- Students will complete notes using the textbook on the decentralization of Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire and the development of the feudal and manorial systems.
- This station is worth 12 points.
- The directions for this station are on the document that you will submit and on the website as well.
THERE IS A DOCUMENT IN THE CRATE AT THE BACK OF THE ROOM WHICH YOU MUST COMPLETE FOR THIS STATION.
LEARN THIS:
The Middle Ages was a period of significant decentralization in Europe between two periods of much stronger centralization with the earlier Roman Empire and the developing nations of the European Renaissance. Centralized government is what you have when power is held by a single authority. That could be one person, several persons, or any of several different types of government. Decentralization is simply the lack of a strong centralized government which means that power is spread out amongst many groups and rulers rather than held by a central authority. In Medieval Europe, this meant that there were a whole lot of minor kings and lords who held power in a variety of different kingdoms and fiefdoms rather than the one emperor and government that had held power in Rome or the powerful kings of a few nations that came later during the Renaissance.
Decentralization was caused by many things. Invasions by several different groups had slowly torn the Roman Empire apart. This led to the downfall of cities as people retreated to the somewhat safer countryside. As a result, the concept of government changed as people relied less on the decline centralized government in Rome and more on local lords who could protect the people from the invaders. All of this disrupted trade, which always makes civilizations better off, and over time people became much more focused on producing enough food to survive anyway rather than on producing goods for trade. Each of these causes contributed to a decline in learning which normally supports the process of centralization.
A system of social groups and political alliances developed as power decentralized in Europe. This system was called feudalism. Those who claimed ownership of land would give it away in exchange for service and loyalty. The person who controlled the land was known as a feudal lord and the person who received it was their vassal.
The land was lived on and worked by peasants and serfs. Their participation in feudalism is often considered a separate system known as manorialism. This is because feudalism describes control of the land but manorialism describes how the land was used. The peasants and serfs were not given land but lived on it and worked it for their feudal lord. In exchange, they were allowed to keep a percentage of what they produced and were protected by their lord and his vassals.
In the image below, you can see how the relationships between social groups were ranked and their relative size. When Europe was most decentralized, there were very few who could claim to be king so that area is very small. Many kings were just more powerful feudal lords anyway. The most powerful kings or feudal lords could claim to be the vassal of no one. All knights were a vassal to someone in Medieval Europe. And you'll notice that the area representing peasants and serfs is the largest. This represents that they were at the bottom of the social structure and had little power despite being the biggest percentage of the population by far.
DIRECTIONS:
Complete the notes on the document in the crate at the back of the room by reading from Chapter 13 – European Middle Ages (pages 350-373) and Chapter 14 – The Formation of Western Europe (pages 376-403) in your textbook.