Medieval Europe

Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of Medieval Europe.

Students will learn about:

• the geography of the Europe and the Eurasian land mass, including its location,topography, waterways, vegetation, and climate and their relationship to ways of life in Medieval Europe.

• the spread of Christianity north of the Alps and the roles played by the early church and by monasteries in its diffusion after the fall of the western half of the Roman Empire.

• the development of feudalism, its role in the medieval European economy, the way in which it was influenced by physical geography (the role of the manor and the growth of towns), and how feudal relationships provided the foundation of political order.

• the conflict and cooperation between the Papacy and European monarchs.

• developments in medieval English legal and constitutional practices and their importance in the rise of modern democratic thought and representative institutions.

• the religious Crusades and their effects on the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish populations in Europe, with emphasis on the increasing contact by Europeans with cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean world.

• the spread of the bubonic plague from Central Asia to China, the Middle East,and Europe and describe its impact on global population.

• the importance of the Catholic church as a political, intellectual, and aesthetic institution.

• the history of the decline of Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula that culminated in the Reconquista and the rise of Spanish and Portuguese kingdoms.