LECTURE OUTLINE FOR HISTORY 204

Prof. Martha Carlin

Week 1: Tuesday

 

Introduction to course:

        Discussion of syllabus, required textbooks and online readings, grading and deadlines, exams
        and research paper, discussion sections, expectations.

IMPORTANT: We need to be able to contact you via your UWM e-mail address.  If you use another Internet Service Provider instead (e.g., Yahoo! or Hotmail), you must put a Forward command on your UWM e-mail address immediately, so that your UWM e-mail will be forwarded to the e-mail address that you actually use.  To do this, go to to  http://www.panthermail.uwm.edu and follow the directions there for forwarding mail.

SOME ABBREVIATIONS COMMONLY USED BY HISTORIANS:

                BC ("before Christ") = BCE ("Before the Common Era") (examples: "Augustus seized control of Rome in 31 BC" or  "Augustus seized control in
                        31 BCE")
                AD ("anno domini" or "in the year of the Lord") = CE ("Common Era")  (examples: "Augustus died in AD 14" or  "Augustus died in 14 CE")
                c. or ca. ("circa") = "around" (example: "Chaucer was born c. 1340.")
                i.e. ("id est") = "that is" (example: "In the thirteenth century, i.e., in the 1200s . . .")
                e.g. ("exempli gratia") = "for example" (example: "Primary sources can include physical
                        objects, e.g., buildings, skeletons, and pottery.")

Thursday


Summary of early medieval European history, AD 1-1000:

  Click here for an Interactive map of the Roman Empire

c. AD 1-200.     Height of Roman power

200s                  Roman Empire in crisis

300s                  Order restored; Roman Empire becomes widely Christianized; Empire divided into
                                Eastern (Byzantine) and Western Empires

400s-500s          Invasion of Western Empire by Germanic tribes leads to collapse of Western Empire, which
                                leads to sharp decline of towns in West (Eastern or Byzantine Empire survives until 1453)

600s                  Rise of Islam

mid 700s- mid 800s  Rise of Carolingian (Frankish) Empire, Benedictine monasticism, and feudalism;
                                the three great European-Mediterranean powers (Byzantines, Muslims, and
                                Carolingians) achieve rough balance of power

800-1000            W. Europe attacked by Vikings, Muslims ("Saracens"), and Magyars; Carolingian
                                Empire disintegrates

c. 1000               Revival begins in W. Europe:
                            (click here for a map of Europe about the year 1000)
                                external attacks cease
                                internal violence diminishes
                                weather improves
                                better crops > better diet > rise in population
                                long-distance trade revives
                                towns revive
                          "Tripartite" society: those who pray, those who fight, and those who work

Online readings:

J. H. Robinson, "Why Study History Through Primary Sources?"
        Primary sources are essential to the study of history; they are the raw data from which historians work.

            Primary sources = firsthand or eyewitness sources, contemporary with the period under study .
                                    (For example, primary sources for medieval Europe include both texts and
                                     also physical objects, such as buildings, skeletons, and pottery, that date
                                     from the Middle Ages.)
            Secondary sources = secondhand or later sources, not contemporary with the events studied.
                                    (For  example, secondary sources for medieval Europe include modern reference
                                    works and scholarly studies, assemblages of statistical data, and reconstructions
                                    of medieval buildings, weapons, and clothing.)

Peace of God, 989
        Archbishop and bishops decree anathema (damnation) against anyone who attacks churches
            or people who cannot defend themselves (poor and clergy).  = Effort to curb endemic violence
            by predatory lords and their followers.

Raoul Glaber, Histories
        Widespread building and rebuilding of churches shortly after the year 1000.  Demonstrates
            widespread economic revival.

Truce of God, 1063
        Bishop and count jointly decree severe penalties (exile and exommunication) against those who
            commit theft or violence during the period called the "truce of God" (throughout the year, from
            sunset Wednesday to sunrise Monday; and daily from Advent to 6 January, Lent to a week
            after Easter, and the 5th Sunday after Easter to the 7th Sunday after Easter).  = A further effort
            to curb endemic aristocratic violence.

        Those charged with breaking the peace who deny it are to undergo the ordeal of hot iron.
            = Standard form of judgment when charge is disputed: God determines innocence or guilt.
          (Click here for a depiction from Bamberg Cathedral [1513] of a woman undergoing an ordeal
            by  hot iron .)