Warm Up 12/12 Page Why might people decide to farm the land instead of hunting animals and gathering fruit and nuts?
Black Death
History of Western Europe
Beginnings Modern humans have lived in Europe for about 40,000 years. Early people were hunters and gatherers, but over time switched to a more agriculture centered life style. The act of smelting, the melting and fusing of two metals, allowed for stronger metals and tools to be made from bronze. Which is a combination of tin and copper.
Roman Empire The Roman Empire began to advance on Europe and by 14 AD they had concurred most of Germany and France, a 100 years later Rome had control over most of Britain. Romans brought many things to Europe such as: their religion, language (Latin), and technology. The Romans built roads and aqueducts, which carried water long distances to towns.
Fall of Rome Eventually over time Rome’s power began to weaken. Many different groups took advantages of this and took Roman Land. The Huns (warriors from Asia) invaded from the east. The Visigoths were driven westward to concur parts of Germany. The Franks ruled what is now France. The Angles and Saxons ruled England.
Christianity and Western Europe Christianity began in the eastern Roman Empire. The Roman Emperor, Constantine, converted to Christianity in 312 AD which aided in the spread of the religion. When the western part of the empire fell in 476 AD Christianity was common throughout Europe. The Roman Catholic Church would play major role throughout the development of Europe.
The Middle Ages As time passed invaders threatened the region, to bring order to the region feudalism arose. Under feudalism kings would give land to nobles and in exchange nobles would give the king military service. This period was known as the Middle Ages, or the Medieval Era, because was a transition period between ancient and modern times.
Crusades An important tradition in Medieval culture was to take a pilgrimage to lands that were important to Christianity. Specifically Jerusalem. However in the late 1000s Muslims controlled the city, this caused Pope Urban II to call for a crusade to take the city from Muslims. Great Armies were formed and Jerusalem but they were still unable to wrest control of the city from the Muslims.
Hundred Years’ War The threat of war loomed over England and France between 1200 to 1300, and finally in 1337 war broke out. The fighting lasted in total for more than 100 years with England winning many of the early confrontations and land with it. However by the end of the War France won all of it’s land back. The peace that came between the two wasn’t from paper but from the rapid spread of a disease called….
Black Death Also known as bubonic plague. Because living conditions were not sanitary the disease was able to spread. Fleas would carry the disease and spread it with a bite. Rats would carry fleas and also spread the disease with a bite. Traveling ships would unknowingly carry the infected rats from port to port. As a result around 25 million people died.
Lutheranism People began to question the church and the sale of indulgences, pardons from sin. A German priest called Martin Luther began to protest the practices of the church. In 1517 Luther wrote the 95 Theses, a document the attacked church practices. For this Luther was expelled by the church but his ideas started spreading, his followers became known as Lutherans.