Octavian defeated Marc Antony and Cleopatra in a naval battle at Actium (off the western coast of Greece). With Cleopatra gone, the last of the Hellenistic kingdoms came to an end and the Romans added Egypt to their territorial possessions.

The Roman Empire

-The transition from the Republic to the Empire was never openly proclaimed. Some think that the the conquest of the Mediterranean had killed the Republic about a hundred years before Augustus, since in a sense their rise to supremacy brought the Romans more power than their political system could handle. The Senate continued to have some influence and consuls were still elected, but power was now in the hands of one man. The Romans instituted the cult of the emperor, who was worshiped as a god (above the law). The early emperors were deified only after their death and were worshiped retrospectively, but later emperors were worshiped during their their lifetimes. The new system survived even when the holder of the power was unstable (like Nero 54-68 AD) or even insane (like Caligula 37-41 AD). However, for the most part, the early Roman emperors were effective and Rome benefited from one ruler making decisions for the entire large empire. -The Pax Romana. -As the Roman Empire expanded, citizenship was gradually extended to the subject peoples until in 212 AD, when the emperor Caracalla declared all inhabitants of the empire full citizens. The population of Rome grew to about a million as former farmers drifted to the capital looking for work, thus, poverty and employment rose. Even the measures instituted by Augustus did not solve the severe problems. The best the empire could do was to provide free grain and entertainment (in the form of gladiator games and chariot racing) according to a social welfare policy known as "bread and circuses." -Jewish revolts. -The emperor Constantine (306-337 AD), Diocletian's successor, issued the Edict of Milan (313 AD) reversing the policy of Christian persecution. He made this edict because he had a vision on the eve of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 AD (near Rome) which promised him victory if he accepted the Christian religion. After the edict, the Church had legal rights and became wealthy through donations. However, it wasn't until later that paganism was outlawed which then made Christianity the only religion. By the 2nd century, Rome had become the center of Christianity. Church leadership was claimed by bishops in many different cities (and the emperors sometimes claimed church leadership, which was called "Caesaropapism") which eventually led to divisions within the Church. -Diocletian institutes the Tetrarchy (rule by four emperors). -Constantine becomes the only emperor and moves the capital to Constantinople. -The Germanic tribes challenged the Romans and migrated throughout Europe, eventually taking over the western half of the Roman Empire. -The causes of the "fall of Rome" are controversial, but it was a gradual process.The empire in the west disintegrated because it did not have the resources it needed to defend the empire, and the emperors in the eastern capital sacrificed it as the less defensible region. The fall of the city of Rome did not result in the immediate disintegration of the Empire. The emperors in Constantinople persisted until the end of the Middle Ages and were still considered Romans. In the west, the Roman Empire didn't end in a clearly identifiable year, but the end of the western imperial line in 476 AD recognized the fact that the position had become a meaningless position some time before it was abandoned. The cultural tradition of the Roman Empire continued to exert its influence and blended with the cultural influence of the Germanic barbarians, resulting in a distinct, medieval culture.

Persians

-Their empire was founded by Cyrus the Great (559-530 BC), and is often called the Achaemenid empire after the name of the dynasty to which he belonged. His small kingdom on the northern shores of the Persian Gulf (in modern day Iran) was under the domination of the Median empire. Cyrus led his people in an uprising against the Medes and conquered them in 550 BC. Cyrus made the Medes partners in his empire, establishing Media as his first satrapy (provence). Both peoples were Indo-European speakers and migrated into the Near East together, perhaps around 1000 BC. -Cyrus expanded his dominion until it dwarfed every Near Eastern empire that had gone before. In 547 BC he annexed Anatolia by defeating Croesus of Lydia, then turned east and established a defensible border against threats from central Asia. -In 539 BC Cyrus conquered the Neo-Babylonians (by taking advantage of an internal religious dispute) and established control over their empire, which included Syria and Palestine. He identified himself as a friend of the traditional god Marduk (whose cult was opposed by the unorthodox current king Narbonidus), therefore the people who followed that god opened the gates for Cyrus' army in order to gain religious freedom under a foreign ruler. -Cyrus did not try to destroy the identity of subject peoples by deportation (which the Neo-Babylonians and Assyrians did), and he did not interfere with local religion. He let the Jews who were exiled in Babylon to return to their homes in Jerusalem. -Cyrus the Great died while campaigning on the eastern borders; his successors continued to extended the borders of their empire. Cambyses (530-522 BC) conquered Egypt and Libya. Darius conquering Thrace, they crossed into Europe and came upon the borders of Greece. They intended to annex the Balkan peninsula, but the attempt led by Darius' successor, Xerxes (486-465 BC), ended in a stinging defeat that halted their westward expansion. The empire lasted two more centuries before it was conquered by a Hellenic army led by the Macedonian king Alexander the Great (336-323 BC). The struggle between this empire and the Greeks was a defining moment in the rise of western civilization.

Hebrews

-Their patriarch, Abraham, lived in Mesopotamia and was instructed to migrate to the Promised Land (near the Mediterranean Sea). This happened between about 2000 and 1500 BC. Abraham's grandson, Jacob (later called Israel), had twelve sons which became the 12 tribes of Israel. During economic hardship, this people went to Egypt as laborers and became slaves. Moses, the lawgiver, led them out of slavery in Egypt (c. 1275 BC) and settled in the Promised Land. -The land promised to Abraham was already occupied by Canaanites and was at the same time as the Sea Peoples' invasions. One of these groups, the Philistines, settled along the coast in the region that is now known as the Gaza strip. (The word "Palestine", which was later applied to the whole area, is derived from "Philistine") This nation fought both the Canaanites and the Philistines for space to live in. The twelve tribes united under a single monarch, Saul (c. 1020-1004 BC). Saul's successor, David (1004-965 BC), secured the borders of the kingdom of Israel, establishing its capital at Jerusalem. David's son, Solomon (965-928 BC), built a magnificent temple to Yahweh in Jerusalem (on Mount Zion), but his extravagant rule aroused the animosity of his subjects. Soon after Solomon's death, the nation became divided: ten of the tribes broke away to form the northern kingdom of Israel, while David's dynasty in Jerusalem continued to rule in the south (their state was known as the kingdom of Judah). -Abraham made a Covenant (pledge of loyalty) with Yahweh to serve Him only. Both at Mount Sinai (where they received the 10 Commandments) and afterwards, while living among the polytheistic Canaanites, this nation of people found it difficult to abandon the worship of other gods completely. Prophets would exhort the people to renounce polytheism once and for all. When Elijah denounced the Israel king Ahab (871-852 BC) for executing a subject so that he could take his property, then Ahab repented of his sin. Around 750 BC, the prophet Amos preached against economic exploitation and called it a sin.

Early Modern France

-Under Francis I (1515-1547), the French monarchy acquired control over the Gallican (French) church through the Concordat of 1516 (whereby the papacy allowed French kings to appoint their bishops). The spread of Calvinism in France (whose followers were called Huguenots) was seen as a threat to the national church, and persecution became systematic during the reign of Henry II (1547-1559), by which time many nobles had become Huguenots. After Henry's death, his widow, Catherine de' Medici (de Medicis), dominated her three sons who inherited the throne. Intermittent religious civil war began in 1562, and in 1572 Catherine was involved in a purge of several thousand Huguenots known as the St. Bartholemew's Day Massacre. The wars continued until Henry of Navarre (the Huguenot leader) inherited the throne by right of succession, thus establishing the Bourbons as a royal dynasty. As Henry IV (1589-1610), he converted to Catholicism to please his Catholic subjects (remarking, "Paris is worth a Mass"), and protected and granted freedom of worship to his Calvinist subjects through the Edict of Nantes (1598). -In 1628 Cardinal Richelieu (d. 1642), the chief minister of Louis XIII (1610-1643), revoked the political terms of the Edict of Nantes, however allowing them religious freedom if they agreed to serve the French monarchy. Richelieu (who also subdued Huguenot bastion of La Rochelle in order to eliminate their independent military power) was devoted to royal absolutism in France and by 1630 he was its virtual ruler. He curbed the power of the nobility and increased military spending in order to make the monarchy more powerful, and was willing to make alliances with Protestant rulers in order to weaken the Hapsburgs (the main rivals of the French kings).

The Renaissance

-or "rebirth," was a general revival of European society, which transitioned the medieval into the modern age. -Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374), known as the father of Renaissance Humanism, advocated imitating the Latin style of the ancients (especially Cicero) and the attitudes the ancient authors expressed. Petrarch opposed the scholastic theologians and canon lawyers, and the intellectual culture of universities in general, because he thought that they marginalized the human experience by analyzing it in cold, abstract terms, without sensitivity to rhetorical sophistication. He called medieval culture a "dark age" of barbarism, thus introducing the tradition of dividing Western Civilization into ancient, medieval, and modern phases. He was not opposed to Christianity, but wanted a more emotional approach. In Petrarch's introspective work, *The Secret*, he converses with St. Augustine of Hippo, author of the soul-searching autobiography, *The Confessions*. Petrarch's most popular works were his sonnets about his love for a girl named Laura, he hoped to acquire literary immortality for his Latin epic, the *Africa*, depicting the Punic Wars. He was elected poet laureate by the Roman Senate in 1341. Petrarch shunned politics (which his father wanted him to embrace) and became a writer, thus advocating a contemplative life rather than an active one. However, many of the humanists he inspired did not share this attitude. Men like Coluccio Salutati (1331-1406) and Leonardo Bruni (1369-1444) advocated "civic humanism," which said that the most virtuous life was one that used humanistic study for public service. -Petrarch's return to classical literary tradition inspired people (such the scholar Boccaccio, 1313-1375) to recover works of the ancient authors from neglect in the monasteries and study them. This intensive study of Latin texts established the modern discipline of philology (historical linguistics). Based on Latin style, the humanist Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457) proved that the so-called Donation of Constantine was actually an 8th century forgery. Due to hostility towards it, humanism developed outside of the university culture. Humanists were often supported by wealthy patrons who appreciated the humanists and wished to enhance their own prestige. They studied Greek and Latin, thus revived the ancient Roman tradition of the upper classes (who were fluent in Greek). Humanists founded secondary schools that stressed studying the classics, and which brought about a revolution in education that lasted until the early 20th century.

The Peloponnesian War

431-404 BC The land-based Peloponnesian League led by Sparta attacked the sea-based Delian League led by Athens, by invading Attica in 431 BC (in order to avoid being taken over by the other league). However the Athenians adopted a defensive policy advocated by Pericles (they retreated behind their walls and used their fleets to import food). The siege continued for several years and there was an epidemic that killed at least one fourth of the population in Attica, including Pericles. The fighting continued in fits and starts for almost thirty years. The Athenians changed between many strategies depending on which politician convinced the people. The most notorious Athenian leader was Alcibiades (c. 450-404 BC) , Pericles' nephew, who in 415 BC convinced the Athens to invade Syracuse (Sicily), an ally of the Spartans. The invasion failed in 413 BC (in part because Alcibiades ended up working with the Spartans in order to escape a plot by his political rivals). The defeat caused many city-states that were subject to the Athenians to rebel. A short-lived oligarchy took control of Athens in 411 BC during the upheaval, but democracy was soon restored. Afterwards, the Athenians could no longer stand a chance against the Spartans who had gotten their own fleet (that was paid for by the Persians in order to take advantage of Greece becoming divided). Finally, in 404 BC the Athenians surrendered, and the Athenians had to tear down their city's defensive walls and they were not allowed to build a fleet or revive their empire. An oligarchy known as the Thirty Tyrants, friendly to Sparta, took control of the city. The defeat of Athens caused the Classical culture of the Greeks to decline.

third dynasty of Ur

About 2100 BC the Sumerian city of Ur attained control of Mesopotamia after the Akkadian empire had been weakened by foreign invasions. They ruled for about 100 years before Mesopotamia fell into a period of chaos during which no single dynasty controlled the entire region (c. 2000-1900 BC). By the time unity was restored the Sumerians had lost their identity as a distinct group.

Fertile Crescent

Cradle of Civilization located in the area between Mesopotamia and Syria. (From the Tigris-Euphrates valley (in modern Iraq), along the Mediterranean Sea toward the Nile River Valley in Egypt.)

Greek victories over the Persians

In 499 BC the Ionian Greeks rebelled against Persian rule and sought military aid from the Greek mainland (Athens sent ships that raid the Persian controlled city of Sardis then returned home). By 494 BC, the Persians regained control of Ionia and decided to invade Greece. In 490 BC a Persian army entered Greece led by Darius I, but the vastly outnumbered Athenians managed to defeat them at Marathon (a herald ran 26 miles to Athens to report the victory, this run inspired the endurance race called "marathon"). Ten years later the next Persian emperor, Xerxes, with a larger army and a large fleet. The Athenians had trouble getting supporters, but managed to assemble a few allies, most notably the Spartans who brought with them the armies of the Peloponnesian League. The Persians defeated a detachment of Spartans at the strategic pass of Thermopylae in central Greece and the Athenians had to evacuate their city by ship to nearby islands for safety. After the Persians looted Athens, they attacked the Greek fleet, but the Persians were lured into a narrow strait near the isle of Salamis where they could not use their massive number to their advantage, thus the Athenians led the Greek fleet to defeat the Persian fleet. Without ships for supply, the Persian army was defeated by the Spartans leading the Greek armies at Plataea in 479 BC. The Ionian Greeks were then able to reassert their independence. (Spartan King Leonidas led one of these battles, but lost.)

Punic Wars (The Roman Republic:)

The Romans soon became embroiled with Carthaginians over Sicily as the two empires collided. Carthage (which was founded as a Phoenician colony in North Africa, modern Tunisia, around 800 BC) had expanded into an empire that dominated maritime trade. The rivals engaged in three terrible conflicts known as the Punic Wars ("Punicus" in Latin means "Phoenician") to decide who would control the Mediterranean. The First Punic War (264-241 BC), which consisted of mainly navel battles, gave Sicily to Rome. The Second Punic War (218-201 BC) began in Spain and spread to Italy as the Carthaginian general, Hannibal, daringly crossed the Alps with his war elephants. Although Hannibal raided Italy for 15 years, he was unable to conquer the Romans, who changed tactics after the disastrous Battle of Cannae in 216 BC. Their general Fabian refused to fight Hannibal in a pitched battle, but harassed his supply lines. These "Fabian tactics" prevented Hannibal from breaking the Roman state. The Second Punic War ended when the Romans invaded North Africa under the leadership of Scipio the Elder and defeated the Carthaginians at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC. Over half a century of uneasy peace followed until the conclusive Third Punic War (149-146 BC), which was started by the Roman statesman, Cato the Elder, who ended all his speeches with the phrase, "Carthage must be destroyed." Carthage was soon reduced to ruins by Scipio the Younger.

Egyptians

These people unified the Nile valley before Sargon of Akkad unified Mesopotamia. The unity of the Nile valley was quite stable and enduring because they only had to defend the delta where the Nile joins the Mediterranean Sea in the North and the upper reaches of the river in the south (because they were surrounded by deserts that armies could not cross).

Kassites

This group of people from the east (the region that is now Iran) of Mesopotamia, invaded the Amorites/Old Babylonian empire and established themselves as the new rulers for the next 300 years (starting c. 1600 BC).