UNIT FOUR

MEDIEVAL EUROPE AND DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY CAPITALISM

4.1. Medieval Europe

 The Medieval period also known as Middle Ages covers the period of European history
from 500A.D to 1500A.D.

The Dark Age

 The period of West European history from 500A.D to 1000A.D is referred to as the Dark
Age.
 It is called the Dark age because civilization in Western Europe declined during this
period

The Western Roman Empire

 It was destroyed both by internal and external problems.

 Internally, the empire suffered internal division and decay.
 Externally, it was invaded in the 5 th c A,D by the Anglo-Saxons and the Franks from the
Germanic tribes and Huns and Magyars from the Asiatic tribes

Effects of the invasion in Western Europe

 Greeco-Roman civilization declined.

 Societies became rural (cities and towns declined)
 There was sharp decline in the population and wealth of towns and cities,
 Feudalism became the base for political and economic life of West European society

Some bright marks of the Dark Age

 Bishops and Monks kept old records and learning

 Churches, palaces and castles were built
 Chivalry (polite behavior) was practiced by the knights.

The Two Large Empires in Western Europe

1. The Carolingian Empire (481-882)

 It was centered in what is now France. The first ruler of the Carolingian dynasty was
named Pepin. Charlemagne was the famous emperor of the Carolingian Empire.
 It was a Frankish dominated empire.
2. The Holy Roman Empire (962-1806)
 It was founded by the German Emperor Otto the Great (r.912-963).
 It was made up of the German and Italian territories.

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  Both empires did not include all parts of Western Europe.
 During the Dark Age, the Roman Catholic Church was the only unifying institution in
Western Europe.
 In 711AD the Muslim Arab forces led by Tariq Ibn Ziyad defeated the forces of the last
Visigoth king Roderick (Rodrigo) in southern Spain. As a result, the Arab Umayyad
Caliphate of Cordova was established in Spain.
 The Carolingian Empire forces led by Charles Martel defeated the Muslim Arab forces at
the battle of Tours in Southern France in 732AD.

Feudal Society

 Feudalism was the political, social and economic system in Western Europe from
500AD to 1500AD.
 The ruling class of the feudal society was made up of kings, nobles, knights and
higher clergy.
 Knights were soldiers of the middle Ages.
 Vassalage was a system that connected higher lords with lower lords.
 Real power was exercised by the lowest group of lords known as Manorial lords.
 Villages of the middle Ages were known as manors.
 The masses of peoples were made up of peasants, craftsmen and traders. They had no
political and economic power.
 Most of the peasants were serfs. The serfs rented the land, paid tributes and gave free
labor services to the feudal lords. They were permanently tied to the land of manorial
lords.
 West European feudal society was oppressive and exploitative.

The Byzantine Empire

 It was also known as the Eastern Roman Empire.

 Constantinople was its capital since 330AD.
 After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476AD, the Eastern Roman Empire
continued to exist for another one thousand years. This was because geographically it was
not open to the Barbarians attack; it was richer and had more towns and cities with
defensive walls than the West.
 When civilization declined in Western Europe, the Byzantine Empire remained the center
of Greco-Roman and Christian civilization.
 Greek language was used instead of Latin after the division of the Church in 1054.
 The Church of Saint Sophia in Constantinople built during the reign of Emperor Justinian
I (r.527-565AD) is a good example of the Byzantine architecture.
 The economic basis of the empire was agriculture, crafts and trade.
 The Byzantine Empire survived repeated foreign attack repeatedly. For instance, it
defended itself from the Muslim Arabs, Serbs, Bulgars and Persians.

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  Since 1071AD, the Byzantine Empire was attacked by the Normans and Seljuk Turks. It
pushed back the Normans attack.
 Since the Muslim Seljuk Turks attack was strong, Emperor Alexius Comunenus asked
Christian governments of Western Europe for military assistance.
 Then the help came from Western Europe in the form of the Crusades.

The Crusades

 The word crusade comes from the Latin word crux which means cross.
 The Crusades were the wars of Christian Europe against the Muslim Seljuk Turks which
lasted from 1096 to 1270.
 In 1071 under their leader, Alp Arslan, the Muslim Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantine
army at the battle of Manzikert in Asia Minor and began to prevent Christian pilgrim to
the holy city Jerusalem.
 In 1095, Pope Urban II of the Roman Catholic Church declared a holy war against the
Muslim Seljuk Turks.
 The target of the crusaders was first to liberate Jerusalem and then to defend the
Byzantine Empire.
 The Crusade war took place eight times over a period of 200 years. The most important
wars were the first crusade and the third crusade.

The First Crusade war (1096 to 1099)

 In 1097, one group of the crusaders defeated the Seljuk Turks at Nicaea in northwest
Turkey.
 In 1099, the crusaders freed Jerusalem after six weeks of fighting.

The Third Crusade War (1189 to 1192)

 In 1187, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria, Saladin defeated the Christian army at the
battle of Horns of Hattin, in Palestine and recaptured Jerusalem.

Consequences of the Crusades

 The Crusaders: saved the Byzantine Empire from falling into the hands of the Muslim
Seljuk Turks until 1453
 Introduced new products such as sugar, rice and apricots into Western
Europe
 Encouraged commerce, weakened the power of the nobility and while
helped strengthen the Catholic Church.

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European States and the Ottoman Turkish Empire

 The Seljuk Turks who originated from the deserts of Turkestan in central Asia came to
power in Arabia, Palestine and Asia Minor in the 11th c before the Ottoman Turks.
 The first ruler of the Seljuk Turks was Aladdin Seljuk.
 The Seljuk Turks were replaced by the Ottoman Turks in 1299.
 The Ottoman Turks were named after their leader known as Osman (Othman).
 In the first half of the 14th c the Ottoman Turks began to build a mighty empire.
 The Ottoman Empire was centered in what is now Turkey.
 The Ottomans seized the Anatolian city of Bursa which became their capital since 1336.
 At the beginning of the 15th c the Ottomans had conquered much of the Balkan Peninsula
including Greece.
 In 1453 an Ottoman army of 150,000 troops led by Mohammed II captured
Constantinople, renamed it Istanbul and made it their capital.
 The Ottoman Empire reached the height of its power under Sultan Suleiman I (r.1520-
1566).
 European forces successfully defended Vienna, the capital of Austria from a Turkish
attack in 1529.
 In 1571, European fleets defeated the Turkish navy at the battle of Lepanto, near Greece.
This was the end of Turkish expansion in Europe.
 The Ottoman Empire was the most powerful empire in the World during the 15 th and 16th
centuries.
 A highly trained infantry (land force) of the Ottomans was called Janissaries.
 Cavalry force of the Ottomans was called Sipahi.
4.2. Development of Early Capitalism

Capitalism: is an economic system in which a country’s businesses and industry are controlled
and run for profit by capitalists (private owners).

 Early Capitalism took shape in Western Europe in the period between 1500AD to
1700AD.
 Factors that gave rise to early Capitalism were:- the revival of long distance trade,
emergence of early Capitalist relations, the beginning of explorations and discoveries, the
Renaissance and Reformation.
A. Exploration and Discoveries
 During the middle Ages the geographical knowledge of Europeans was limited to
Europe, northern Africa and Western Asia.
 But in the 15th c they discovered new regions in Africa, Far East and the Americas.

Factors that encouraged exploration and discoveries

 Europeans interest in the long distance trade

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  Europeans interest in geographical knowledge and
 The invention of compass, better ships and maps as well as astrolabes.
 Prince Henry the navigator (1394-1460) of Portugal and Queen Isabella (1451-1504) of
Spain supported the voyages of explorers.

The factor that forced Europeans to begin exploration was the blockade of the old land
trade route that connected Europe with Asia by Ottoman Turks.

 In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spain and Portugal were leaders in the voyages of
exploration and discoveries.
 In 1487 Bartolommeo Dias attempted to sail across Atlantic but his journey was
interrupted due to sea storm on the southern tip of Africa.
 The Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama discovered a new sea route to India and the Far
East in1497-98.
 The Italian explorer, Christopher Columbus discovered the New World (America) in
1492. He was in the service of Spain and died without knowing that he had found a new
continent.
 The name America is derived from the name of an Italian map maker Amerigo Vespucci.
 The Portuguese, Ferdinand Magellan circumnavigated the World with 5 ships between
1519 to1522. But he died in Philippines, in April 1521 before he finished the journey. He
was in the service of Spain. The Surviving ship of Magellan was named Victoria.
 The newly discovered regions later on conquered and became colonies of European
powers. Spain and Portugal were the dominant empire builders in the 15 th and 16th
centuries.
 In the 17th c Holland, Britain and France became empire builders.
 In the 18th c Britain and France became the dominant empire builders.
 In 1623, Holland established a small trading colony at New Amsterdam, on Manhattan
Island. Later, 1664 Britain took over New Amsterdam and renamed it New York.
 The first permanent British settlement in North America was founded at Jamestown
Island in Virginia in 1607.
 Britain had a total of 13 colonies in North America.
 After 1608, France had established colonies at St. Lawrence River, the Gulf of Mexico
and Missisippi Valley
 Britain and France fought the seven Years war (1756 to 1763).
B. The Long Distance Trade
 One result of the Crusade war was the revival of economic life in Western Europe.
 During the crusades merchants of Italian city states, who hired their vessels to the
crusaders, succeeded to control trade in eastern Mediterranean coasts. The region was
linked in long distance trade with Western Europe and this gave new life to the declining
urban centers of the Middle Ages.

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  The merchants brought silk, spice and other commodities from China and India to
Europe.
 The development of the long distance trade marked the beginning of the new capitalist
economic relations by 1500 AD.
C. The Beginnings of Early Capitalist Relations
 Early capitalism replaced feudalism in Europe by 1500AD. Among some of the elements
of capitalist economic relations were long distance trade and urbanization.
 Cities of the 14th c developed into big trading centers by the 15 th c and transformed
themselves into bigger capitalist business centers by the 16th c.
 Genoa, Florence, Venice, Milan, Barcelona, Paris and London were centers of long
distance trade.
 The Bank of St. George in Genoa and the municipal Bank of Barcelona were founded in
the 15th c and emerged successful.
 Small craft workshops that worked by hand methods were located in cities and they
produced textiles and metals.
 The factory owners and the merchants made up the class of the bourgeoisie. The term
bourgeoisie originated from the word burgher, which means town dwellers.
 Increased use of money for local and long distance trade, the manufacturing industry and
baking transformed the old feudal economic system into a new system of capitalist
relations.
D. The Renaissance
 The Renaissance was an intellectual movement. It indicates the rebirth of learning.
 It began in the 14th c and ended in the 17th c.
 It started in Italy and spread to England, France, Germany, Spain and Holland.
Characteristics of Renaissance
 The study of ancient Roman and Greek languages, literature, and arts; the use of reason;
 The support of freedom of thought and questioning mind; the study of human beings;
 The use of national languages such as Italian or English rather than Latin in writing; the
invention and use of printing which began since 1454.

The Great works of Renaissance persons

Literature: Divine Comedy was written by the Italian Dante Alighieri.

: Utopia was written by the Englishman Thomas More.
: The Praise of Folly was written by the Dutch Desiderius Erasmus.
: The Holy Bible was translated into German by Marthin Luther.
: Great plays such as Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Othelo, etc were written by the
Englishman, William Shakespeare.

Art: the Italian Leonardo da Vinci painted the last supper and Monalisa.
: Michael Angelo painted the creation of Adam and also made the statues of David, Moses
and the Virgin and the dead Christ.

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 : An Italian sculpture, Donatello made the Equestrian monument of Cattamelata and Marry
Magdalen.
Science: the Belgian Vesalius studied human anatomy.
: the Polish Nicholas Copernicus proved that the earth revolved around the sun
E. The Reformation
 The Reformation was a religious movement in the 16 th c that led to the separation of
Protestants from the Catholic Church.
 As a result of the movement, Protestantism was established.
 Cause of the movement was opposition against corruption, immorality and Catholic
Church teaching on astronomy, bible interpretation and history and authority of the Pope.
 The protestant reformers supported some of the principles of capitalism such as
individualism and nation states.
 The Reformation started in Germany by Martin Luther in 1517. He established the
Lutheran Protestant Church. The German peasants and princes supported Luther.
 Jean Calvin was a French Protestant reformer who lived Geneva Switzerland and
established the Calvinist Protestant Church in 1541. Calvin’s followers in France were
called Huguenots.
 In Scotland, John Knox established his own type of Calvinist Protestantism known as the
Presbyterian Church in 1560.
 In England, King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I separated the English Protestant
Church from the Roman Catholic Church.
 The English Protestants established a national Church which came to be known as the
Anglican Church.
The Roman Catholic Church and the Counter Reformation
 The Counter Reformation was a religious movement of the Catholic Church to reform
itself as a response to Protestantism.
 A series of reforms were introduced by the Catholic Church. Anti-Catholics were
attacked and even put to death in Catholic countries of Spain, Portugal and France.
 In Spain, the missionary organization known as the Society of Jesus was formed by
Ignatius Loyola in 1534. The members of the society, called Jesuits, were active in the
Americas, Asia and Africa.

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