Europe on the Brink of Change

US History Summary Historical Themes (HST 200) Europe on the Brink of Change The era we refer to as the Middle Ages is approximately bookended by the fall of the Roman Empire (476 CE) and the start of the European Renaissance in the late fourteenth century. Amidst political and military turmoil, Europe was devoid of a prevailing centralized authority or comprehensive cultural center throughout this period. Its people fled into fortified towns out of dread of raiding groups that included the Vikings, Mongols, Arabs, and Magyars. They bowed to strong rulers and their troops of knights in exchange for protection. Few individuals left their birthplace and went more than ten miles in their short, difficult lives. Nevertheless, the Christian Church survived and came out of the time as a strong, cohesive organization. Concealed in monasteries, priests preserved information by gathering and reproducing religious and secular writings, sometimes embellished with exquisite illustrations or artwork. But in the 1340s, social and economic destruction struck when Genoese traders coming from the Black Sea inadvertently carried a highly infectious, ratborne illness known as the bubonic plague. It had claimed millions of lives in a few of years, about one-third of all people living in Europe. Many more were killed by an other strain that was dispersed by airborne germs. These two together are referred to as the "Black Death" (Figure 1.12). Whole villages vanished. However, a high birth rate and abundant crops ensured that throughout the following century, the population increased. A revitalized European civilization was about to undergo a massive transformation by the year 1450. FEUDAL EUROPE: LIFE The majority of Europeans throughout the Middle Ages resided in tiny villages made up of a church, a manorial palace or castle for the master, and modest houses for the peasants or serfs, who made up around 60% of the population in western Europe. Throughout Europe, there are still hundreds of these walled cities and castles. The feudal society of Europe had a mutually beneficial structure. The land belonged to the lords; serfs farmed the land in exchange for the security provided by the lord's castle or the walls of his city, into which they retreated when an invasion threatened; knights served the lords militarily and carried out his justice. Initially, a large portion of land was cultivated collectively, but as rulers grew in power, they expanded their ownership and began renting out property to their followers. Serfs were therefore practically bonded to the land they worked, supporting not just the lord and everyone who depended on him, but also themselves and their families even though they were officially free. As the sole religion in Europe at the time, the Catholic religion amassed enormous land holdings and amassed enormous riches from the collection of tithes, or taxes equal to 10% of yearly income, as well as rent from its properties. Life as a serf was hard. It's possible that one-third of infants passed away before turning five, and women frequently perished giving birth. Many individuals died with ailments we now consider unimportant in the absence of cleanliness and treatment; very few survived to be older than 45. Whole families, often including the grandparents, lived in filthy, chilly one- or two-room hovels. The continuous smoke from the fire damaged the residents' health and vision, and also posed a threat to the thatched roofs. The majority of people only had two sets of clothes, which included a linen undergarment and a woolen jacket or tunic. They also only took baths in the spring, when the waters thawed. The seasons set the pace of life in an agrarian culture. In the feudal civilization of Europe, everyone worked hard and had a task to complete. The father was the family's unquestionable leader. Hunger equated to idleness. Early spring saw the thawing of the earth, and peasants began tilling the ground with rudimentary hoes, rakes, and wooden plows. After that, they sowed crops of oats, wheat, rye, and barley, and the little harvests they received hardly supported the people. An entire town might starve to death or be forced to relocate by unfavorable weather, crop disease, or bug infestation. Hay was originally harvested in early summer and kept until it was needed to feed the animals in the winter. The sheep, now weighed down by the winter's wool, were sheared by men and boys, while women and children spun and cleaned the wool to make yarn. Fall meant that crops needed to be gathered and ready for winter. The flesh from killed livestock was preserved by smoking or salted it. Fall was also a season for celebration and thanksgiving to God, with the crop in and the food saved. During the winter, people huddled indoors to make clothes, crush grain, weave yarn into fabric, and maintain fires. On the occasion of the winter solstice, everyone commemorated the birth of Christ. THE GOSPEL AND THE PEOPLE The only formally recognized organization in mediaeval Europe following the fall of Rome was the Christian Church, which was informally split into western and eastern branches yet unified in doctrine. The Eastern branch of Christianity established its headquarters in Constantinople in 1054, using the Greek language for services, under the leadership of the Patriarch of Constantinople, a title approximately comparable to that of the Pope in the West. Under the pope, the western branch stayed in Rome, where it continued to use Latin and took the name Roman Catholic Church. After this division, which is referred to as the Great Schism, there was a rigid hierarchy upheld by each branch of Christianity. For instance, the cardinals, or "princes of the church," who headed the massive bureaucracy that the pope managed in Rome was followed in order of authority by bishops, archbishops, priests, and so on. The Roman Church rose to prominence as the most influential global institution in western Europe during this time. Village and family life centered on the Church, much as agricultural life was influenced by the changing of the seasons. Every stage of life was commemorated by the sacraments, or unique church rites, which also regularly admitted individuals into the church. These included birth, maturation, marriage, and burial. Christianity supplanted paganism and animism as it expanded over Europe, providing its own interpretation of natural forces and paranormal phenomena. A kind God in heaven, who created the cosmos and existed outside of reality and nature, was in charge of all that happened and fought the power of evil, often referred to as the Devil or Satan, in this world. Satan might still deceive people and lead them to do evil or sin, even if he was eventually vanquished. Everything had a spiritual undertone. For instance, a person's illness may indicate a sin, while the villagers' refusal to pray may be the cause of their crop's failure. After confessing their transgressions to the priest, the penitents were granted absolution and given penance as a means of atoning for their actions and avoiding everlasting damnation. As a result, the parish priest had great influence over the lives of his people. In the end, the pope made all theological decisions and explained God's will to the populace, but he also had jurisdiction over worldly issues. Even rulers hesitated to oppose the Church's power because it could excommunicate people, consigning them to an eternity in hell. It was the fount of all knowledge as well. During the early Middle Ages, the continent was divided into separate areas, each with its own dialect; nations as we know them now had not yet formed. Latin, the language of the Church, acted as a uniting force. Therefore, the literate priests read and interpreted the Bible, which is the word of God, for the primarily illiterate serfs. ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY INTERACTS A fresh challenge to Christendom arrived in 622. A prophet called Muhammad got a revelation close to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, which later became the basis of Islam. His message was enshrined in the Koran, which upheld monotheistic but identified Christ as a prophet like Moses, Abraham, David, and Muhammad rather than as God. After Muhammad's death in 632, Islam expanded militarily and by conversion throughout the Middle East, Asia Minor, India, and northern Africa. In the year 711, it crossed the Straits of Gibraltar into Spain. Up to 732, the Islamic invasion of Europe was ongoing. Subsequently, Charles Martel, also known as the Hammer, led a Christian force that defeated Abdul Rahman al-Ghafiqi's army in the Battle of Tours (in modern-day France). Nonetheless, Muslims continued to rule over a large portion of Spain, and Córdoba—which was well-known for producing wool and leather—became a significant hub for scholarship and commerce. The Reconquista, often known as the reconquest, was a significant Christian holy war that started in the eleventh century and gradually drove Muslims out of Spain. Christians in Spain and other parts of Europe started to view the Reconquista as a component of a greater theological conflict with Islam with the commencement of the Crusades, the battles between Christians and Muslims for control of the Holy Land, the biblical land of Palestine. THE CRUSADES AND JERUSALEM For Christians, Muslims, and Jews alike, Jerusalem is a sacred place. on the eleventh century BCE, King Solomon erected the Temple on this location. Christians believe that Jesus ascended into heaven after being executed by the Romans here in 33 CE and made a promise to return. Muslims hold that Muhammad left from this location in 621 to go to heaven and obtain guidance on how to pray. As a result, adherents of all three religions have strong opinions and intense feelings on the subject. There is proof that the three religions coexisted peacefully for many years. However, in 1095, European Christians made the decision to overthrow the Muslim authorities not only in the holy city but also in the so-called Holy Lands, a territory ruled by Muslims that stretched from modern-day Turkey in the north down the Mediterranean coast to the Sinai Peninsula. The Crusades were under way. The knights who took part in the four Crusades were driven by a strong religious conviction. Many were also driven by the Church's promise of universal sin atonement, adventure, and the opportunity to acquire property and a title. Under appalling carnage, the Crusaders—mostly French knights—retook Jerusalem in June 1099. As they fled, they ascended to the top of Solomon's Temple, where several of them were shot dead with arrows and flung headfirst from the roof, according to a French journalist who was among them. Roughly ten thousand people were beheaded within this temple. Had you been present, the blood of the dead would have stained your feet all the way up to your ankles. What else should I say? None of them was let to survive. A Muslim eyewitness also related how the invaders plundered private residences and deprived the temple of its riches. "They did not spare the women and children," the witness said. Under the great commander Saladin, Muslim armies retook the city in 1187. Europe reacted quickly, with King Richard I of England—also known as the Lionheart—joining forces to launch an additional operation. The Crusaders' loss of their Mediterranean bastion at Acre (in modernday Israel) in 1291 and the departure of the remaining Christians from the region a few years later marked the end of the war for the Holy Lands. Both good and bad repercussions of the Crusades lingered over time. On the down side, widespread Jewish persecution started. The Jews were either driven from their kingdoms by kings or compelled to pay high tributes in order to be allowed to stay, as Christians grouped them with the unbeliever Muslims and called them "the killers of Christ." Anger between Muslims and Christians also surged, as bigotry increased. Positively, there was an increase in East-West marine commerce. Once Crusaders tasted spices, felt silk, and used porcelain, their hunger for these goods opened up new markets for traders. Specifically, trading with Islamic merchants greatly benefited the port city of Venice on the Adriatic. From the eleventh century forward, merchant ships that traveled the routes known as the Silk Road between the port towns of western Europe and the East delivered rich items to Europeans. Venetian sailors have visited Black Sea ports and founded their own colonies along the Mediterranean coast since the time of the intrepid explorer Marco Polo. But shipping cargo across the ancient Silk Road was expensive, time-consuming, and unproductive. When the products were exchanged, Muslim intermediaries collected taxes. Thieves waited to ambush the caravans carrying valuables. It was necessary to find a direct sea route to the East in order to bypass the land section of the journey. In addition to looking for a waterway to the prosperous cities in the East, sailors also sought a path to the affluent and exotic Spice Islands, located in present-day Indonesia but kept hidden by Muslim authorities. Venetian competitors for a long time, Genoa and Florence's traders also headed west. PENINSULA IBERIANA While Norse explorers like Leif Ericson, son of Eric the Red, had arrived in Canada approximately 500 years before Christopher Columbus's expedition, it was explorers bound for Portugal and Spain who crossed the Atlantic during the fifteenth century, launching an unparalleled period of exploration and continuous communication with North America. Portugal, a country on the far western tip of Europe, and its port city of Lisbon quickly rose to prominence as a hub for traders looking to challenge the Venetians' hegemony over commerce. This autonomous kingdom, home to a million or more people, promoted commerce and exploration of western Africa under the leadership of Prince Henry, dubbed "the Navigator" by historians. Portuguese sailors were expert shipwrights and navigators who made use of maps from all around Europe. They created lighter ships known as caravels that could go along the African coast by using triangle sails. By merging two of the most powerful sovereign kingdoms on the Iberian peninsula and establishing the framework for the current country of Spain, King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile wed in 1469, just east of Portugal. Driven by intense religious fervor, Isabella played a pivotal role in initiating the Inquisition in 1480, a ruthless endeavor to exterminate heretics including Jews and Muslims who had appeared to have converted to Christianity but had actually persisted in practicing their religion in secret. For the next 25 years, this formidable duo held sway, consolidating control and providing financial support for exploration and commerce with the East. Henry VIII of England's first wife was Catherine of Aragon, one of their daughters. Some of the most important occasions in Ferdinand and Isabella's rule occurred in 1492. The pair managed the last wave of North African Muslims, or Moors, to be driven from the Kingdom of Granada, ending the almost eight centuries long Reconquista. They also gave the order to expel any Jews who had not converted from Spain in the same year. A Genoese sailor by the name of Christopher Columbus convinced the monarchs to finance his voyage to the Far East in 1492, following six years of lobbying. Columbus's final chance was the Spanish monarchy because he had already made unsuccessful pitches of his idea to the rulers of Genoa and Venice. Isabella's main source of motivation was her vision of Christian enthusiasm extending to the East. The more realistic of the two, Ferdinand, wanted to make money through trading. Since the majority of intelligent people at the time understood that the world was round, Columbus's plan to sail west and arrive in the East seemed realistic. Even though the Greek geographer Eratosthenes' estimations of the Earth's circumference from the second century BCE are proven to be almost correct, most scholars did not think they could be trusted. As a result, Columbus would have been unable to determine when he had circled the planet sufficiently to accomplish his objective—in actuality, he significantly overestimated its circumference. Columbus sailed with his three little caravels in August of 1492. Following a six-week journey covering around three thousand miles, he arrived on an island in the Bahamas known to the local Lucayans as Guanahani. Without delay, he gave it the name San Salvador, which it still goes by today. American-European Exploration Motivations Three common motivations for European adventure are identified by historians: riches, glory, and God. The monarchs' religious zeal drove them to convert Muslims and regain land, especially in the mainly Catholic countries of Spain and Portugal. Men who yearned to explore these lands and return with untold wealth and the glory of adventure and discovery were captivated by sailors' tales of fantastic monsters and fantasy literature about exotic worlds filled with gold, silver, and jewels. Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal expressed his "great desire to make increase in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ and to bring him all the souls that should be saved." Merchants such as Marco Polo were captivated by them and were motivated to embark on the perilous and protracted journey to the domain of Kublai Khan in 1271. Columbus was inspired by the account of his journey, which was published in the book Travels. He carried a copy of the book with him on his journey, which took place almost two centuries later. The Travels contains several passages like this one, which portrays the royal palace in China: "You must realize that it is the finest Palace that has ever been. ......The Palace has an extremely tall ceiling and walls decorated in silver and gold. In addition, sculptured and gilded dragons, animals and birds, warriors and idols, and several other topics are depicted on them. Additionally, all that is visible on the ceiling is painting and gold and silver. The Palace's entrance is formed by a grand marble staircase that ascends to the top of the marble wall on each of the building's four sides. The palace's hall is enormous, with enough space to seat 6,000 people, and the number of chambers beyond it is truly amazing. The edifice is so large, so elaborate, and so exquisite that no human being could have created a structure more magnificent than it. Additionally, the exterior of the roof is painted in a variety of colors, including red, yellow, green, blue, and others. These colors are coated with a varnish so fine and delicate that they shine like crystal, giving the Palace a magnificent sheen when viewed from all angles. Why could an explorer like Columbus have been affected by a travelogue like this one? This roof is constructed with such strength and firmness that it is suited to survive forever. What does this reveal about the objectives and motives of European explorers?