The West Struggles, The East Flourishes - PowerPoint Presentation

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The West Struggles, The East Flourishes

Late Middle Ages 1300- 1500Slide2

Misery

- Late Middle Ages- century without a bath, or the Dark Ages

- Famine- advancements in agriculture were to slow to meet the rising populations

- From 1310 a series of years with too much rain- Famine existed 1315 to 1322

- Many left their lands in search of a life; constant migration, illness, disease, hungerSlide3

The Black Death

- 1348 the plague arrives from trading ships in Italian ports (coming from Asia)

- Bubonic Plague- infected rodents- but could possibly be pneumonic plague

- 1/3 or possibly 1/2 of the entire population of Europe was killed

- Numbers in history are suspect

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The Plague

- Busy cities were first to fall (see first hand account)

- Psychological impact was just as influential- society collapses, Walking Dead style

- Law, tradition, customs, divine authority,temperal authority all collapseSlide5

The Plague

- Punishment by God, Bad Air, Poisoning of the Wells (Jewish attack, von Konigshofen's description of a Strasbourg pogrom), Bad Humors

- Since medicine offered no help, people concluded that this was God's will/wrath

- Flagellants

- The plague disappeared over a few years but would reappear periodicallySlide6
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Peasants and Townspeople

- immediate result- shortage of labour- Lords increased their labor requirements and free laborers were not allowed to be paid more

- Roving bands of laborers burning as they travelled- Peasants revolts in France and England (killing of nobles)

- The peasant revolts never targeted the King or his rule, always local lords, this is common across Europe

- Many serfs became peasants through this (not in the east) and only owed Rent instead of labour and rentSlide8

New Critics of the Church

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Disenchanted with the church- many sought a new way to approach God

- Peasant revolts show that there were common grievances across Europe

- Many of the religious leaders involved in the peasant revolts suggested a more communal, less hierarchical type of faith, looking to the Catholic church as too worldly

- John Wycliffe (1320- 1384)- the bible should be a christian's sole authority, not the supposed power of the papacy (the inquisition could not get him, he was protected by the English nobility...why?

- Common medieval practices instituted by the papacy- pilgrimages, veneration of saints, constant rituals and good worksSlide9
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The Hundred Years War 1337- 1453

- England vs. France

(long story short but the Capetians who ruled France in 1328 did not produce a mail heir so the next in line was Edward III of England whose mom was a Capetian, Paris court said "no way in hell" and gave the throne to Philip VI of Valois, cousin to the previous ruler

- Let's be real here, economics was probably the real reason, Philip interfered in the Flanders wool industry

- England won a lot of land in France at the beginning and yadda yadda they kept on fighting- The Burgundians came in on the side of the English and Joan of Arc helps...and then is executed for wearing manly clothes

- Simple result: English expelled from France and the French King consolidated immense power, taken from the local lords- the people also began to feel a little "French"

- The mercenary armies returned to England and helped wage the wars between nobles in England (Lancasters vs. Tudors) in the War of the RosesSlide11

So What about the East?

- Winds of change blew into Europe from the far east

- 1300's- the Mongol Empire- Spices and Luxury items, very attractive to the West

- 1300- 1566- The Ottomans

- 1300- The Russian EmpireSlide12
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Eastern Universalism: The Mongols

- Europe struggles in the 1200's with localism and centralization

- The Mongols from the Eastern Steppes of Asia (Mongolia) began conquering all land to the west (borders of Turkey, Austria and ruled Russia

- Russia was a collection of principalities that paid tribute to the Mongol empire but weren't ruled directlySlide14

Eastern Universalism: The Mongols

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Very diverse and peaceful empire (after the initial atrocities, no big deal): Buddhists, Muslims, Christians

- Excellent for trade, likely the Europeans learned the recipe for gunpowder

- The Venetians were well placed to take advantage of the empire for trade (Marco Polo)Slide15
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The Ottoman Empire

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Asiatic Nomads, converted to Islam (the Sultans claimed to be the descendants of Muhammad)

- Allowed for multiple religions, encouraged knowledge and different language, yet this obviously set the stage for later conflict- especially in the area referred to as the Balkans

- The Ottomans would in fact cause such a destabilizing effect that many of the smaller regions would express their "independence" periodically causing war (King Vlad III- 1431 to 1476)

- Janissaries- paid, trained, respected

- 1453 the Ottomans, led by Mehmed II conquered Constantinople however it wasnt until Suleiman I (1520- 1566) that the Ottomans pushed into Europe and North Africa- Vienna 1530 and conquered the Mediterranean

- Western merchants now had to confront the Sultan's ships and tax collectors- motivation for a new route to ChinaSlide17

Russia

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Duchy of Moscow- used the absence of the Mongols to create its own Empire

- Ivan I 1328- 1341- "Moneybags", as Mongol fortunes faded, the Moscow Russians filled the power vacuum left by the Horde

- Cultivation of the Orthodox church created justification for their rule and long story short when Constantinople fell to the Ottomans, guess where the new capital of Orthodoxy would be?

- 1480 Ivan III The Great defeated the final Mongol advance and became the ruler of the brand new Russian State which laid claim, through the Orthodox Church and Ivan's wife being a Byzantine princess, to be the third Rome

- So the question is, where does Russia's identity lie? Asia? Europe? The new Rome; that doesn't help either