Here are some of the highlights of what we covered in class
during w. 48:
We are working on getting a basis of European history so
that we will be able to discuss Swedish history of the past 500 years. Once we
get to Sweden want to be able to think about
-religion
-economics
-politics
-social issues
-military issues
Because we are going to be talking about how all of these
issues are interconnected. So you will further develop skills in understanding
and discussing processes of change and various causes and consequences.
Toward that end, you need to have some basic outline of European
developments. By week 50, I would like for you to be able to lay out on a
timeline the falling historical periods and events:
Ancient Rome (republic and empire)
Middle Ages
Crusades
invention of the printing press
Renaissance
Protestant Reformation
Scientific Revolution
Enlightenment
Industrial Revolution
Note:
1)
most of those things are capitalized (both first
and second word)
2) many of those things overlap one of two of the other things. So when laying them out on a timeline, you have to show that they overlap by doing something like this:
****
I discussed some
elements regarding Antiquity because we refer back to Ancient Greece and Rome
when discussing the Crusades and the Renaissance.
ANTIQUITY
-The civilization of the Ancient Greece was in its Golden
Age in the 5th c. B.C.E. (400s B.C.E.). This was the time of the
Persian Wars, the Peloponnesian Wars, the Parthenon, the great dramatists such
as Sophocles and Euripides, the philosophers Socrates and Plato.
-Alexander the Great created his empire the 4th
c. B.C.E. (300s B.C.E.). He was tutored by Aristotle. AtG loved Greek culture
and spread it throughout his empire. As a result, much of the ancient world ––
including texts of drama, philosophy, medicine, mathematics (which was
primarily geometry), science –– were spread throughout lands outside of
Greece. These texts were not only known but were in some case were further
developed in Arabic and Indian societies. We brought this up because it is
relevant to understanding the reconnection with culture from Antiquity that
occurs as a result of the Crusades.
During the Roman Empire (from the 1st c. B.C.E.
to the 5th c. A.D.), there was political unity throughout the
empire, there was intensive trading within Europe, and there was intensive
trading with people and societies outside of Europe.
During the 5th c. A.D., the western part of the
Roman Empire falls. As a result
-
there is no longer a central political
governance of Europe.
-
Europe breaks into many small kingdoms.
Occasionally a large kingdom appears, but until we get to the 1400s, these
usually don’t last that long.
-
trade with Europe decreases dramatically.
-
trade with peoples and societies outside of
Europe decreases dramatically. (The Vikings become important in terms of trade
in Europe between 800 and 1000.) Once Europe re-establishes trade with Asia
during the Crusades, there is no longer the same need for Vikings as traders.
During the Middle
Ages
-
literacy drops significantly in Europe.
-
Christianity spreads gradually throughout
Europe. It becomes what unifies Europe. (That is, there is no common political
leadership, there is no common language among people). The Catholic Church
develops a top-down organization. The monks become the primary scribes (people
who write things) in Europe. And thus most texts are religious texts.
-
the Church becomes the source of most all
knowledge and information.
-
human life is not valued. It is the afterlife
that is of greatest importance. Man is understood to be full of sin.
-
Art reflects the desire to glorify God and His
message. It is the spiritual message that is most important.
Crusades
-
These were the result of the emperor of the
Eastern Roman Empire (based in Constantinople), Alexius I, reaching out to the
pope, Urban II (the head of the Catholic Church), to request “back-up,” if you
will, to keep at bay Seljuk Turks who the emperor felt were threatening him.
-
Urban II went beyond the request and rather than
sending an army, decided to try to call together soldiers from throughout
western Europe, under his (the
pope’s) leadership (not literally on the battlefield) to take back the Holy
Land from Muslims (which was not was
Alexius asked for). As a result, soldiers – or crusaders – came together from
all over Europe to go fight non-Christians in the Holy Land.
-
What we care about is that there were multiple
Crusades, starting in 1096 and ending in the early 13th century, and
as a result of Europeans going back and forth and back and forth and back forth
and back and forth between Europe and the Middle East, Europe got
1)
renewed contact with culture from Ancient Greece
and Rome
2)
contact with new goods and products (e.g.,
foods, textiles, luxury items) – which they rather liked.
-
Most important!!: Trade within Europe and with
people and societies outside of Europe starts to increase. This increase in
goods, in knowledge – and this increase in income that comes with the trade –
creates major changes in Europe. And so we get a new name for this new period.
The Renaissance
-
The Ren. starts in Italy – because it is
physically so close to all this back and forth and back and forth and back and
forth and back and forth travel with the Middle East.
-
During this time, people gain a new world’s
view. As a result of this change, man’s life on earth is valued in a manner it
was not during the Middle Ages. There is a new appreciation for man’s
accomplishments during life here on earth. As a result, we know the names of
many individual artists, architects, writers, and others – which was not the
norm during the Middle Ages.
-
After the Crusades some universities were
started in Europe (Bologna, Oxford, Naples, Paris, Padua . . .). The focus of
study was still very much focused around religious issues, but during the
Renaissance, there is a greater and greater focus on knowledge connected with
work from Ancient Greece and Rome.
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