THE

MIDDLE AGES

Essential Question:What was life like during the

Middle Ages?

What happened to Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire?

The Eastern half of the Roman Empire became the Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire became a center for trade and Greco-Roman culture

The Western half fell to the various Germanic tribes, who created their own

kingdoms out of the former Roman territory

Europe was plunged into an era called the Middle Ages (also known as the “Dark Ages” or

“Medieval” era) from 500 to 1300

Western Europe was plagued by constant warfare between the Germanic “barbarian” kingdoms

The warring between kingdoms disrupted

trade, causing business to collapseEuropean cities were

damaged by war and/or left in financial ruin

City dwellers fled to the countryside to

survive and Western Europe became

mostly rural

The warfare made life dangerous and difficult for Europeans; as a result, the finer things in life, such as

higher learning, became less important

Literacy decreased among Western

Europeans and few people could read

or write (aside from priests and rich

people); the ruling Germans had no

written language

Greco-Roman culture was mostly

forgotten in Western Europe

Europe lost its common language; Latin mixed with German dialects and evolved into new languages,

such as Spanish, French, and Italian

Germanic Tribes in the Middle Ages

Without the unity of the

Roman Empire, Europe became divided into a

series of Germanic kingdoms

Germanic people lived in small communities led by

chiefs and his loyal warriors

Family ties and personal loyalty (face-to-face) were

more important than citizenship to a state or

loyalty to a king that they had never even met

Rather than living by written law (like the Romans), the Germans were guided by

unwritten laws and tradition

During the early Middle Ages, the

Germanic kingdoms were

slowly converted to Christianity

The Spread of Christianity

The Catholic Pope became involved in secular (non-religious) issues like road repair, aiding the poor,

and helping Christian kings expand their power

The Spread of Christianity

The Spread of Christianity The Franks were the largest and most powerful of the Germanic kingdoms in the early Middle Ages

Frankish kings allied with the Catholic Church and expanded their power

In the year 771, Charlemagne (“Charles the

Great”) became king of the

Franks

Charlemagne was the greatest Medieval

king because he did something no other Medieval king was

able to do: create an organized empire

Charlemagne and the Frankish Empire

Charlemagne expanded the Frankish Empire

Throughout the Frankish

Empire, Charlemagne

spread Christianity

He created schools to train future priests

He valued learning and built schools in his empire

After Charlemagne’s death in 814, his

Frankish Empire lost power and was divided

This was the last opportunity to provide

unity in Medieval Europe; that opportunity died with Charlemagne

From 800 to 1000, a second major wave of invasions struck Europe; the first wave of attacks was by

Germanic barbarians that took over Western Rome

This second wave of invasions was led by the Vikings, the Muslims, and the Magyars

These invasions caused widespread fear and suffering

Western Europe’s kings could not defend against these invaders

People stopped looking to kings for

protection

The way that people got protection from outside invaders was by turning to local lords

and noblemen instead of the nation’s king

Feudalism is based on land

ownership and loyalty

This began a new political

and social system called

feudalism

Landowning lords offer

pieces of land (called a “fief”)

to knights

In exchange, knights offer

lords their loyalty and a promise to

protect the lord and his land

Feudal Structure

Lords (also called nobles) were the

upper-class landowners; they

had inherited titles (such as

“Duke,” “Earl,” “Sir”) and held the

most power in feudal society

The most powerful lords

had lesser lords who worked for them; these less powerful lords

were called vassals

In the feudal system, kings

were the highest-ranking lords and had wealth and

land, but actually did not hold the ultimate powerIn the Middle

Ages, power was spread out and shared among

numerous lords, not concentrated

with a single monarch

Knights were specially trained

soldiers and armored horsemen who protected the lords and peasants

in exchange for land

Some peasants were serfs; they were not slaves who could be

bought and sold, but they were not

free, either

They had to farm, do all types of

physical labor in service to their lords, and could

not leave the land freely

In return for their service, the serfs could farm a few acres for themselves and were given

protection from outside invaders (such as Vikings)

The lord’s land was called a manor

During the Middle Ages, the manorial system was the way in which people survived

The Manorial System

The lord provided peasants with housing, farmland, and protection

In exchange, peasants repaid

the lord by working his land and providing a portion of the

food they produced

The Manorial System

Manors were self-sufficient communities; everything that was needed was produced on the manor

However, peasant life was hard: the

days were filled by tough physical labor,

they paid taxes to use the lord’s mill (to

make bread for themselves), and

had to get the lord’s permission for most

things, including getting married

Peasant life was also short: the

average life expectancy of

common folk in the Middle Ages was only 35 years old

Lords built castles to protect their territory from outside invasions

Both the attackers and the defenders

of a castle would use the most modern weaponry of the time to

fight each other

Originally created byBrooks Baggett

Revamped by Christopher Jaskowiak