Early (c.400-c.900) Flashcards Preview

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Flashcards in Early (c.400-c.900) Deck (28)
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1
Q

What was the basis of medieval economy? Name two ‘ion’ changes however.

A

Farming. However, specialisation + monetisation were changes.

2
Q

What was a primary foodstuff? What was found more in Italy? Middle East?

A

Cereal crops. Chestnuts in italy. Tea + coffee in the Middle East.

3
Q

What economy did medieval society transition to slowly? Where else did surplus production go?

A

From a subsitence economy (where people grow for themselves), to a market economy (where they grow to sell for others).

Surplus production didn’t just go to local markets, but bigger inter-regional fairs.

4
Q

What’s the ‘Brenner Debate’, and when was it?

A

1970s/80s - Robert Brenner argued that social change results from freeing workers from restrictions on their control of their surplus.

Michael Postan’s ‘neo-Malthusian approach’ - social change is a result of population change.

5
Q

Name 3 issues for medieval government. Name 3 solutions.

A

Communication; mass movements; no state monopoly of force.

Solutions = religion to control (though does place limitations on rulers); documentation to say things must happen; law-courts to have the people to be judged by authorities.

6
Q

What is the theory of the ‘Three Orders’?

Name 2 things that changed in Western Europe after the fall of Rome. Name 2 things that didn’t.

A

That there are 3 types of people in society - the fighters, producers and religious.

Simplification of economy, esp north of the Loire in the early 400s; empire broken up into barbarian kingdoms.

Barbarian armies ran things in a Roman manner; Guy Halsall - highland zones were less affected.

7
Q

What did the laity get from the Church parish system? How did this change? What did the laity have to pay in return?

What became more dominant in the 13th century?

A

Involvement in church activity and pastoral care; parish system became more unified in West from the 11th-12th centuries (took longer in the East); laity had to pay tithes.

Priesthood…emergence of the Lateran Council in 1215 for example.

8
Q

What expectations were the same for both genders? Where was there difference?

What rebellious + non-rebellious character emphasise society’s views of what was wrong/right with women?

A

While expectations of heaven + hell were the same, only men could take on clerical roles.

Rebellious Eve = what’s wrong; Virgin Mary = what’s right.

9
Q

What became a sacrament in the 12th century? What could women do/not do?

A

Marriage; could do agricultural work, but not go to university.

10
Q

What’s the traditional end date for the Empire in the West? What’s an alternative?

A

476 - an alternative is 480 (the death of the last Western emperor, emperor Julius Nepos).

11
Q

Name 3 possible causes of the end of the Roman Empire

A

Loss of territory to ‘barbarian’ invaders…often set up as client armies, but then no tax within the zones they took.

Failure of cultural imperial ideas…arguably Christianity, or maybe failure of state to reach out to subordinates, resulted in Empire’s irrelevance.

Financial reasons - breakdown in trade and concession of tax in lost zones.

12
Q

Name 2 things the barbarian wanted, as they wanted to occupy the Empire rather than destroy it.

What barbarian ruler was similar to a Roman?

What historian thinks that Christianity in the Western Empire was the reason for its collapse?

A

Offices + salaries. King Theodric of the Ostrogoths was very much a Roman governor.

Edward Gibbon.

13
Q

What army was in Ostrogoth Italy? What was the tax/law situation?

What about Britain?

A

King Theodric’s army; only Roman law, not a clear tax system.

Made up of Scots, Britons, Saxons; no law or tax until c.600; armies essentially small warbands.

14
Q

Which barbarian group occupied Spain? Northern Gaul? North Africa?

When did the Eastern Roman Empire finally fall?

A

Visigoths; the Franks; Vandals; 1453.

15
Q

Who’s law codes were significant, and why?

A

Justinian I’s, Byzantine emperor - they were a big change + still form basis of modern law.

16
Q

When did the first Merovingian ruler begin his reign? Who did he push out of where?

What were the two main Merovingian kingdoms?

A

Clovis from 481 + pushed the Visigoths out of South-Western France.

Neustria to the North West and Austrasia to the North East.

17
Q

What were the Carolingians? By what year were they dominating?

Who was Charlemagne the son of?

What century was Charlemagne in? What did he conquer by and when?

A

Nobility, dominating by 700.

Pippin - first of the Carolingians to become king.

8th century; by 768, he conquered Neustria, Austrasia, Burgundy and Aquitaine - by 801 he went as far as Barcelona.

18
Q

What 2 things did Charlemagne introduce in terms of admin + law?

A

Assemblies + counts in local areas (pagi), checked up by Missi.

19
Q

Name 2 things that the Carolingian Renaissance entailed:

Name a Frankish scholar, and what did he write?

A

Development of the Carolingian miniscule, a new script; encouragement to churches to improve schools.

Einhard, arguably a product of the Carolingian Renaissance - wrote ‘Life of Charlemagne’.

20
Q

Why is the Carolingian script so significant? What is another legacy of Carolingian rule? When and where did early Viking raids happen?

A

Because it forms the basis for our lower-case lettering today; 9th century books survive in much greater numbers than pre-800 books; happened in early 8th century in Lindisfarne.

21
Q

What two things did the first king of England, Athlestan, link? When did he become ruler of all England?

A

Military conquest to legitimation of power; early 10th century.

22
Q

Give an example of appeasement by Charles the Simple.

“Indeed, Rollo was so effective that….”.

A

He granted, in 911, Rouen to Rollo, a Viking leader.

“…that Viking raids tended to be Charles the Simple initating civil war”

23
Q

In what manner did Otto the Great and Aflestan rule?

Name 2 qualities of the Macedonian renaissance in Greece in the 10th century.

A

In a Carolingian way.

Easier access to ancient texts and more encyclopedic works.

24
Q

Who was a key figure in Hellenic thought? What 2 things did he do?

A

Michael Psellos; he presented Hellenic ideas about God in Christian terms and pushed for further scientific enquiry.

25
Q

What 3 things does Amira K. Bennison argue allowed the Caliphate to expand between the 7th and 12th centuries?

A

Their militaristic and political strength (by 750 took over most of Mediterranean South); trade with those such as Persia, Greece and India; internal tax problems w/ the Byzantine Empire and the Sassinians, as well as the Persian empire having 10 leaders in 4 years…succession crisis.

26
Q

What does ‘caliph’ mean? What does Bennison think about the Umayyads in terms of being a Roman successor state?

A

It means ‘successor’. Bennison thinks that while the Caliphate borrowed from the Greeks + Romans, it still did its own thing.

27
Q

Give evidence for Viking raids being a product of internal Scandinavian developments.

Western European vulnerability?

What reveals a shift in priority from plundering to trading for the Vikings?

A

The Vikings were highly adaptable and had military skill. In 885, on the outskirts of Paris they dug trenches to the bane of the Frankish cavalry.

Rollo-Rouen-911-Charles the Simple.

Alteration of ship type from longship to knar (designed in 10th century for trading).

28
Q

In ‘Hagarism’, what now seemingly ludicrous view did Crone and (who) offer about Islam?

A

Crone and Cook believed that the earliest iteration of Islam was an Arabic-focused iteration of Messianic Judaism.