T h e A m e r i c a n U n i v e r s i t y o f R o m e HST Survey of Western Civilization I Session 15 Polities of the Early Middle Ages A review The High Middle Ages Its features

Biz e I HRE X OE 1918 R O M E

The Middle Ages: the events > Constantine’s division of Empire > Fall of Rome > Justinian > Rise of Islam 476/ /1492 Early MA > High MA > Late MA Renaissance < Fall of < Constantinople End of 100 < years war Americas < “Reconquista” < of Spain Battle of < Lepanto Holy Roman Empire Monasteries Plagues Universities Schism Romanic architecture >Gothic architecture age of cathedrals >Rennaissance of Greco-Roman art? 1000 “The Renaissance of the 12 th Century” >The building of Western Law >Intercontinental commerce

I HRE X OE 1918 Biz e R O M E

The Byzantine empire > Its start? Technically, the division of the R empire… Diocletian? Constantine? > The Roman revival of Justinian, with a twist of Latin in B > Germanic Lombards conquer the Italy568 > Ascension of emperor Heraclius, fully Greek rulers Defeats the Persians, captures Jerusalem > Arabs occupy Byzantine territory and attack C > Anatolia under B rule > Iconoclastic movement (in the same vein as Islam? Against monasteries…political as well, against pretensions of Charlemagne and Leo III) > Palace intrigues and complots & strong, regulated administration based on control over trade, new industries & strategic position

> Stalemate between Arabs and Byzantium > Russia converts to orthodoxy > Successful campaigns against Abbasid rulers & B reconquers most of Syria > Annexation of Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia > Schism of the Christian Church (and definite distinction E vs W… importance of B for the W overshadowed) 1054 > Seljuk Turks (Ottoman) overrun eastern Byzantine provinces… start of the defensive state & decline1071 > Reign of Alexius Comnenus (against Normans, treaty with Turks, Crusade, takes Anatolia but independent crusader states > First Crusade, Jerusalem (>1187) > Fourth Crusade, capture of C by Venice: the Latin empire > Fall of Constantinople1453 > Trebizond, last capital of the minuscule Byzantine empire

Constantinople Trebizond

Constantinople Trebizond > Sources of stability: administration of the territories, not succession traditions. Strong trade, at least until 11 th c. Important agricultural base, and in the post-roman period presence of a strong base of independent farmers, but then they will be part of large estates (nobles & monasteries). >Byzantine religion: doctrinal disputes & the sense of “mission” of Byzantines monks. The loss of territories will reinforce this need for a strong religious base. The contact with Islam for example…Iconoclastic controversy > Byzantine culture: no intellectual freedom in universities (in contrast with Europe) > Byzantium and the Western Christian world

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Spread of Islam > Expulsion of Muhammad from Mecca (Hijrah)622 > Return of Muhammad to Mecca630 > Death of Muhammad632 > Abu-Bakr becomes caliph632 > Umar becomes caliph634 > Arabs occupy Antioch, Damascus and Jerusalem636 > Arabs reach Persian capital637 > Arabs invade Egypt and then North Africa > Arabs conquer Persian empire651 > Umayyad dynasty > Sunni-Shiite schism661 > Arabs invade Spain 711 > Arabs defeated at Poitiers by Charles Martel 732 > then stopped near Lyons739 > Abbasid dynasty750 > Arabs stopped at Ostia 800

Cordoba, Islam, and the cultural hub of Europe

Biz e I OE 1918 G HRE X R O M E

The Carolingian empire > The Rise of the Carolingian Empire > Charles Martel becomes mayor of the palace 717 > The Carolingians (Charles, Pepin and Carloman) share power with the Merovingian > Charlemagne succeeds Pepin768 > Charlemagne is crowned Holy Roman emperor800 > Louis the Pious becomes emperor813 > Charlemagne dies814 > Division of the empire How do we interpret the phenomenon of the birth of the HRE? Its formation and rapid division?

The Indian Ocean in Eurasian and African World-Systems before the Sixteenth Century, Philippe Beaujard, Journal of World History, Vol. 16, No. 4, th -9 th c.

The Indian Ocean in Eurasian and African World-Systems before the Sixteenth Century, Philippe Beaujard, Journal of World History, Vol. 16, No. 4, st -3 rd c.

MA BIC Short revival with J Gregory I Birth and strong growth Creation of the HRE Muslim Spain Cordoba Legacy?

In Europe: political systems of the Middle Ages > Society moved from a world of tribes and chiefdoms - in which rights of property were mainly defined through membership of a kin-group - to a society in which lordship over all land and men was increasingly assumed by state rulers. > A situation typical in an “intermediate” period and normal among the barbarian tribes that were settling the old lands of the Roman empire. > The so-called feudal state of the Middle Ages was an institution that represented a limited territorialization of power, wherein a king's ability to govern and rule his kingdom depended to a large extent on the cooperation of his vassals (p. 65, Elias 1982, 16-17).

> This is NOT the situation that Charlemagne (CtG) will create, but the situation that will develop from one more event of a partition of an empire and the evolution of the MA. > There is no more striking a demonstration of this process than the dramatic collapse of the Frankish kingdom in the early Middle Ages, when the extended kingdom of Charlemagne disintegrated into a 'mosaic of autonomous duchies and principalities‘. (p.66)

Feudalism > Political system? Centralized? Decentralized? > Confrontation Monarchy vs. Nobility? (their different aims and powers) > Power relations? Allegiance & contract > Property system? Special land-tenure system? > European system