3.1 A Changing Europe pp. 62-67

Objectives: Describe Europeans’ lives during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Explain why Europeans wanted to find an ocean route to Asia.

A. Vikings in North America (pp. 62-63) The first European settlement in North America was a Viking colony called Vinland (near today’s Newfoundland, Canada). Led by Leif Ericsson, the Vikings (or Norse) were Scandinavians from present-day Sweden, Norway, and Denmark . Their accounts of these journeys, called sagas, give no clues as to why they eventually abandoned Vinland.

Is there an actual link between Minnesota and Vikings?

B. The Middle Ages (pp. 63-64) At this time in the early 1000s, though, the rest of Europe was experiencing a period of isolation known as the Middle Ages. Lords lived in castles on large estates called manors. Peasants called serfs were forced to work the land.

C. Decline of Feudalism (pp. 64-65) 1. This system, called feudalism, was so self-sufficient that most people rarely traveled, traded, or even thought about faraway places. The Black Death, a deadly plague caused by fleas from rats, decimated the European population in the mid-1300s. Many of those who survived developed immunity to the disease, although they could still carry it to others.

“Ring Around the Rosie” and the Plague? Is there, as some insist, a connection between the nursery rhyme and the Black Death? “Ring around the rosie” “A pocket full of posies” “Ashes, ashes” “We all fall down”

D. The Rise of Nations in Europe (pp. 65-66) The Crusades, a series of wars for control of the Holy Land (the Middle East), led to a European demand for Asian products like silk and spices. Italian port cities soon developed a monopoly (total control) on Mediterranean trade with Asian markets selling these products. Other European nations began searching for new ocean routes to Asia.

E. The Renaissance (pp. 66-67) One Italian merchant, Marco Polo, wrote a book about his experiences in the court of a Chinese ruler named Kublai Khan. That book helped to spark the Renaissance, a period from about the mid-1300s until the 1600s that was characterized by great curiosity about the world. That curiosity helped fuel an Age of Exploration.

Review: 1. Who were the first Europeans to set foot in the Americas? 2. Who was their leader? 3. What was the name of their settlement in North America? 4. Define sagas— 5. Define Middle Ages— 6. Explain how the feudal system affected trade and travel in the Middle Ages. 7. What health disaster contributed to the breakdown of the feudal system? 8. What Asian products did Crusaders encounter in the Middle East? 9. What is a monopoly? 10. Which European group established a monopoly over trade with Muslim markets selling Asian products? 11. Who wrote a book describing the riches he found and the people he met in China? 12. What was the Renaissance?