West Civ Day #48- Making Middle Ages

Today in West Civ we took a test on the Middle Ages and I got a 97% and I was very happy to hear that. That means that I will be getting an A for this quarter and this semester. I knew the test was going to be relatively easy and it turned out that it was very easy. I am happy because on the last test of the year I got an A and on the last three tests I have gotten high scores. But my mistake in last nights blog was that this is my second to last blog tonight. So this is the second to last blog tonight so yeah.

West Civ Day #47- Last Lecture

Today in West Civ I took over class and reviewed what will be on the Middle Ages test tomorrow. I think that I am ready for the test and it should be rather easy but I still must study a little before taking it tomorrow. I can not believe already that this will be my second to last blog. I will have one next Monday and that will be the last blog of the West Civ class. It has been a fun class, not as fun as the Human Geo class of course but still pretty good.

West Civ Day #46- Germanic Kingdoms Unite under Charlemagne

Today in West Civ we took notes on Charlemagne:             Bold=Test Question
-New date of Middle Ages is 476- 1453 AD
-What happened in 476? Romulus Augustulus was told to step down so no emperor means no empire.
-New Society has classical heritage of Rome, beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church, and customs of various Germanic tribes
-These invaders cause disruption of trade, downfall of cities, and population shifts to rural areas
-Loyalty was lost because the people of the town only cared who the lord of the manor was not the lord of the government
-Clovis rules the Germanic people out of Gaul
-In 496 he has a battlefield conversion making he and his 3000 soldiers Christians
-511 Franks are made into one kingdom making Clovis and the Church partners
-Church + Frankish rulers = rise in Christianity
-520 Benedict writes rules for monks: vows of poverty(live simply in monasteries), chastity(no marital relations), and obedience (listen to church superiors)
-Sister Scholastica wrote similar rules for nuns
-Operate schools, maintain libraries, and copy books
-Pope Gregory gets worldly power(secular)
-Definition of theocracy is Church revenues are used to help the poor, build roads and raise armies
-Gregory's kingdom (Christendom) extends from Italy to England from Spain to Germany
-Clovis rules Franks
-Most of Europe consists of smaller kingdoms
-Clovis' descendant is Charles the Hammer (Charles Martel)
-Hammer defeats a Muslim raiding party from Spain at the Battle of Tours in 732(if not won then Western Europe would become part of Muslim empire)
-Charles Martel has son-Pepin the Short
-He works with the Church and is named king by the grace of God by the pope
-Pepin dies in 768, leaving two sons
-Son #1 Carloman dies in 771
-Son #2 is Charles known as Charlemagne
-He wanted to build another empire like Rome
-Fought and spread Christianity
-Most powerful king in Western Europe
-Tries to become very powerful
-Treaty of Verdan was Charlemagne's grandchildren split up the empire and all three grandchildren get a piece of the empire

West Civ Day #45- New Notes

Today in West Civ we continued to take more notes on the Middle Ages:
-Describe how Christianity evolved from a cult into the largest religion in the world? (ESSAY)
-Paul spread the word, emperors tried stomping it out, Constantine has battlefield conversion, then Charlemagne
D-A European Empire Evolves
         1-Franks Control largest European Kingdom
                 a-The Roman province formerly known as Gaul
                 b-Ruled by Clovis-The Meravingian Dynasty
         2-Major domo-The mayor of the palace-Ruled the kingdom
         3-Charles Martel-Charles the Hammer
                 a-

West Civ Day #44- Germanic Kingdoms Unite Under Charlemagne

Today in West Civ we took more notes on Middle Ages:
-Many Germanic kingdoms that succeeded the Roman Empire were reunited under Charlemagne's empire
-Charlemagne spread Christian civilization throughout northern Europe, which is where many of us came from
-Middle Ages= medieval period
-500-1500 AD
-Medieval Europe is fragmented
A-Invasions trigger changes in Western Europe
     1-Invasions and constant warfare spark new trends
           a-Disruption of trade
                  1-Europe cities are no longer economic centers
                  2-Money is scarce
           b-Downfall of cities
                  1-Cities are no longer centers of administration
           c-Population shifts
                  1-Nobles retreat to the rural areas
                  2-Cities don't have strong leadership
     2-Decline of learning
                  1- Germanic invaders are illiterate but they communicate through oral tradition
                  2-Only priests and church officials could read and write
                  3-Knowledge of Greek (literature, science, philosophy) is lost
     3-Loss of a common language
                  1-Dialects develop in different languages
                  2-By the 1800s French, Spanish, other Roman based languages are evolving from Latin
B- Germanic kingdoms emerge
     1- The concept of government changes
            a-Roman society: loyal to public government
            b-Germanic society: loyal to family
                  1-Germanic chief led warriors
                  2-During peace he provided food, weapons, treasure, a place to live (the lord's hall)
                  3-During wartime warriors fought for the lord
            c-"The King? Who's that? You want to collect taxes from me? Who the heck are you?"
            d-Franks live in the Roman province of Gaul- their leader is Clovis
     2-The Franks under Clovis
            a-Another battlefield conversion
            b-Clovis and 3000 of his warriors are baptized by the bishop
            c-The Church in Rome approves of this "alliance"
            d-Clovis and the Church begin to work together
-Clovis' military expertise + the Church's support and money = A STRATEGIC ALLIANCE BETWEEN TWO POWERFUL FORCES
C-Germanic peoples adopt Christianity
      1-511 AD- Clovis unites Franks into one kingdom
      2-600 AD- Church + Franks rulers convert many
      3-Fear of Muslims in southern Europe spur many to become Christians
      4-Monasteries and convents
            a-520 AD-Benedict wrote the rules for monks and monasteries
                    1-Poverty, chastity, obedience, study
            b-His sister Scholastica did the same for nuns in convents
            c-731 AD-The Venerable Bede wrote a killer history of England
            d-Monks opened schools, maintained libraries, and copied books (Bibles, Greek texts)
      5-Pope Gregory expands papal power
            a-Papacy = popes power
            b-Secular power = worldly power
            c-So...under Gregory the Great...
PaPal Power(Power of the Pope) is Political Power Presented from the Pope's Palace
            d-The church can use church money to:
                     raise armies
                     repair roads
                     help the poor
            e-Gregory the Great began to act as mayor of Rome and as head of an earthly kingdom(Christendom)
  

West Civ Day #43- Making of Middle Ages

Today in West Civ we started to learn about the Middle Ages. These are the notes from the class:
-feudalism is a political, military and economic system based on land-holding and protective alliances
-system based on personal loyalty to people who can help you
-lord owns land and need people to help defend it and work it
-vassals help the lords on the land
-FEUDAL PYRAMID:

KING

 

Most powerful VASSALS

(nobles and bishops)

 

KNIGHTS who are mounted warriors who received

FIEFS for defending their lords land

 

PEASANTS(mostly SERFS)

Landless, powerless, moneyless, right-less

just working the land for "the man"

 

-FIEFS are parts of land Knights would get

-SERFS are peasants

-Manor is the lord's estate

          -Lord's manor house-a church- some workshops- 15-30 families- all on a few square miles

-a self-sufficient community

-harsh if peasant

-Peasants are poor AND pay high taxes

         -tax on grain- tax on marriage- Church tax(10%)

 

West Civ Day #42- Total Tests

Today in West Civ we took the final of the third Roman tests. I got a 98 so I was happy but I am happier to be moving on because this third part of the fall or Rome was dragging on. Looking back I wished that we learned more about after Christ and the empire and emperors instead of before Christ and the republic. But we can't change that because we are on to Middle Ages.

West Civ Day #41- Cool Class

Today in West Civ we got to review and do whatever homework that we wanted. So Mr. Schick didn't teach and the class was easy today. He gave us this easy class to get ready for test tomorrow and he had other things to do as well, s it worked out for everyone.

West Civ Day #40- Ending Empire

Today in West Civ we took notes on the end of the Roman empire and what happened as it collapsed. There was a mix of religion, invaders, and too large to control in the west. The test on all of this stuff and questions from other two tests will be on this test and I think that I should be able to do pretty well on it. I think that this test is going to be relatively easy like he last two that I took in this class.

West Civ Day #39- Rome Reading

Today in West Civ we had to take notes from our book so here it is:
-greatest change in Rome was Christianity
-started in Judaism
-Germanic borders became more wealthy and organized
-this was a result of living as a neighbor during roman period of peace
-from 200 emperors would have to hold them off by army
-Christianity became major and official religion
-burden of government and army became to hard
-barbarians attacks became to fierce
-empire collapsed

West Civ Day #38- Roman Review

Today in West Civ we reviewed the last piece of the Roman empire. The test is tomorrow so I think that I am ready for this test but I will have to study. If this is an open blog test then I will be posting all of my notes from the journal onto this blog. I hope that it is because that will take a lot of stress off. But then again I think I am ready for this test because I love history. And that was pretty much what we did today, so yet another rather boring class than usual.

West Civ Day #37- Roman Review

Today in West Civ we continues to review about the Romans. We read and took notes from a PowerPoint that was about the Roman emperors. I think that this test coming Wednesday should be relatively easy. There will be a lot of questions but I think that I will be able to handle it. I think that the class today was somewhat boring and that tomorrow we do something fun to review like a game, exercise, or class outside. That would be awesome.

West Civ Day #36- Nice Notes

Today in West Civ we took notes on sections that we read from the book because Mr. Schick was not here. So here they are:
-in 44 B.C. Caesar secured the votes to become dictator for life
-on the ides of March (March 15) Caesar was lured into the Senate house unarmed and was killed
-this death only made things worse for the Senate
-new emperors would be on their way to become leaders of Rome
-Mark Antony a commander under Caesar and Caesars grandnephew Octavian fought each other
- they joined forces in order to fight Caesar's assassins, Brutus and Cassius
-they would defeat Cassius and Brutus in Greece
-they forced Senate to say that Julius Caesar was a "Divine Being"
-Marcus Lepidus was also part of the group working with Mark and Octavian
-Lepidus would rule North Africa, Antony in Alexandria, and Octavian in Rome
-Antony's affair with Queen Cleopatra made him unpopular in Rome
-he would try to make conquests on the eastern frontier but failed
-Octavian would push Lepidus out of power in order to gain that territory and push Rome toward the Danube
-Octavian would defeat Antony and Cleopatra's forces in a naval battle off of Greece
-Antony and Cleopatra would both commit suicide within a year
-Rome's art, law, philosophy, literature, architecture were based off of the Greeks
-Latin became dominant language
-Augustus/ Octavian refused  the offer or a long-term dictatorship
-he was made commander and chief of the military so he allowed the Senate to supervise Italy and Rome
-he killed many opponents in the Senate and replaced them with friends and allies
-people's assemblies lost their last bit of power
-Greek-cities started to worship Augustus
-shrines of Augustus and Rome began to jump up in the empire
-when he died the Senate declared him a divine human being like Julius Caesar
-it became customary for emperors to be worshipped
-Augustus got the title Father of the Fatherland
-he was one of many Roman wealthy men making their way up the ranks
-Augustus had a combined army of 600,000 men
-by end of his rule all of his soldiers were volunteers
-later emperors gave the soldiers Roman citizenship
-he created the worlds first professional standing army
-Augustus added Egypt, lands from Italy to Greece to the River Danube, a wide swath of Germany to the east of the Rhine
-he chose a successor so rule could continue
-Augustus settled on Tiberius, Livia's son
-Augustus adopted Tiberius as well
-Augustus died in 14 A.D.
-Nero was the last descendent of Caesar was overthrown
-after a brief civil war, Vespasian was made emperor
-in the second century Marcus Aurelius son was killed and another civil war
-Septimus Severus was made emperor
-Augustus' government lasted until the trouble times in the third century
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