Study sheet: Europe and Asia Minor

📋 Course Outline

1. From Rome to the Middle Ages
2. Viking Raids and Colonies
3. Feudal Society and Daily Life
4. Medieval Church and Beliefs
5. England and Parliamentary Power
6. Silk Road Exchange
7. The Black Death
8. Renaissance Transformation
9. Islamic and Ottoman Empires

📅 Key Dates

1. 476 ADThe fall of the Roman Empire marked the end of the ancient world as Europeans knew it and preceded the Early Middle Ages
2. 476 ADThe Middle Ages followed the fall of Rome and lasted until the 1400s, while the Renaissance began in Italy in the fourteenth century and the Reformation emerged by the early 1600s
3. 1001Vikings reached present-day Newfoundland in Canada, becoming the first Europeans described in the course to set foot in the Americas
4. 1066William of Normandy invaded England and ended the Viking age there
5. 1066William the Conqueror's Norman invasion of England was followed by a gradual return of governmental stability
6. 1085William the Conqueror ordered the Domesday Book to document possessions and strengthen control over subjects and tax income
7. 1215The Magna Carta was issued to King John after unfair treatment of subjects and advanced the idea that the king should obey the law
8. 1299Osman I's small Turkish tribe began gaining power and developed into the Ottoman Empire, which lasted almost 400 years
9. 1453The Ottomans captured Constantinople, causing Europe to lose control of the sea trade routes into Asia
10. 1649The English Civil War was fought between supporters of absolute royal power and supporters of Parliament, and the latter reduced and controlled the monarch's power

📖 1. From Rome to the Middle Ages

★ Must-know

• The period from 500 AD to 1750 AD included the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Reformation.

Further detail

• At its peak, the Roman Empire covered 6.5 million square kilometres and had provided a stable system for southern Europe for almost 900 years before its decline.

💡 Memory Hook

Rome falls in 476 → Middle Ages → Renaissance → Reformation

📖 2. Viking Raids and Colonies

📝 Essential Points

• By the end of the 700s, Viking raiders from Norway, Sweden and Denmark were attacking Europe and beyond.

• 🔄 Viking expansion developed through these stages:

  1. Piracy near the Baltic Sea
  2. Surprise raids in Europe
  3. Colonisation of lands such as Greenland and England

• Viking flat-bottomed longboats enabled river navigation and allowed attacks on inland towns such as Paris.

💡 Memory Hook

Flat-bottomed longboats → river access → inland raids

📖 3. Feudal Society and Daily Life

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Feudalism : Feudalism was the dominant rural social, economic and political structure that emerged when Europe fragmented into fiefdoms ruled by lords and petty kings.

★ Must-know

• Constant warfare and insecurity encouraged people to leave Roman towns for the countryside, causing town populations to decrease and feudalism to emerge.

Further detail

• Medieval life was short and difficult because poor hygiene allowed disease to spread easily.

💡 Memory Hook

Political fragmentation → insecurity → rural feudalism

📖 4. Medieval Church and Beliefs

★ Must-know

• Medieval Europe was predominantly Catholic, and the Church exerted enormous influence over people's lives.

📌 The pope was the head of the Church and had more power than the king, while priests were regarded as messengers through whom God's word reached the people.

Further detail

• The wealth and power of the Church contributed to the construction of grand religious buildings regarded as houses of God.

💡 Memory Hook

Pope above king; Church power above ordinary people

📖 5. England and Parliamentary Power

📝 Essential Points

📌 The English parliamentary system consisted of the upper House of Lords and the lower House of Commons.

💡 Memory Hook

Domesday Book → Magna Carta → Parliament → Civil War

📖 6. Silk Road Exchange

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Silk Road : a network of land and sea routes connecting Asia and Europe rather than one single road

★ Must-know

• Under Mongol rule, trade along the Silk Road flourished and transported spices, silk and carpets west into Europe, while wool, linen and horses moved east into Asia.

Further detail

• The Silk Road also carried ideas between Asia and Europe, and the Islamic Empire benefited greatly from its position midway along the routes.

💡 Memory Hook

Goods and ideas travelled west and east; disease travelled too

📖 7. The Black Death

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Black Death : a disease that spread from Central Asia through trade routes to Asia, Europe and North Africa

★ Must-know

• 🔄 The plague spread through this chain:

  1. Origin in the grasslands of Central Asia
  2. Rats carried it to nearby towns
  3. Spread to China by the late 1330s
  4. Plague-carrying rats travelled to Europe on ships

• The Black Death killed an estimated 45 million people in Europe, about one third of Europe's population.

Further detail

• The plague infected the Italian ports of Genoa and Venice and spread through medieval Europe.

💡 Memory Hook

Central Asian grasslands → rats → trade routes → Europe

📖 8. Renaissance Transformation

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Renaissance : a period of creativity and new ideas in science, art and religion that began in Italy in the fourteenth century and spread through Europe
• Humanism : Humanism was the view that the individual was important in the world and encouraged renewed interest in the learned civilisations of Ancient Greece and Rome.

📝 Essential Points

• The Crusades and Silk Road trade stimulated European curiosity, adventure and interest in connections beyond Europe.

• The printing press helped Renaissance learning by enabling humanists such as Aldus Manutius to establish printing houses and encourage people to read classical works.

💡 Memory Hook

Classical curiosity and humanism → creativity → challenged Church authority

📖 9. Islamic and Ottoman Empires

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Islam : a monotheistic religion based on belief in one god, Allah, preached by Hazrat Muhammad from 610 AD

★ Must-know

• Islam emerged in western Asia in present-day Saudi Arabia, and within 150 years the Islamic Empire had spread to northern Africa, Spain and as far west as Afghanistan.

• The end of World War I in 1918 reduced the Ottoman Empire to the territory that is present-day Turkey.

Further detail

• The expansion of Islam was slowed when Christian Crusaders arrived in Jerusalem in 1099 and when Mongols captured and destroyed Baghdad in 1258.

• At its greatest extent, the Ottoman Empire covered:

  • northern Africa
  • Egypt
  • Palestine
  • Mesopotamia
  • Greece
  • Albania
  • Romania
  • Bulgaria

💡 Memory Hook

Muhammad → caliphates → Ottoman expansion → decline

📊 Synthesis Tables

Medieval Political Power

Institution or group	Role	Effect on royal power
Pope and Church	Religious authority and wealth	The pope had more power than the king
Magna Carta supporters	Barons, bishops and merchants defended legal rights	The king was expected to obey the law
Parliament	House of Lords and House of Commons discussed laws	The monarch's power was reduced and controlled
Parliamentary side	Opposed absolute royal power in the English Civil War	Won in 1649 and limited the monarch