1. Unit Early Middle Ages 2ºESO History
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Early Middle Ages
I- Byzantine Empire
II- Germanic Kingdoms
I- BYZANTINE EMPIRE
The origins of the great civilization known as the Byzantine Empire can be traced to 330 A.D.,
when the Roman emperor Constantine I dedicated a “new Rome” on the site of the ancient Greek
colony of Byzantium. Though the western half of the Roman Empire crumbled and fell in 476, the
eastern half survived for 1,000 more years, spawning a rich tradition of art, literature and learning
and serving as a military buffer between the states of Europe and the threat of invasion from Asia.
The Byzantine Empire finally fell in 1453, after an Ottoman army stormed Constantinople during
the reign of Constantine XI.
CONTENTS
• A New Rome
• Survival of the Byzantine Empire
• The Byzantine Empire Under Justinian
• From Iconoclasm to Monasticism
• Byzantium and the Crusades
• The Fall of the Byzantine Empire & Its Legacy
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A New Rome
The term “Byzantine” derives from Byzantium, an ancient Greek colony founded by a man named
Byzas. Located on the European side of the Bosporus (the strait linking the Black Sea to the
Mediterranean), the site of Byzantium was ideally located to serve as a transit and trade point
between Europe and Asia Minor. In 330 A.D., Roman Emperor Constantine I chose Byzantium as
the site of a new Roman capital, Constantinople. Five years earlier, at the Council of Nicaea,
Constantine had established Christianity (once an obscure Jewish sect) as Rome’s official religion.
The citizens of Constantinople and the rest of the Eastern Roman Empire identified strongly as
Romans and Christians, though many of them spoke Greek and not Latin.
Though Constantine ruled over a unified Roman Empire, this unity proved illusory after his death in
337. In 364, Emperor Valentinian I again divided the empire into western and eastern sections,
putting himself in power in the west and his brother Valens in the east. The fate of the two regions
diverged greatly over the next several centuries. In the west, constant attacks from German invaders
such as the Visigoths broke the struggling empire down piece by piece until Italy was the only
territory left under Roman control. In 476, the barbarian Odoacer overthrew the last Roman
emperor, Romulus Augustus, and Rome had fallen.
Survival of the Byzantine Empire
The eastern half of the Roman Empire proved less vulnerable to external attack, thanks in part to its
geographic location. With Constantinople located on a strait, it was extremely difficult to breach the
capital’s defenses; in addition, the eastern empire had a much shorter common frontier with Europe.
It also benefited greatly from a stronger administrative center and internal political stability, as well
as great wealth compared with other states of the early medieval period. The eastern emperors were
able to exert more control over the empire’s economic resources and more effectively muster
sufficient manpower to combat invasion. As a result of these advantages, the Eastern Roman
Empire–variously known as the Byzantine Empire or Byzantium–was able to survive for centuries
after the fall of Rome. In fact, one of the most extraordinary aspects of the Byzantine Empire was
its longevity: It was the only organized state west of China to survive without interruption from
ancient times until the beginning of the modern age.
Though Byzantium was ruled by Roman law and Roman political institutions, and its official
language was Latin, Greek was also widely spoken, and students received education in Greek
history, literature and culture. In terms of religion, the Council of Chalcedon in 451 officially
established the division of the Christian world into five patriarchates, each ruled by a patriarch:
Rome (where the patriarch would later call himself pope), Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and
Jerusalem. The Byzantine emperor was the patriarch of Constantinople, and the head of both church
and state. (After the Islamic empire absorbed Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem in the seventh
century, the Byzantine emperor would become the spiritual leader of most eastern Christians.)
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The Byzantine Empire under Justinian
Justinian I, who took power in 527 and would rule until his death in 565, was the first
great ruler of the Byzantine Empire. During the years of his reign, the empire included
most of the land surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, as Justinian’s armies conquered
part of the former Western Roman Empire, including North Africa. Many great
monuments of the empire would be built under Justinian, including the domed Church
of Holy Wisdom, or Hagia Sophia (532-37 A.D.). Justinian also reformed and codified
Roman law, establishing a Byzantine legal code that would endure for centuries and
help shape the modern concept of the state.
At the time of Justinian’s death, the Byzantine Empire reigned supreme as the largest
and most powerful state in Europe. Debts incurred through war had left the empire in
dire financial straits, however, and his successors were forced to heavily tax Byzantine
citizens in order to keep the empire afloat. In addition, the imperial army was stretched
too thin, and would struggle in vain to maintain the territory conquered during
Justinian’s rule. During the seventh and eighth centuries, attacks by Persians and Slavs,
combined with internal political instability and economic regression, threatened the
empire. A new, even more serious threat arose in the form of Islam, founded by the
prophet Muhammad in Mecca in 622. In 634, Muslim armies began their assault on the
Byzantine Empire by storming into Syria. By the end of the century, Byzantium would
lose Syria, the Holy Land, Egypt and North Africa (among other territories) to Islamic
forces.
From iconoclasm to monasticism
During the eighth and early ninth centuries, Byzantine emperors (beginning with Leo III
in 730) spearheaded a movement that denied the holiness of icons, or religious images,
and prohibited their worship or veneration. Known as Iconoclasm–literally “the
smashing of images”–the movement waxed and waned under various rulers, but did not
end definitively until 843, when a Church council under Emperor Michael III ruled in
favor of the display of religious images.
During the late 10th and early 11th centuries, under the rule of the Macedonian dynasty
founded by Michael III’s successor, Basil, the Byzantine Empire enjoyed a golden age.
Though it stretched over less territory, Byzantium had more control over trade, more
wealth and more international prestige than under Justinian. The strong imperial
government patronized the arts, restored churches, palaces and other cultural institutions
and promoted the study of ancient Greek history and literature. Greek became the
official language of the state, and a flourishing culture of monasticism centered on
Mount Athos in northeastern Greece. Monks administered many institutions
(orphanages, schools, hospitals) in everyday life, and Byzantine missionaries won many
converts to Christianity among the Slavic peoples of the central and eastern Balkans
(including Bulgaria and Serbia) and Russia.
Byzantium and the Crusades
The end of the 11th century saw the beginning of the Crusades, the series of holy wars
waged by Western Christians against Muslims in the Near East from 1095 to 1291. With
the Seijuk Turks of central Asia bearing down on Constantinople, Emperor Alexius I
turned to the West for help, resulting in the declaration of “holy war” by Pope Urban II
at Clermont (France) that began the First Crusade. As armies from France, Germany and
Italy poured into Byzantium, Alexius tried to force their leaders to swear an oath of
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loyalty to him in order to guarantee that land regained from the Turks would be restored
to his empire. After Western and Byzantine forces recaptured Nicaea in Asia Minor
from the Turks, Alexius and his army retreated, drawing accusations of betrayal from
the Crusaders.
During the subsequent Crusades, animosity continued to build between Byzantium and
the West, culminating in the conquest and looting of Constantinople during the Fourth
Crusade in 1204. The Latin regime established in Constantinople existed on shaky
ground due to the open hostility of the city’s population and its lack of money. Many
refugees from Constantinople fled to Nicaea, site of a Byzantine government-in-exile
that would retake the capital and overthrow Latin rule in 1261.
The fall of the Byzantine Empire and its legacy
During the rule of the Palaiologan emperors, beginning with Michael VIII in 1261, the
economy of the once-mighty Byzantine state was crippled, and never regained its
former stature. In 1369, Emperor John V unsuccessfully sought financial help from the
West to confront the growing Turkish threat, but was arrested as an insolvent debtor in
Venice. Four years later, he was forced–like the Serbian princes and the ruler of
Bulgaria–to become a vassal of the mighty Turks. As a vassal state, Byzantium paid
tribute to the sultan and provided him with military support. Under John’s successors,
the empire gained sporadic relief from Ottoman oppression, but the rise of Murad II as
sultan in 1421 marked the end of the final respite. Murad revoked all privileges given to
the Byzantines and laid siege to Constantinople; his successor, Mehmed II, completed
this process when he launched the final attack on the city. On May 29, 1453, after an
Ottoman army stormed Constantinople, Mehmed triumphantly entered the Hagia
Sophia, which would become the city’s leading mosque. Emperor Constantine XI died
in battle that day, and the decline and fall of the Byzantine Empire was complete.
In the centuries leading up to the final Ottoman conquest in 1453, the culture of the
Byzantine Empire–including literature, art and theology–flourished once again, even as
the empire itself faltered. Byzantine culture would exert a great influence on the
Western intellectual tradition, as scholars of the Italian Renaissance sought help from
Byzantine scholars in translating Greek pagan and Christian writings. (This process
would continue after 1453, when many of these scholars fled to Italy from
Constantinople.) Long after its “end,” Byzantine culture and civilization continued to
exercise an influence on countries that practiced its Orthodox religion, including Russia,
Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece, among others.
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II- GERMANIC KINGDOMS
CONTENTS
An Era of invasions
The Germanic peoples
The Carolingian Empire
An era of invasions
Between the 3rd and 10th centuries, there were mass migrations in Europe. The first of
these was the migration of the Germanic peoples, who defeated the Western Roman
Empire and created numerous kingdoms. Afterwards, Slavs and Magyars arrived from
the east, Norsemen or Vikings from the north and Muslims from the south. These
migrations occurred for various reasons:
– changes in climate which affected agricultural production.
– population increased and resources were insufficient.
– political or military weakness in neighbouring states.
– pressure from other peoples with greater military power.
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The Germanic peoples
Between the 3rd and 5th centuries, the Germanic peoples came to the Roman Empire
from the north and east of Europe. Although they came from the same origins, they had
divided into different peoples. Eventually, the Western Roman Empire was defeated and
various Germanic kingdoms were established, some of which form the basis of present-
day states.
❚The Franks settled in Gaul and this eventually became the main Germanic kingdom.
Their king, Clovis I, expanded his domains to the north and also to the south, where he
defeated the Visigoths at the Battle of Vouillé in 507 A.D.
❚The Visigoths initially ruled from Tolosa (Toulouse, France), but after the Battle of
Vouillé they emigrated to the Iberian Peninsula, where they established the Visigothic
Kingdom of Toledo.
❚The Suebis settled in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula.
❚The Angles and Saxons settled in Great Britain.
❚The Ostrogoths created a kingdom on the Italian Peninsula.
❚The Vandals established a kingdom in North Africa.
❚ Other peoples who gave their name to European kingdoms were the Burgundians
(Burgundy), the Saxons (Saxony), the Thuringii (Thuringia), the Alemanni (south-east
Germany) and the Lombards (Lombardy).
The Germanic peoples were organised into tribes, but when they settled in a region they
converted it into a kingdom. The Germanic peoples, who were relatively few in number,
formed the ruling group, and the native inhabitants had to submit to them.
Their economies were based on arable and livestock farming. There were few cities, and
they were small in size. It was therefore a rural society.
Society in the Germanic kingdoms was clearly divided. The dominant group was the
Germanic nobility, a privileged landowning3 minority. Over time, the Germanic nobility
and the dominant groups in the native population formed a single group.
Below them was the peasantry. The monarch governed with the help of a group of
advisors or royal council. The nobles frequently fought amongst themselves, which
created serious political instability. Most of the Germanic peoples’ cultural traditions
disappeared as they adopted the culture of the lands they conquered. They all gradually
abandoned their polytheistic religions and converted to Christianity.
The Slavs came from lands to the north of the Carpathian Mountains. They gradually
occupied most of Eastern Europe. Like the Germanic peoples, the Slavs converted to
Christianity. From the 6th century onwards, they established small kingdoms, some of
which form the basis of present-day states.
❚The Western Slavs settled in Central Europe (Poles, Czechs and Slovakians).
❚The Eastern Slavs spread across the plains of Eastern Europe (Russians, Ukrainians
and Belarusians).
❚ The Southern Slavs travelled as far as the Balkan Peninsula (Serbs, Croatians,
Slovenians and Bulgarians).
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The Carolingian Empire
The Frankish king Charlemagne carried out numerous conquests and
in 800 A.D. he became emperor. The Carolingian Empire did not last
long, but it was the only time during the Middle Ages that the whole of
Western Europe was unified.
The equivalent of the prime minister in the Kingdom of the Franks was
called the mayor of the palace or major-domo. This position became
more influential, and in 751 A.D. the major-domo Pippin I the Younger deposed the
King of the Franks and occupied the throne. This created a problem of legitimacy for
the new ruling family, the Carolingian dynasty.
The Pope needed help fighting the Lombard invasion of Italy. Pippin and his son
Charles decided to help the Pope in order to gain his support. They therefore subdued
the Lombards and gave lands to the church. In exchange, the Pope supported the
Carolingians and legitimised their rise to power. Charles, who came to the throne when
his father died in 768 A.D., continued to expand his domains and in 800 A.D. he was
crowned emperor in Rome by Pope Leo III. He received the title of Magnus (the Great)
for maintaining control over extensive domains, and was known as Charlemagne.
Charlemagne’s dream was to rebuild the Western Roman Empire. He established his
capital in Aquisgranum (modern-day Aachen, in Germany).
When Charlemagne died in 814 A.D., his son Louis the Pious succeeded him. Later on,
Louis’ sons fought over their inheritance and as a result of the Treaty of Verdun in 843
A.D., the Carolingian Empire was divided into various political units. This resulted in
the division of France and Germania (the future Germany). A century later, the German
Emperor Otto I defeated the Magyars and Slavs and occupied the whole of Central
Europe and part of Italy. He established the Holy Roman Empire, which was made up of
various autonomous kingdoms.
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The political structure
The Carolingians governed from their palace with the help of the court, a group of
trusted advisors. They appointed counts to govern the provinces, known as counties.
The border provinces, which had a greater military presence, were divided into marches
and governed by a marquis. Occasionally, more important strategic lands became
duchies and were governed by a duke.
The economy and society
The emergence of Islam had disrupted trade routes between Western and Eastern
Europe, making agriculture the only source of wealth. Charlemagne and his successors
rewarded their nobles with large estates or latifundia. The majority of the population
were peasants. They worked the lands that belonged to the nobles or the church and
were subject to their authority.
Culture and art
Charlemagne brought the wisest people of the time to his court. The monks copied
ancient texts so that these works would not disappear. These scribes devised a new
rounded writing style which was easier to read: Carolingian minuscule. They did small
drawings, called miniatures, in their books to illustrate the texts. This period of great
cultural development is known as the Carolingian Renaissance.
A unique architectural style was also developed. It was called Carolingian and was
characterised by the use of semi-circular arches and stone and brick walls, as can be
seen in the Palatine Chapel at Aquisgranum.
