Europe - AP World History: Modern

The Battle of Hastings (1066) pitted the Saxon King Harold against the Norman invader William the Conqueror. It ended with the death of Harold and William controlling the territory of England. It was a turning point moment in British history and is considered the last succesful invasion of Britain by a foreign power.

El Cid was a military commander in Spain during the eleventh century. He is most famous in Castille for fighting against the Moors (the Islamic people who lived in Spain at the time).

The monastery at Lindisfarne in Northeast England was a center of learning and scholarship in the Anglo-Saxon period. In 793, a Viking raid destroyed the entire monastery, killing most of the monks and ruining many of the books held there. The sack of Lindisfarne is commonly regarded as the start of Viking raids in Northern Europe.

The Code of Justinian was issued by an Eastern Roman Emperor called Justinian I in the sixth century CE. The Eastern Roman Empire is also called the Byzantime Empire (with its capital called Byzantium or Constantinople and then later, after conquest by the Ottomans, Istanbul). It is considered one of the most important legal documents in history. It provided certain freedoms to the poor and protections to slaves. It also made Christianity the only legal and official religion of the Byzantine Empire.

The Black Death devastated populations in parts of the world connected by trade in the fourteenth century-Africa, Asia, and Europe. Italy and China were particularly hard hit. The Black Death, however, helped end serfdom in parts of Europe (although not in Russia) and inspired works of literature, like Boccaccio's Decameron (1353).

The Portuguese capture of Ceuta (a port city in Morocco) in 1415 began the age of exploration as the Portuguese from this point began overseas exploration to the south and west, and were the first Europeans since the Vikings to do this. The Crusades occurred long before this, and simply led to increased European contact and interest in overseas lands, which eventually led to the age of exploration. Columbus' "discovery" of the Americas and the Portuguese reaching and circumnavigating southern Africa all occurred decades after the capture of Ceuta, once the age of exploration was well underway.

The Black Death of the mid 14th century killed so many Europeans that it caused a labor shortage, allowing peasants and urban workers to demand greater economic rights and freedoms in exchange for their labors, leading to the end of serfdom in western Europe and the erosion of medieval feudalism. The collapse of the Roman empire and the invasions of Europe by the Arabs, Vikings, and Magyars were all events that occurred centuries before the Black Death. Europeans would not develop the germ theory of disease until the 19th century, centuries after the Black Death.

The Magna Carta was signed in England in 1215. The document provides certain guarantees of the rights of the English nobility against the abuse of the king. It was signed by King John II of England.

The Magna Carta, signed by King John II in 1215 and subsequently renewed on several occasions, is often cited as the beginning of democracy in England, or at least the beginning of the English Constitution. In practice, it effectively guaranteed the protection of the rights of some twenty-five members of the English aristocracy from the abuses of the King. The importance of the document comes from the precedent it established that in English society, the power of the King was never absolute.

The Domesday Book is a record of the Norman survey of England carried out in 1086. The purpose of the book was to find out how much land, property, and so on was owned by each individual in the territory so as to facilitate taxation in William the Conqueror's new territory.

The Hanseatic League was created in the fourteenth century to encourage, protect, and facilitate trade in Northern Europe. It was an agreement designed to deter conflict and provide protections for various merchant classes.

"Villeins" were peasant farmers, or serfs, in Feudalism. They were tied to the land and many of their rights were directly granted and controlled by the nobleman who owned the land. They were distinct from slaves, who had no political rights of their own, and freemen, who were free to leave the land and seek work elsewhere.

Feudalism arose in Europe during the so-called "Dark Ages" in response to the power vacuum left behind by the Roman Empire. The institution was then strengthened in the ninth and tenth centuries after the fall of the Carolingian Empire. The people of Western and Central Europe were being relentlessly invaded and plundered by the Vikings, the Magyars, the people of the Asiatic Steppe, and Muslim Caliphates. Without a strong king to protect them, the people turned to local landowners, who established a system whereby the lords would provide protection in exchange for the common people working their lands. Labor for protection is the underlying tenet of feudalism.

In the feudal system, there were lords (the owners of land and the offerers of protection); vassals (those who fought for the lords in exchange for tracts of land or payment); and serfs (those who worked the land in exchange for protection).

In the feudal system, the land was worked by the serfs, who essentially entered into a state of voluntary slavery in exchange for protection from invasion. The lords offered protection and the vassals were paid to carry out the protection. Of course, only the first generation of serfs "volunteered" for the slavery; later generations were stuck working as effective slaves even once the threat of invasion was lessened, hence the longevity of feudalism in Europe, which in some places lasted for as long as a thousand years.

Feudalism was the prevailing economic and social system throughout much of Europe during the Middle Ages. Under the Feudal System a landowner would grant a "fief" or "fiefdom" to a vassal who in exchange would pledge "fealty" or allegiance to the landowner and agree to fight to defend his lands.

The Feudal System was introduced to England following the Norman Conquest in 1066. The Norman Conquest is the name given to the invasion of William the Conqueror, also called William Duke of Normandy, who invaded from modern-day Northern France and defeated the Anglo-Saxon King of England Harold of Wessex.

A "motte-and-bailey" is a type of early Feudal castle. The Feudal System emerged in response to the chaos of the Dark Ages. It relied upon a landowner giving grants of land to knights - in exchange for loyalty and protection of his land. And rights to work given to serfs - in exchange for the assurance of their safety and the ownership of their labor. The system necessarily relied upon defensive fortifications that could protect small communities. A "motte-and-bailey" castle was a type of early castle, where the "motte" was a raised-earth stone or wood castle and the "bailey" was an accompanying enclosed area surrounded by a palisade.

All of these inventions occurred during this time period and dramatically improved agricultural production throughout Europe. The heavy plow was able to break up denser soil and broke much less frequently, allowing for greater agricultural efficiency. The horse collar and horseshoes turned horses into extremely efficient tools for agricultural production. The tidal mill allowed communities and farmers to use the power of tides and rivers to fuel water mills and provide energy.

Prior to the invention of the cannon in the fourteenth century, the most useful weapon a lord or a king could have was a castle. Castles were built of stone and could withstand constant barrage from trebuchets and catapults provided they were sufficiently manned; however, the invention and subsequent improvement of the cannon gradually rendered castles obsolete as the additional firepower of a cannon could blast right through the stone walls of a castle. This changed not only military life, but also social, economic, and political life in Europe as the feudal system, predicated in many ways on the protection offered by the lord's castle or stronghold, became gradually obsolete.