1. 6X 10-13-2016 Thursday Europe before Transatlantic Travel
Objective: Describe how new ideas and trade changed the lives of Europeans.
Agenda:
Prayer
Do now: What happened to the Roman Empire around 500 AD? What is the Middle Ages and how long did it last?
Read and take notes on Chapter 1.4
Homework: work on dioramas

2. Class Notes: Chapter 1.4 Europe Before Transatlantic Travel
Main Idea 1:The Greeks and Romans established new forms of government.
Europeans got many ideas from the Ancient Greek and Romans, especially about government.
Important Greek ideas: humans are capable of having great ideas. Justice and fairness are important. Invented democracy – a form of government in which people rule themselves. The Greeks had direct democracy – everyone gets to vote on every law.
Important Roman ideas: government should protect the rights of the people, all people have a right to know the law, fairness, and innocent until proven guilty. Created a republic – The government is made of leaders who represent the people. A democratic republic – when people get to choose/elect their leaders.

3. Class notes: Continued from Monday 10/10/2016
Main Idea 2: During the Middle Ages, society eventually changed from a feudal system to a system with artisans and merchants.
The Middle Ages started around 500 AD and lasted for about a thousand years. Europe became divided into little kingdoms when the Roman Empire fell apart.
Notes Continued from yesterday: Main Idea 2
2. During the Middle Ages, people were grouped into different social classes based on feudalism: The system of loyalty between lord and vassal.
- Highest and Wealthiest: king. Beneath him were nobles who promised to be loyal to him. But he couldn’t always protect them from enemy kings and nobles.
- Nobles/Lords: wealthy landowners who hired soldiers for protection. IN exchange, they gave these soldiers land. The soldiers promised to be loyal to them and fight for them.
Knights/vassals: skilled warriors who became loyal to nobles and protected the noble’s property. In exchange, the knights got land from the nobles.
Peasants: (not part of the feudal system) worked for knights and nobles. They didn’t own land, but they were allowed to live on the land by the knights and nobles if they farmed it and gave most of the crops to the owner. They did not own much and lived a hard life.

4. What happened to the Roman Empire around 500 AD
What happened to the Roman Empire around 500 AD? What is the Middle Ages and how long did it last?
The Roman Empire grew too big to be controlled by one government. So it split into a Western Roman Empire and an Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium). The Western Roman Empire was attacked by many different pagan tribes and fell under its control. But it remained Christian. The Middle Ages was the time in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. It lasted from 500 AD to about 1500 AD (1,000 years). It was time marked by disease and wars. Europe stayed unified, however, because the different kingdoms became Christian (Catholic) and were loyal to the Pope.