1. Welcome to AP Euro with Ms Greenberg!
What is on my desk?
Unit calendar (more detail tomorrow but see tonight’s assignment)
- Syllabus (to discuss tomorrow signature for Monday)
Textbook

2. What are we doing today?
We are jumping right in and learning about the Middle Ages and Renaissance
What? Wait! What about course information? What about learning our names and who we are? Don’t you care? What about learning what I need for this course? Aaaaaaaaah!!!!!

3. Have no fear….we will do all of that tomorrow.
This activity helps you understand your HW tonight. You will have many questions about the course and they will be answered. AP Euro is like a “freezing lake” – sometimes it is best to just jump in.

4. But first....7 things you do need to know about AP Euro right now
This course is challenging.
You chose to be in this course, so we assume that you are excited for the challenge and going to work hard.
There is a lot of reading HW in this course, and keeping up with it necessary for success.
Good attendance is necessary for success.
There is LOTS of help available for you in this course. Your job is to put the work in and know when you need to come in.
There is a learning curve in this course – you may experience challenges and receive grades you are not used to in the beginning.
However, if you put the work in, you will figure out how to “do” AP Euro and how you learn best.

5. Assignment #1: Middle Ages vs. Renaissance Europe Discussion/Lecture
OK...NOW LET’S GET STARTED
Assignment #1: Middle Ages vs. Renaissance Europe
Discussion/Lecture
Middle Ages:
Late Middle Ages called “Dark Ages”
Renaissance: Begins in 1450
The people of the Renaissance liked to hate on the
Middle Ages. They called them the Dark Ages.
People characterized themselves in the Renaissance as
being part of a “rebirth”
We don’t learn much about the Middle Ages in this
course but we do use them as a point of comparison to
the Renaissance

6. Assignment #1: What is a Dark Age?
You most likely learned a little bit about the middle ages in middle school.
Discuss with the person next to you:
What do you remember about the middle ages in Europe (anything is fair game!)
Why do you think they were characterized as Dark? What does a Dark Age mean?

7. Was it really so dark? Maybe…. Plague War
The MA were undoubtedly a period of chaos & disunity-- especially late MA
Temporal power of the church was in decline
Secular power was on the rise
This led (inevitably) to conflict
Medieval countryside plagued not only by war but by disease: Black Death
Epidemic with far-reaching social, political & cultural consequences
Despite war, famine & disease, medieval population survived.
Medieval thought & culture, although disparaged by Ren scholars
Contributed greatly to subsequent eras

8. Acronyms to Know and Love
PSE – Political, Social, Economic PERSIA – Political, Economic, Religious Intellectual, Social, Artistic

9. Extremely Short Middle Ages Lecture
Goals of this lecture:
To give you some examples as to why the Middle Ages might have been characterized by later scholars as a “Dark Age”
Do point out some events that will provide a foundation for others in our course.

10. POLITICAL Feudalism: a rigid social structure. What about religion?
Notes from McKay 12
Kings were small time – they owned relatively little land. Serfs stayed on the land for safety.

11. Political Crisis: 100 Years’ War 1337-1453
During the Middle Ages, nations as we know it did not exist. Kings were small time. However, two states do emerge during this time and compete for power.
The 100 Years War: England vs. France
The Hundred Years War
The Hundred Years’ War ( ) was crisis that shook Europe. It began because England and France were fighting land claims. Technically France won but there were many casualties on both sides.
You may have heard of Joan of Arc, a teenage peasant girl, was largely responsible for the turnaround. She convinced the French that she was sent by God to lead an army against England and fought in the battle of Orleans, which the French won. She, however, was burned as a witch by the English.
Joan of Arc’s story shows some important things about the Social History of this time: Religion was all important, women’s roles were complicated – a powerful woman could have enormous influence, but also witchcraft was a label that could be put on women in non-traditional roles.
First war with gunpowder
Shows the rising power of Kings

12. Joan of Arc The war did, however, spark the growth of nationalism
which will eventually aid in the consolidation of power within these two nations.

13. SOCIAL

14. The Black Plague: Social Crisis brings ECONOMIC change https://www
25-50% of the population wiped out…breakdown of norms and fear of unknown
The Black Death was a plague caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis that originated around the Black and Caspian seas. It was carried westward by fleas on rats on trade ships, reaching Europe by Although the period referred to as the Black Death lasted only from 1346 to 1353, individual plagues continued to occur every decade or so for the rest of the fourteenth century and continued still until the 1700s.
Plague also has social/cultural implications:
People begin to question their faith
Church no help during plague - literally & spiritually
Scapegoating of minorities – anti-semitism
The consequences of the Black Death were considerably more positive for those who survived. There was a smaller population, meaning that entire populations could be fed with less food and less farmland. This led to the diversifying of crops and a better standard of living. Peasants could get better wages or working conditions and thus had more money to spend for a better diet and other necessities for a better life. The years after the plague also showed higher birthrates and a greater frequency of marriages as well as new places of education.

15. Re-Birth?
Many of the key elements of the Renaissance can be traced to the MA:
Declining power of feudal arrangements
Rising power of urban areas
Declining power of the church

16. Definition of Renaissance Humanism
Renaissance writers, artists and philosophers were guided by the idea of Humanism which was
Human achievements are unique and worthy of study and contemplation.
Artists, writers and philosophers should look to the ancient world for inspiration.
Humans are awesome.
Ancient humans are the awesomest.

17. Read this quote and discuss the following: How does this historian describe the DIFFERENCE in historical time periods of the Middle Ages and Renaissance? Historical thinking skill of interpretation (secondary source) and comparison
In the Middle Ages both sides of human consciousness lay dreaming or half awake beneath a common veil. The veil was woven of faith, illusion, and childish prepossession…Man was conscious of himself only as a member of a race , people, party, family or corporation-only through some general category. In Italy this veil first melted into air…man became a spiritual individual, and recognized himself as such. In the same way the Greek had once distinguished himself from the barbarians… When this impulse to the highest individual development was combined with a powerful and varied nature…Than arose the “all sided man”…
Jacob Burckhardt The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, 1878 (Secondary Source)

18. How might the pictures represent renaissance and ME?