Test

Today in Western Civ class, we took a test which was quite easy i thought. i got an 87% and a lot of people didn't do as well so i was pretty happy with that. The rest of class Mr. Schick graded them and then we ran out of time. The bell was a lot shorter today due to the senior assembly this morning. so each class was only about 30 minutes long.

Test Tomorrow

Today in Western Civilization Class, we were reviewing for the test that will take place tomorrow. We reviewed by having Matt and Phil teach the class.  There review was pretty funny and Mr. Schick told us what some of the test questions will be and some of the ideas for the test.

Test ideas:

• France comes from the Franks
• Clovis has a battlefield conversation- he and his warriors become Christians, he prayed to God and they won the battle 
• Clovis and the Church works together- people liked this 
• Church + Frankish Rules = rise in Christianity 
• 520- Benedict wrote the rules for monks 
• vows of poverty 
• chastity 
• obedience 
• Scholastica writes the rules for the nuns 
• operate schools 
• Church revenues are used to help the poor, build roads, and raise armies
• This is a THEOCRACY
• CHRISTENDOM- Christians in the Kingdom
• Most of the rest of Europe consists of smaller kingdoms (7 in England alone) 
• Charles the Hammer 
• Charles the Hammer defeats a MUSLIM raiding party 
• if he did not do this, we could be muslim 
• PEPIN THE SHORT- Charles the Hammer's son
• Pepin has two sons 
• Carolman- dies in 771 
• Charlemagne (Charles the Great) - 6"4 
• CHARLEMAGNE 
• built the greatest empire since Rome
• fought the Muslims in spain 
• Fought the Germanic Tribes
• spread Christianity 
• Reunited Western Europe 
• Became the most powerful king in western Europe 
• Pope Leo III crowned his emperor 
• this signaled the joining of Germanic powerful Church and the heritage of the Roman Empire 
• Limited the authority of the nobles 
• regularly visited his kingdom 
• kept close watch on his huge estates 
• cultural revival 
• learning
• ordered monasteries to open schools 
• opened a palace school 
• His son- Louis the Pious (ineffective) 
• Louis has 3 sons 
• Lothair 
• Charles the Bald 
• Louis the German 
• Split up the kingdom at the TREATY OF VERDUN- 843 AD

More Notes

Today in Western Civilization Class, we went over the notes again for the people who were not here yesterday.  Then we had the rest of the class to basically do nothing. Mr. Schick said we can work on our homework but everyone was talking so we did not really do anything else.

Germanic Kingdoms Unite under Charlemagne

Setting the Stage

• Middle Ages - medieval period
• 476-1453 AD Exact Dates (from the end of the Roman Empire to the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks) 
• Medieval Europe of fragmented 

This is a new society

This new society has its roots in: 

• Classical heritage of Rome
• Beliefs of the Roman Catholics 
• customs of various Germanic tribes 

5th Century Germanic Invaders 

Overrun the western half of the Roman Empire causing

• disruption of trade
• downfall of cities
• population shifts to rural areas 

Russian is not a romance language

Germanic warriors' loyalty is to the lord of the manor, he provides with them with food, weapons, treasure

• Result: 
• No orderly government

Theocracy- Church revenues are used to help the poor, build roads and raise armies, 

Charles the Hammer- Battle Of Tours

Charles the Hammer's son is Pepin the Short

Middle Ages-

A European Empire Evolves

• Franks control largest European Kingdom
• the Roman Province formerly known as Gaul
• Ruled by Clovis- the Merovingian Dynasty
• Major Domo- mayor of the palace- rule the kingdom 
• Charles Martel- Charles the Hammer
• Extended the Franks' reign to the north, south and east
• Defeated a Muslim army from Spain at the Battle of Tours in 732- historic battle
• Charles the Hammer's son- Pepin the Short
• possibly named for his unusual hair cut
• working for and with the Pope, Pepin fought for the Lombards
• Pope Stephen II named Pepin "king by the grace of God"- the beginning the Carolingian Dynasty- 751-987 AD
• Pepin the Short had two sons- Carolman and Charles
• Carolman died, leaving Charlemagne 

Charlemagne takes the stage

• Charlemagne aka Charles the Great
• 6'4 height
• built the greatest empire since Rome
• Fought the muslims in Spain
• Fought Germanic tribes
• Spread christianity 
• Reunited Western Europe 
• Became the most powerful king in western Europe
• Pope Leo III crowned him emperor in 800 AD after her defended him from an unruly Roman mob
• this signaled the joining of Germanic power, the church, and the heritage of the Roman Empire 
• Charlemagne's government 
• He limited the authority of the nobles
• he regularly visited every part of the kingdom
• kept close watch on his huge estates
• cultural revival 
• encouraged learning 
• ordered monasteries to open schools
• opened a palace school
• but his heirs
• his son- Louis the Pious was ineffective 
• Louis' three sons - Lothair, Charles the Bald, and Louis the German- split up the kingdom at the Treaty of Verdun- in 843 AD

Germanic Kingdoms Unite under Charlemagne

Main Idea: 

• Many Germanic kingdoms that succeeded the Roman Empire were reunited under Charlemagne's empire

Why is matters now? 

• Charlemagne spread Christian civilization throughout northern europe, which is where many of us came from 

Setting the Stage

• middle ages- medieval period
• 500-1500 AD
• medieval europe is fragmented 

A.  Invasions trigger changes in Western Europe

     1. invasions and constant warfare spark new trends 

        a. disruption of trade 

           i. Europe's cities are not longer economic centers 

          ii. money is scarce 

       b. downfall of cities

          i. cities are not longer centers of administration 

       c. popular shifts

         i. nobles retreat to the rural area

         ii. cities don't have strong leadership

    2. decline of learning

            a. Germanic invaders are illiterate, but they communicate through oral tradition

            b. only priests and church officials could read and write

            c. knowledge of Greek (and literature, science, philosophy) is almost lost

   3. loss of a common language

            a. dialects develop in different regions

            b. by the 800s, French Spanish and other roman- based languages are evolving from Latin

***main language was Latin***

B. Germanic kingdoms emerge 

• the concept of government changes
• Roman Society- loyal to public government 
• Germanic Society loyal to family 
• Germanic chief led warriors 
• During peace, he provided food, weapons, treasure, a place to live (the Lord's hall) 
• During wartime, warriors fought for the Lord 
• They do not know or care for the king
• Franks live in the Roman province of Gaul - their leader is Clovis 
• The Franks under Clovis
• another battlefield conversion 
• Clovis and 3000 of his warriors are baptized by the bishop 
• The Church in Rome approves of this "alliance" 
• Clovis and the church begin the work together

Clovis' military expertise + the Church's support and money = a strategic alliance between two powerful forces!

collect tithes (like taxes)

 C. Germanic peoples adopt Christianity

• (Pope) Gregory I expands papal power
• papacy- pope's office 
• Secular Power - worldly power
• Papal power (power of the pope) is political power, presented from the Pope's palace) 
• the church can use church money to 
• raise armies 
• repair road
• help the poor
• Gregory the Great began to act as mayor of Rome, as head of an earthly kingdom (Christendom) 
• 511 AD- Clovis unites Franks into one kingdom 
• 600 AD- Church and Frankish rules convert many 
• Fear of muslims in southern Europe spur many to become christians 
• Monasteries and Convents
• 520 AD- Benedict wrote the rules for monks and monasteries 
• poverty, chastity, obedience, study 
• his sister Scholastica did the same for nuns in convents
• 731 AD- the Venerable Bede wrote a killer history of England 
• Monks opened schools, maintained libraries and copied books (Bibles, Greek texts) 

 

Middle Ages (feudalism)

Today in class, we went over the notes that we took on page 151. We learned about the time after the Roman empire. Mr. Schick told us that we should put all the notes in our own words so that we understood what we were righting. We talked about a couple of new vocabulary words.

• Christendom- combination of Christianity and Kingdom 
• Taxes/ tithe- tithing is that you have to give 10% of earnings to Church 
• Byzantine Empire- the Eastern part of the Roman Empire was called this

We also learned that in the Empire, they were speaking more Greek instead of Latin like... 

• Socrates 
• Plato 
• playwrights

Some people knew how to speak and write in Greek and Latin. Also, most of the Romans did not focus on education. They more focused on their welfare. 

This was known as the dark ages because, if they did not know how to read and write, they could not progress and learn how to do more things. 

Romans were no longer the center of social life, warfare, and trade

PowerPoint

• Feudalism- a political, military and economic system based on land-holding and protective alliances
• In other words, the system is based on personal loyalty to people who can help you 
• Lord- "I own land; i need people to help me work it and defend it" 
• Vassals- "There are a lot of us, we can help the Lord hold on to their land", these people end up becoming knights 

The Feudal Pyramid 

King 

The most powerful Vassals (Nobles and bishops) 

Knights- mounted warriors who received Fiefs for defending their lord's land

Peasants (mostly serfs) Landless, powerless, moneyless, rights-less, just working the land for their lord

• Manor: the lord's estate 
• A lord's manor house
• a church 
• some workshops
• 15-30 families
• all on a few square miles 
• Good News: its a self sufficient community 
• Bad News: its harsh if you are a peasant, not learning about other parts of the world 

How harsh for the peasants? 

• Peasants are poor AND pay high taxes 
• tax on grain
• tax on marriage 
• Church tax (tithe = 10% of their income) 
• They live in crowded cottages 
• they live with animals and insects
• Eat VERY simply 
• the church says this is your lot in life
• God determines you place in society 

Tests

Today in Western Civ class, we went over the test grades and then Mr. Schick allowed us to do our homework for the rest of the class.

P. 151-152

Quote: "The upheaval of the early middle ages ended not in a collapse of civilization but in its renewal, and the first two early medieval centuries set the patterns for how this renewal would later take place in western and eastern Europe"

• two centuries later- time of turmoil that will continue for 500 years
• medieval- refers to the distinctive civilization of the middle ages
• Romans gradually stopped working 
• cities were not longer the center of trade, social life, and warfare 
• missionary monks- brought christianity 
• land by the Franks 
• kings ruled in partnership with warrior-landowners and church leaders
• surviving east contributed to west's chaos 
• 700- constantinople ruled by Anatolia
• also known as Byzantium 

Chronology 

• Angles and Saxons invade Britain 
• 486- Clovis leads Frankish confederacy against Romans and rival Germanic invaders in Gaul
• 527-565- Reign of Emperor Justinian in the Eastern Empire
• 542- Plague hits Egypt, then spreads throughout the Mediterranean area and much of Western Europe
• 568- Lombards conquer most of northern Italy 
• 570-632- Life of Muhammad 
• 595- Missionaries sent by the pope begin to convert the pagans of England
• 711- Muslim invasion of Spain 
• 800- Slavs occupy almost all of eastern Europe 

Rome Fades Away

Two Emperors:

• DIOCLETIAN 
• he rules from 284-303
• he thought it was okay to persecute Christians
• thought they were disobeying Roman Laws
• Rome needs a bigger army (400,00 strong) 
• Rome needs a big government (20,000 officials) 
• Solution was to divide Rome in half- west and east 
• West- was harder to defend (bigger) 
• East- Richer, better trade routes
• There may have been one or two emperors between them 
• CONSTANTINE 
• rules from 306-337
• He was okay with the Christians 
• conversion to Christianity via a cross in the sky (conquer by this)
• PX was painted on the armor 
• wins the battle and starts to trust in the Christian God
• 313- his Edict of Milan proclaims freedom of worship
• built a new capital on the east
• Byzantium, soon to be known as Constantinople
• The struggle of peasants
• Life in the fourth century 
• country dwellers are getting bankrupted by endless tax collection
• new farming system: peasants work for elite landlords on large forms
• peasants can avoid paying taxes, but they are getting hit just as hard as the landlords
• Paying off debts and being "allowed" to live on the land, in exchange for endless hard work
• landowners hold local power as courts and bishops, wielding more real power than the faraway empire
• foreshadowing feudalism (the system where the manor is owned by the rich, knights to protect, who their lord is)  
• The western empire crushes
• Rome's power is decreasing, while nomadic barbarians gain power
• western empire is too poor, begins to be neglected
• Huns migrate from China to eastern Europe
• Visigoths take over Spain, and actually capture and loot Rome itself in 410
• Vandals control Carthage and the Western Mediterranean 
• other barbarian tribes
• Ostrogoth's in Italy 
• Franks in Gaul 
• Angles and Saxons in Britain 
• End of an era
• from the beginnings 
• 500 BC- the monarchy is abolished 
• 450 BC- twelve tables are established
• through the glory days
• 44 BC- end of the line for Caesar
• 27 BC-180 AD- The Roman Peace (pax romana)
• To the bitter end 
• constant fifth century invasions by barbarians tribes left the western Roman Empire shattered and crumbled
• the last emperor was a teenage boy installed in 475 by his father
• barbarians deposed Romulus Augustulus without bothering to kill him 

The Decline of the Roman Empire

• Jesus spent 3 years preaching, is killed by the Roman Leaders

• Saul (the persecutor) becomes Paul, spreading Jesus' message- monotheistic

• Christianity evolves from the cult status to established official structure

• Priests, bishops, pope, (Bishop of Rome) 
• Christians and Jews were monotheistic
• believing in one God
• this conflicted the Romans belief
• persecution was common
• Christians appealed to the poor, their numbers grew 
• Some Rome leaders embraced Christianity 
• AD 313- Constantine has a battlefield conversion 
• Prays to Christian God and paints crosses 
• wins the battle 
• He issues the Edict of Milan
• a law was passed that you could not persecute Christians
• No persecution, but approval of Christianity, making it the official religion
• The Roman Empire and Christianity are now linked it power and influence
•  Decline of the Roman Empire
• AD 180: Rome has problems 
• Economic (trade became risky, taxes were too high; food supply was dropping) 
• military (frontiers were hard to patrol: Roman Generals fought for control; soldiers loyalty declined and mercenaries appeared 
• Diocletian divided the empire into two 
• Greek speaking east (had more resources)  
• Latin speaking west  (Rome, tradition) 
• AD 324- Constantine becomes emperor over both halves of the Empire 
• Moves the capital from Rome to Byzantium (renamed Constantinople) 
• After his death, empire is divided further
• this time, Barbarian invaders overrun the empire's frontiers
• That's it for the Roman Empire (AD 476) 
• last Rome emperor was a 13 year old boy (Romulus) 

The Changing World of Rome: Emperors, Christians, and Invaders

• Quote: "Instead of dying, the Mediterranean civilization of Greece and Rome began to spread among many still- barbarian northern peoples, until it became the christian Europe of the middle age"  
• Biggest change- the spread of christianity 
• Era of Roman Peace 
• new monotheistic religion = christianity 
• group within Judaism, time of division and uncertainty 
• Christianity developed away from Judaism 
• Empire wide community- Catholic Church 
• Germanic Barbarians of Northern Europe 
• Rome's neighbors during Pax Romana 
• self rule by centralized government 
• openly ruling as an absolute monarch 
• failed to keep the empire together
• resulted in future development of the West
• Rome prospered = christianity grew and spread 
• Christians were harshly persecuted 
• tolerated it 
• burden of government and army became too heavy,
• barbarian attacks grew too fierce 
• empire began to collapse 

Roman Test

Today in west civ class, we took a test on Rome. The test was pretty easy and was really just like the other Roman test we took.  I think i did well on it. We were in a different classroom today because Mr. Torres had people taking a test in his room and we were moved to Mr. Blair's room. Other than taking the test, we did not do anything else in class. Mr. Schick let us study for the first 15 minutes or so probably just to kill some time.

Test Review

• Who was the first official emperor? 
• Caesar Augustus 
• begins the Pax Romana (roman peace and prosperity) 
• Caligula 
• Tiberius' adopted grandson 
• next in line for emperor 
• started well 
• "completely blissful" in the first 7 months 
• bad finish
• began to fight with senate
• claimed to be a God and had statues 
• assassinated by his own aides AD 41
• spent lots of money (the empire's money) 
• tried to make his horse a consul and priest (that's what his critics say at least)

Claudius 

• ostracized by his own family because of disabilities
• he was the last adult male in his family when Caligula was killed 
• he conquered Britain 
• renovated the Circus Maximus
• bad marriage to Messalina (unfaithful) 
• Claudius has her killed  

Religion 

• Christianity and Judaism: monotheistic (one God)
• Romans had many gods, emperor was sometimes viewed as a god
• Zealots tried to rebel, but Roman troops put them down and burned their temple
• the Western Wall today is the holiest of all Jewish shrines 
• half a million Jews died in the rebellion 
• Romans were harsh toward those who did not worship the emperor 
• Often used for "entertainment" purposes in the Colosseum
• Christianity grew quickly (10% Rome were Christians by AD 100) 

Nero 

Test Questions 

• Who was the first group to settle in Italy 
• Latins 
• This Latin phrase means "public affairs" 
• Res publica 
• Rome was centrally and strategically located on this river
• Tiber  

Book Notes

Assassination and another Caesar

• The people liked Caesar's deeds
• 44 BC- voted on making him dictator for life
• he never ruled by terror 
• Caesar became basically a tyrant
• March- 44 BC, Caesar was struck with daggers and killed 
• Mark Antony became a consul
• leaders were Brutus and Cassius 
• Octavian Caesar (Caesar Augustus) 
• based in Rome 
• 31 BC- went to war with Cleopatra and Antony- victorious
• returned back to Rome and turned into a legitimate and permanent monarchy 

Page 103

• "the era of the Roman peace was massive social, religious, and cultural changes that would form a new pattern of Western Civilization" 
• Augustus' new system 
• allowed a great deal of self rule
• brought the destabilizing to a stop
• 200 years of stability 
• Historians call this "Roman Peace" 
• Followed Greek models and eventually surpassed the Greeks
• Rome became an inspiration for Western Development 
• Western land was conquered by barbarians  
• Eastern land was ruled by Egypt 

LO1 The Rule of the Emperors 

• The Augustan Settlement
• proclaimed the goal of restoring the republic
• wanted as much power as he could but within traditional government and political framework 
• refused long term dictatorship 
• referred to himself as princeps- first citizen 
• 27 BC- Augustus was confirmed as commander in chief
• The Divine Being
• They thought of Augustus as a god-sent human 
• Augustus' title- Father of the Fatherland 
• Augustus married Livia 
• Vespasian- cynical sense of humor
• Romans believed there was something divine about every matron 
• Reform, Reconstruction and the End of Expansion
• Augustus brought the system of government appointments under his personal control
• Augustus showed respect and encouraged other leaders
• Augustus reorganized the army
• Then Augustus had all the soldiers as volunteers, serving for 20 years
• broke tradition and become the world's first professional standing army
• The End of Rome Expansion
• largest army
• Praetorian Guard 
• near the end of Augustus' reign he turned against any more expansion 
• which had long-term consequences
• Permanent Monarchy 
• everyone was convinced that the peace and stability would last 
• in order for this to happen- he must have put someone in charge to rule when he died 
• Settled on Tiberius to rule 
• they started fighting to Caesar's last descendent, Nero, was to rule
• Augustus' structure held until the end of the third century
• Pax Romana- the era of Roman Peace