1. World Studies Stankiewicz
The Dark Ages
World Studies
Stankiewicz

2. Essential Questions
Why were the Middle Ages referred to as the “Dark Ages?”
What was Feudalism and Serfdom?
How did the Roman Catholic Church fill the void left by the demise of the Roman Empire (Western)?

3. Essential Questions 2
How did the Black Death affect the development of Europe?
What was the Holy Roman Empire?
Who was Charlemagne?

4. Definition
The Dark Ages __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
From Fall of Western Roman Empire to the Renaissance Period (450 – 1400 AD)

5. The Dark Ages
Said to be so because they contrasted with the _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ prior to the fall of the Western Roman Empire

6. Changes from the Roman Empire
Gone
___________________________________
Economic stability
Most laws
____________________________________

7. Changes from the Roman Empire 2
Authority replaced by the Roman Catholic Church
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. Feudalism - 1
Feudalism is a decentralized structure in which a weak monarchy attempts to control the lands through reciprocal agreements with regional leaders

9. Feudalism - 2 Three primary elements characterized feudalism:
_________________________________
vassals
__________________________________
Feudalism can be seen in how these three elements fit together

10. Feudalism - 3 A lord granted land (a fief) to his vassals.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Before a lord could grant land (a fief) to someone, he had to make that person a vassal ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

11. Serfdom - 1
Serfdom _______________________ unfree peasants under feudalism
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Serfdom was the enforced labor of serfs on the fields of landowners, in return for protection and the right to work on their leased fields.

12. Serfdom -2
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

13. Becoming a Serf - 1 A freeman became a serf usually ___________
________________________________________
Sometimes intimidated into dependency by the greater physical and legal force of a local baron.
Often a few years of crop failure, might leave a person unable to make his own way.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

14. Becoming a Serf - 2
These bargains were formalized in a ceremony known as "bondage" in which a serf placed his head in the seigneur's hands
To become a serf was a commitment that invaded all aspects of the serf’s life.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

15. Roman Catholic Church
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

16. Roman Catholic Church - 2
_____________________________________________________________________________________
University system
Popes very powerful
Expands influence throughout Europe

17. Medieval Monastery Hierarchy
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

18. Medieval Monastery Hierarchy-2
The pyramid of power within the Medieval Church was a follows:
The Pope
Cardinals
Bishops
Priests
Monks

19. Monastic Life
The Medieval monastery was established during the Middle Ages
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Different orders of monks were also established during the Middle Ages.

20. Monastic Life-2
The major orders  of Medieval monks were the Benedictines, the  Cistercians and the Carthusians
These monastic orders differed mainly in the details of their religious observation and how strictly they applied their rules

21. Monastic Life - 3
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

22. Black Death From Asia Lasted 1347-1350 _________________
1/3 of Europe’s population dies
___________________________________________________
Families destroyed – Though end of the world

23. Black Death
Some historians have suggested another theory for the cause of the Black Death, one that points to social, agricultural and economic causes. Often known as the Malthusian limit, scholars use this term to express and explain tragedies throughout history. In his 1798 Essay on the Principle of Population,
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

24. Illustration of the Black Death from the Toggenburg Bible (1411)

27. Pieter Bruegel's The Triumph of Death

28. Thomas Malthus - 1
The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus (13 February 1766 – 23 December 1834)
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
sooner or later population gets checked by famine, disease, and widespread mortality

29. Thomas Malthus-2
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man".

30. Consequences of the Black Death -1
Depopulation - _____________________
Social and economic effects
The governments of Europe had no apparent response to the crisis because no one knew its cause or how it spread
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Ring around the Rosie”

31. Consequences of the Black Death - 2
_________________________________________________________________, but still major influence for civilization
Peasant Revolts
____________________________________________________________________
Some increase in persecutions of minority groups

32. Holy Roman Empire - 1
962–1806
___________________________________________________
The Holy Roman Empire was a union of territories in Central Europe during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period under a Holy Roman Emperor

33. Holy Roman Empire - 2
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Had a multitude of different territories with different languages (German, French, Italian, Czech, Slovene etc.)
Multitude of religious denominations and _________________________________ led to a great variety of cultural diversification

34. Holy Roman Empire - 3
The Reichstag was, in modern terms, the legislative body of the Empire.
Not a representative government
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

35. Charlemagne
Charlemagne 2 April 742 – 28 January 814) was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

36. Charlemagne - 2
Through his foreign conquests and internal reforms, Charlemagne helped define both Western Europe and the Middle Ages
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________his empire united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Romans

37. Summary