Chapters

1. History’s Story
2. Wanderers and Settlers: The Ancient Middle East to 400 B.C.
3. The Chosen People: Hebrews and Jews, 2000 B.C. to A.D. 135
4. Trial of the Hellenes: The Ancient Greeks, 1200 B.C. to A.D. 146
5. Imperium Romanum: The Romans, 753 B.C. to A.D. 300
6. The Revolutionary Rabbi: Christianity, the Roman Empire, and Islam, 4 B.C. to A.D. 1453
7. From Old Rome to the New West: The Early Middle Ages, A.D. 500 to 1000
8. The Medieval Mêlée: The High and Later Middle Ages, 1000 to 1500
9. Making the Modern World: The Renaissance and Reformation, 1400 to 1648
10. Liberation of Mind and Body: Early Modern Europe, 1543 to 1815
11. Mastery of the Machine: The Industrial Revolution, 1764 to 1914
12. The Westerner’s Burden: Imperialism and Nationalism, 1810 to 1918
13. Rejections of Democracy: The InterWar Years and World War II, 1917 to 1945
14. A World Divided: The Early Cold War, 1945 to 1993
15. Into the Future: The Contemporary Era, 1991 to the Present

• Epilogue: Why Western Civilization?

Theme

Summaries

Keywords

Review Questions

Study Guide for Chapter 7
From Old Rome to the New West: The Early Middle Ages, A.D. 500 to 1000

Primary Sources | Art History | Links

Theme

The peoples in Western Europe rebuild civilization, despite repeated political destruction.

Summaries

Goths in the Garden
With the Germans in charge in Western Europe, much of Græco-Roman civilization whithers away.

Charles in Charge
The Carolingian family almost succeeds in reviving some civilization.

The Cavalry to the Rescue
After the collapse of the Carolingians, the defensive strategy of castles and offensive strategy of knights restores some political stability to Western Europe.

Keywords

Goths in the Garden
Middle Ages (500-1500), early Middle Ages (450-1050), Dark Ages (500-750), feuds, trials by ordeal, Christendom, monasticism, Benedictine Rule (530), asceticism, "regular clergy," regionalism, germanization, Anglo-Saxons, Council of Whitby (663), Vikings, Alfred "the Great” (r. 871-901), England, Franks, Merovingians, Clovis (r. 481-511), Battle of Tours or Poitiers (732), Saracens

Charles in Charge
Carolingians, Pippin "the Short” (r. 741-768) pope, papacy, Gregory I "the Great” (r. 590-604), Iconoclastic Controversy (8th cent.), Donation of Pippin 754), Papal States, Frankish-Papal Alliance, Charlemagne (r. 768-814), missi dominici, Carolingian Renaissance (750-850), Treaty of Verdun (843), France, Germany, Lorraine, Magyars or Hungarians

The Cavalry to the Rescue
castles, knights, chivalry, tournaments, feudal politics, Peace of God, Truce of God, manorial or seigneurial economics, serfs, three-field planting

Review Questions

• How did German rule combine with the Roman heritage in the West?
• How did the Carolingian family rise and fall?
• How did feudal politics and manorial economics help the West recover?

Other Questions

• What were the characteristic social institutions and behaviors which defined the Early Middle Ages (ca. 450-1000)? You might consider the following questions: How was the surviving western Roman World different from societies of Byzantium and Islam? How did some Germanic kingdoms succeed in building new stability? What new practices did the western Christian Church emphasize? What were the Carolingian efforts at civilization and why did they fail?
• What does the Early Middle Ages illustrate about the differences between localized and centralized government?
• Can a culture be a civilization if it lacks significant cities and urban life?