SLM - World History-2 - 0

WORLD HISTORY - 2
(HIS4B05)
STUDY MATERIAL
FOURTH SEMESTER
B.A. HISTORY
(2019 Admission onwards)
UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT
SCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION
CALICUT UNIVERSITY P.O.
MALAPPURAM - 673 635, KERALA
19308
School of Distance Education
University of Calicut
Study Material
Fourth Semester
B.A. HISTORY
(2019 Admission onwards)
Core Course (HIS4B05) : WORLD HISTORY - 2

Prepared by:
Dr. Santhosh Kumar. L
Assistant Professor,
Department of History,
Govt. College for Women,
Thiruvananthapuram
Scrutinized by:
Sri. Vivek. A.B,
Assistant Professor,
School of Distance Education,
University of Calicut
DISCLAIMER
"The author shall be solely responsible
for the content and views
expressed in this book".
CONTENTS
Module I MEDIEVAL WORLD: STATE 1 – 61

AND SOCIETY
Module II MEDIEVAL WEST ASIA 62 – 96
Module III MEDIEVAL CHINA - TANG & 97 – 121

MING DYNASTIES
Module IV ASPECTS OF TRANSITION 122 – 137

HIS4B05 : World History - 2
MODULE-I
MEDIEVAL WORLD: STATE AND SOCIETY
Europe after the collapse of Rome

For almost one-thousand years, Rome conquered and
brought order and law to most of the known world. Although
the concept of the Roman Empire and Republic being
absolutely benevolent to its entire population is highly
inaccurate, Rome did spread several ideas and principals which
are essential to modern government and day to day life. Rome
did its part in shaping the modern world, but all good things
must come to an end. One of the most severe and lasting
impacts Rome had on Europe was, in fact, the empire‘s own
demise. The fall of Rome not only shook the world then, but
had profound effects on the next thousand years of western
European history.
To understand the effects of the Roman Empire‘s fall,
one must first understand why the Empire fell at all. This topic
has been discussed and debated by innumerable scholars
through the ages and historians still have no definitive answer.
However, there are a few factors which most scholars agree at
least played a role in the empire‘s collapse. The first is
economic crisis. A large portion of Rome‘s economy was
based on slave labour. In fact, it is estimated that, at its peak,
25% of Rome‘s population were slaves. These slaves were
obtained from the soldiers and resistance forces of conquered
nations (―Roman Slaves‖). Therefore, when Rome was no
School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 1

longer able to conquer, the supply of slaves dried up. Since

Rome had relied on human labour for so many years, it had not
pursued technological innovation in the field of agriculture.
Without cheap labour and slaves to work the fields, the
economy collapsed. Additionally, the Roman welfare system,
which supported the thousands of Romans who were out of
work due to the availability of slaves, taxed the Roman coffers
and economy heavily. Corruption also helped bring about the
economic collapse that plagued the late Roman Empire. An
unknown author who lived around 386 C.E. wrote, ―…
wherewith the arts of [greediness] afflict the provinces, comes
the appalling greed of the provincial Governors, which is
ruinous to the taxpayers‘ interests‖ (―On Military Matters‖). It
is clear that this author, as well as many other Romans, must
have realized that the opulent lifestyle of the Roman elite was
bringing the country to its knees.
The second main reason for Rome‘s fall is not the
archetypal ―barbarians outside the gate‖ but, instead,
―barbarians‖ (any non-Roman) inside the gates. As the empire
grew larger, the native Roman population grew smaller in
proportion to the size of the Empire. Rome was forced to hire
barbarian mercenaries to defend the borders. Of course, these
troops were not of the same quality as the legionaries of
Rome‘s golden ages, nor were they loyal to Rome. The
generals and commanders who did command the mercenaries‘
loyalty were then able to command Rome itself. This partially
led to the rampant corruption and volatile political climate that
also helped to bring about the downfall of Rome.

Due to the many problems that plagued the Empire in

its later years, the Roman Empire was carved up by barbarians
and separated into many smaller kingdoms. Perhaps the most
immediate effect of Rome‘s fall was the breakdown of
commerce and trade. The miles of Roman roads were no
longer maintained and the grand movement of goods that was
coordinated and managed by the Romans fell apart. It is
clear that the quality of goods throughout Europe decreased
significantly after the fall of Rome. Before the collapse, one
might find high quality pottery from Africa on the table of
Roman citizens in Italy. Brian Ward-Perkins, a historian and
archaeologist, notes that post-Roman pottery was ―…rare and
poor in quality-of badly selected clay… The resulting vessels
are porous and very friable- many would score low marks as
first efforts in pottery at an infants‘ school.‖
Also note that the barbarian takeover itself caused
economic problems. Jordanes, an ancient historian, mentioned
how frequently the ―barbarians‖ would sack settlements as
they marched(Jordanes, ―The Origin and Deeds of the Goths‖).
The economic collapse and coupled with these foreign
invasions meant that much of the classical Roman architecture
was lost. The fancy stone of the Roman era was, unfortunately,
replaced with simple wooden structures.
The fall of Rome also paved the way for another major
part of Europe‘s history: feudalism. When Rome fell, Europe
fell into a state of constant warfare. The new kings not only
wanted to tax their populous, but also wanted them to fight
during times of war. This practice was, of course, unpopular.

The new kings allowed the landowners to raise their own small
armies that the kings could call upon to defend the kingdom.
This system also provided local protection from anyone who
might want to pillage the land, such as the Vikings or Magyars.
This eventually developed into the system of feudalism that
dominated medieval Europe.
Feudalism helped prevent another strong centralized
government, like that of Rome, from forming in Europe for
hundreds of years. Although landowners swore loyalty to the
king, those landowners would further subdivide and distribute
their lands to people who swore loyalty to them. Naturally this
created a decentralized government that was prone to internal
conflict. Feudalism also further weakened trade and economic
development in Europe. Serfs who worked the land were
bound to the land, and forbidden to create economic
infrastructure without their lord‘s permission. Since serfs had
to pay taxes and tolls to use their lord‘s infrastructure and
resources, it was not in their lord‘s best interest to give them
the privilegeto develop the land. The European economy of the
middle ages was nothing compared to that of the Roman era.
However, there was a significant improvement and
strengthening ofreligious bodies after the fall of Rome.
At first, Christianity was banned in Rome and
Christians were persecuted by many emperors such as Nero
and Diocletian. However, in 313 C.E., Christianity became
legal under the rule of Constantine the Great, the first Christian
emperor. Using his influence as Emperor, Constantine
established processes and standards that provided stability to

the early church. Under his protection, and due to the various
forms of favouritism he showed to the church, Christianity
prospered under Constantine. Being a man skilled in politics
and administration, Constantine also influenced the internal
working of the church in order to make it more stable. For
example, the standard of calling religious councils in which
church leaders would come together and debate major
theological and doctrinal issues was Constantine‘s idea.
Although the church‘s bureaucratic and highly political nature
would eventually lead to the decline of the Catholic Church, it
did help the church survive and prosper after the fall of Rome.
When the law and order that Rome provided
disappeared, the people of Europe began to look to the church
for guidance. Some religious leaders, such as the Pope,
basically acted like monarchs. Other lower religious leaders
acted as advisors to kings and even had managerial roles in
various kingdoms. Without Rome‘s advocacy of polytheism
and established government, the church not only became the
ultimate source of authority in the newly converted
European kingdoms, but also became somewhat entwined in
the political affairs of these countries. This paved the way for
the Church‘s domination of medieval Europe.
Although the fall of Rome did allow Christianity to
prosper, it created many problems for medieval Europe. After
all, it would be almost a millennium before any other
civilization could rival the size, complexity and sophistication
of Rome. Until then, Europe would suffer from an intellectual
drought and a lack of growth and prosperity. The fall of Rome

was necessary in order for the world to be what it is today, but

its fall was still, in many ways, a tragedy.
Byzantine empire- Imperial system- Legal System
The Roman Empire in the west had vanished in 500
C.E. But at the same time the Eastern emperors, with their
capital at Constantinople retained control of an immense realm
covering the Eastern Mediterranean from the Balkans through
Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine to Egypt. It continued to exist
for a thousand years after the fall of Roman or until 1453 C.E.
In the meantime, the Greek ousted Latin Language and there
developed an entirely a new type of civilization. The new
name for the empire in the east was ‗Greek Empire‘ or the
‗Byzantine Empire‘. The word Byzantine derived from the
Greek name for Constantinople (Byzantium). It cannot be
denied that the Byzantine monarchy was a direct continuation
of the Roman Empire on a reduced scale. Constantinople had
become the New Rome or Second Rome.
Justinian: The period of Justinian lasted from 527 to 565 C.E.
Justinian was one of the greatest Eastern Roman Emperors.
His ambition was to reconquer the countries possessed by the
ancient Romans. He was determined to restore the empire, to
regain its lost territories and to rebuild its cities. He considered
his project somewhat as a Crusade to rescue the Catholics from
Arian rule.
Justinian was a great conqueror. He had efficient
generals like Belisarius and Narses. He conquered many
territories and brought under his control. He crushed the

Vandals; destroyed the Goths and brought the Franks under his
control. The tide of reconquest even reached far off Spain
where Justinian seized a strip of south-eastern coast with very
little difficulty. Besides, Justinian was able to conquer Persians
and the Slavonics.
Justinian was not only a great conqueror but also a
great administrator. He rendered remarkable service in the
economic and religious fields. His contribution to art and
letters cannot be underestimated. Of all the contributions, the
contribution to law is immensely great. Hence, it is said,
Justinian‘s real conquest of the west came many years after his
death not through his armies but through his law.
His Successors: The successors of Justinian were very weak
and inefficient. In 624 A.D the Visigoths regained their control
in all the coastal territories they had lost. The invasions of
Lombards reduced the area of Byzantine control in Italy. The
slaves occupied large areas of the Balkans. The Persians
regained control over Syria and Egypt. The Muslim forces
defeated the Persian army in Syria in 636 C.E. As a result, the
empire become far smaller and poorer. It consisted of just the
region surrounding Constantinople.
Leo III: He was the Byzantine emperor from 717 to 740
C.E. He was an able ruler. during his period (717 C.E.) the
Saracens under Arab Muslims attacked the Byzantine Empire
and blockaded Constantinople. But the forces of Leo III
defeated the Muslim Army. The Arabs did not expect the
defeat at the hands of Leo III. Immediately he retreated with
less than a third of this original army. This was the greatest

expedition that the Caliphs sent forth and was better equipped
than that was defeated by Charles Martel in 732 C.E. Thus,
Leo III checked the advance of the Muslims into Europe and
thereby saved Europe from the Muslim peril. Hence, Leo III
may be called as ‗Second Charles Martel‘.
Macedonian Rulers: This dynasty ruled Byzantium from 867
to 1057 C.E. This Macedonian dynasty took great interest to
expand the empire once again. Accordingly, they recovered
Syria in 968 C.E.
The greatest ruler of the Macedonian dynasty was Basil
II. He was a great soldier and conqueror. He destroyed the
Bulgarian State. As a result, Byzantine rule was firmly
established in the Balkan Peninsula.
Battle of Manzikert: The Byzantine emperor Romulus IV
took all possible steps to avert the incursions of Turks. But a
serious battle took place between the emperor and the Seljuk
Turks at Manzikert in 1071 C.E. The emperor was defeated by
the Turks. This was a great military disaster to the empire. In
the Manzikert battle many provinces furnished their troops to
give a tough battle to the Turks. But the best troops suffered
seriously in the battle. There was a colossal loss to the troops.
So, the Turks entered into the interior of Asia Minor.
In the same year there was another blow from
Normans. The Normans of Southern Italy conquered the vital
Byzantine Adriatic port of Bari, making the virtual end of
Byzantium‘s presence in the west. After 1071 C.E. the
Byzantine Empire began to fall. The then ruler of Byzantine

was Alexius Comnenus. The Turks frequently attacked the

empire. He appealed to the West for help. The crusaders came
to save Byzantium.
The first crusade was a successful one. The crusaders
conquered Jerusalem. Edessa and Antioch were also captured.
But the second crusade was a failure. The third crusade
achieved meagre result. The fourth crusade turned to be an
expedition against the Byzantine empire. During this time
Constantinople fell first in 1203 and them again in 1204. In
this crusade the Venetians supported them. Later on, they
occupied the city of Constantinople and sacked it. There
followed the barbaric massacre which remains one of the
blackest chapters in European history. As a result of the
fourth crusade a Latin empire of Constantinople was
established. The Byzantine empire ceased to exist from 1204
to 1261 A.D In 1261 once again it was restored and revived. It
was mainly due to the Palaeologus Family. Constantinople
lived in terror as a vassal state of the Sultan to whom she paid
tribute and rendered military service.
Constantine XI: The last ruler of the Byzantine Empire was
Constantine XI. The position of the empire was precarious. So,
he made a desperate appeal to the west for aid. But he
received no real help. A battle took place between the ruler and
the Turks. Finally, Constantinople fell in the hands of Turks in
1453 C.E. The city was captured, plundered and pillaged and
the emperor Constantine XI perished. Thus, ended an old
story—the story of Byzantine empire.

Justinian: Justinian, the ‗Roman Law Giver‘ occupies a

prominent place in the brightest pages of European History. He
was one of the greatest of the Eastern Roman emperors. He
had succeeded to the imperial throne in 527 C.E. and
remained in power till 565 C.E. He left a great and permanent
mark on the history of Europe.
Justinian was born in Illyria (Balkans) a Latin speaking
region. His uncle Justin helped him very much for his
succession. He usurped the Empire in 518 C.E. after a
successful army career. He had trained Justinian as his
successor.
Justinian realized the menace to the Roman Empire
from the Germanic peoples in the west. So, his ambition was to
reconquer ‗the countries possessed by the ancient Romans.
Another ambition was to reconquer all the lost territories
during the time of his predecessors. He wanted to rebuild the
destroyed cities during the previous invasions Another great
ambition of his was to rescue the Catholics from Arian rule.
His Conquests: It is the great military exploits of Justinian‘s
reign that here claims chief mention. The empire was rich, well
ordered, and had at this moment in Belisarius one of the
greatest world‘s generals, and an army of wonderful efficiency.
There the foot soldiers had been well important in the battle of
Adrianople. Under Belisarius, the foot soldiers played a quite
secondary part and it was the horse archer or mounted bowman
upon whom he placed his chief reliance.
(a) West: There were four main powers in the west. The

Vandals ruled North Africa. The Visigoths gained control over

Spain and part of southern France; the Franks ruled northern
and western France; and the Ostrogoths exercised their
authority in Italy.
Causes for his Conquest:
I. His army was energetic and enthusiastic especially after
the Persian conquest. They were waiting for an
opportunity to reconquer the west.
II. The Vandal Kingdom exhibited in an extreme from all
the Kingdoms that the Gothsfounded.
III. After the death of Genseric there was no capable
successor.
IV. The native population were bitterly hostile to their
conquerors, both in Arians and asoppressors.
V. The Vandals themselves, in these almost tropical lands
had lost their old fierceness,courage and endurance.
Justinian dispatched his armada in 533 C.E. under his
great general Belisarius against Vandal Africa. They could
hardly attempt any resistance. The campaign was
encouragingly successful and by 534 C.E. Vandal Africa was
restored as a province of the Empire.
(b) Gothic Wars: The turn of Italy came there years later.
The campaigns of Justinian in Italy are known as ‗Gothic
Wars‘. The brilliant Belisarius was directed against Sicily.
Sicily fell to him almost without a struggle. Naples was
brought under the control of Belisarius after a siege. At first all

went well with the imperialists. Belisarius took Rome in 536,

and Ravenna in 540. All central and southern Italy was
recovered for the Empire.
At this Juncture Totila the new Gothic leader was
elected by the Gothic people in 541 C.E. He was a splendid
leader. He has been compared to leaders like Alaric and
Theodoric, the Glory of the Gothic races. He took Rome in 549
C.E. All Italy fell into his hands except Ravenna. Against this
new power even Belisarius was no longer invisible.
Justinian who was determined on victory sent (in
551C.E.) a great military leader Narses with a strong army.
Narses defeated Totila in 553 C.E. in the battle of Taginae.
Totila was killed in the battlefield. Thus, Italy was reduced to
subjection and the Ostrogoths were completely driven out of
Italy. Their name disappeared for ever from the annals of
Europe. The tide of reconquest even reached far off Spain
where Justinian seized (550 C.E) a strip of south- eastern coast
with very little difficulty.
Effects of His Policy: During the Italian campaign many cities
were devastated. Their civilization was ruined. Rome itself was
left in ruins. In this connection it is said, ―The Visigothic sack
of 410 was nothing compared with the havoc brought by
Justinian‘s armies‖. So far Italy was concerned it was
Justinian‘s wars that marked the beginning of ‗Dark Ages‘. He
brought great disaster to Italy by uprooting the Goths.
Moreover, by destroying the power of the Ostrogoths in Italy
Justinian opened the way for the invasion of Lombards. In 568
C.E. three years after his death, the Lombards invaded Italy.

Within ten years they occupied large parts of Italy. Had the
Goths been left in peace, there might have been no Lombard
invasion. In short ‗he made a desert and called it peace‘.
Another effect of his reconquest was colossal waste of
money. The treasury became empty. The empire became poor.
Hence, it is aptly said, ‗Justinian bequeathed to his successors
a vastly expanded empire but the empire was impoverished
and bankrupt‘.
(c) Persia: The old enemy of Rome was the Persian
Kingdom. It was growing day by day from strength to
strength. Justinian was always following a defensive policy
in the East.Since he was tied up in the West, he had no time to
take steps against the East. Many provinces were raided by the
Persians now and then. The invasions also failed to pay their
share of taxes. To add to all these moves, the whole empire
suffered from a great pestilencein 543 C.E.
Reforms:
(i) Administration.
Justinian left a great and permanent mark on the history
of Europe. He built up an elaborate administrative apparatus.
He enlarged the bureaucracy. He made all appointments
concerning the city and the provinces. He carefully selected
hierarchy of officials to govern the city and the provinces. He
succeeded in suppressing rival factions and maintained his
absolute power as emperor.
Justinian gave special attention to the economic revival
of the Empire. All available mineral resources were exploited

by the government. Tariff were increased by him during his

reign. It facilitated the industrial production. New industries
were established. Among them the silk industry was very
important in the land.
(ii) Religion
Justinian viewed himself as the ‗deliverer of Catholics
from Arian rule‘. He attempted to reunite all Christians under
his rule. Moreover, he undertook the heroic attempt to reunite
the Roman world in one Empire and one church.
Monophysitism was supported by the East. It was
abhorred by the West. Early in his reign Justinian persecuted
the Monophysites. But under the influence of his wife,
Theodara, Justinian leans towards Monophysites. He tried to
make a compromise between the orthodox and the
Monophysites. But his compromise formula was satisfactory to
neither side. As a result, almost all Egyptians and many
Syrians seceded from the official church of the Eastern empire
and formed their own religious organizations. Hence, it is said,
―Justinian‘s religious policy was no more successful than his
policy of restoration of his Roman Empire‖.
(iii) Law.
Under Justinian rule, Roman law reached is final shape.
Many efforts had been made since the days of the Antonine to
codify Roman law, that is, to summarise it in a logical and
complete from; and these efforts culminated at last in the great
‗Codex Justinianus‘.
Prior to his reign the records of the laws and the

judges‘ decisions were in thousands of volumes. In short,

‗Roman law become so vast and bulk‘. The lawyers and
magistrates found it impossible to establish what in fact was
‗good‘ law. Justinian, therefore, resolved to recodify the law in
such a way that reference to it should be peaceful and
convenient. Within a year he completed this great work under
the guidance of a famous lawyer called Tribonian. Tribonian
published those books in a collective from. It was called
‗Corpus Juris Civilis‘. The first and most important unit was
the ‗Digest‘. It contained extracts of basic problems of
Jurisprudence. The second unit was called the ‗Code‘. It was a
restatement and simplification of statue law. The third unit was
called ‗the Institutes‘. It is a text book of Roman law for the
students. The last one was ‗the Novels‘. It contained the laws
promulgated after 534 C.E. to amend or supplement the code.
Justinian‘s work was considered as a treasure beyond price.
Roman law thus presented was destined to have an
immense influence on the development of European politics
and thought during the later Middle ages. So ―Justinian‘s real
conquest of the West came many years after his death not
through his armies, but through his law‖.
(iv) Art and Architecture
Justinian made glorious achievements in the field of art
and architecture. To defend the empire, he built many
fortresses. Among them the frontier fortresses, the fortified
cities of eastern frontier, the Danube defences were very
prominent. Besides, he was intent on beautifying the existing
cities, thus adding to the lustre of his empire. The buildings

erected were of very high artistic quality and inaugurated the

‗golden age of Byzantine art‘.
Justinian built many magnificent churches in his
empire. The architects of these churches came from Asiatic
provinces. The decoration was largely inspired by oriental
examples. The new churches emphasized the interior rather
than the exterior. The building of St. Sophia in Constantinople
was his great successful achievement. The ‗Dome‘ is its central
feature.
Justinian‘s most famous buildings are found in Italy,
particularly in Ravenna and Classe. Their mosaics were made
of thousands of glass cubes which reflect light in different and
baththe whole church in coloured light. Thus, ‗Justinian‘s legal
code and the magnificent buildings he left influenced both the
eastern and western Mediterranean worlds for centuries after
his death.
Cultural Contribution of Byzantine Empire
Saviour of Ancient Culture: The cultural contribution of
Byzantine Empire was far reaching and tremendous. As a
custodian of Graeco-Roman culture, the Eastern empire
provided an invaluable service to the emerging civilization of
western Europe. It preserved the cultural traditions of Greece
and the political techniques of the old Roman Empire. The
learning and literature of ancient Greece was also preserved by
the Empire. Manuscripts of Greek Literatures were copied in a
grand manner. Roman law and Greek philosophy and letters
were studied at Constantinople. Many Byzantine scholars

compiled encyclopaedia and lexicons. Historical writings were

studied well. Saints‘ lives were vindicated to the people.
Besides many Medical works, legal treatises and technological
ideas were compiled during this time. In short it made a
significant impact on the ‗Italian Renaissance‘.
Art and Architecture: In the field of art and architecture the
contribution of Byzantine Empire was immensely great. The
artists of Eastern Empire produced enduring masterpieces.
Many majestic churches were built by the rulers of the Empire.
The best example of such a type of church is St. Sophia at
Constantinople. Moreover, St. Vitale in Ravenna and St.
Marks in Venice are enduring masterpieces of those.
During the time of Justinian many marvellous buildings
were erected. The building of St. Sophia was his successful
achievement. The dome is its central feature. The sight of the
dome, when seen from within, is awe-inspiring. One feels lost
in its vastness.
Thus, Justinian‘s magnificent buildings influenced both
the eastern and western Mediterranean world for centuries
after his death.
Industry: Many industries were established during the time of
Justinian. Among them Silk Industry was the most important
industry. A constant stream of refined products of Byzantine
manufacture poured into the West. Heavy silk products come
to the forefront during the time of Justinian. The goods were
imported into Italy until the Italian cities began to make their
own silk.

The mosaic works were made prominent by the

Byzantine Empire. It was considered as a great contribution to
world civilization. The enamels and ivories of that period were
very popular during middle ages. The Empire was famous for
its own textile goods. Besides, its pearl and gold work and its
painting were eagerly and zealously guarded in Western
treasuries.
Painting: The Byzantine painting influenced profoundly the
beginnings of painting in Italy. Many painters were patronized
by the Byzantine rulers.
Administration: In the field of administration that Empire did
a lot. The Arabs who conquered Syria and Egypt, in the 8th
century took over much of the administrative system and many
of the intellectual traditions of the old Eastern Empire. The
bureaucracy set up by the Byzantine rulers was followed later
on in many European countries. Byzantine‘s lasting
contribution to European History lies above all in its
‗conversion of Russia and Balkans‘.
Law: Under Justinian‘s rule Roman law reached its final
shape. To Byzantium we owe the two great monuments of
Roman laws, the codes of Theodosius and Justinian . The
‗Corpus Juris Civilis‘ of Justinian become an essential part of
the Western intellectual tradition and effected the law of
European country.
Carolingians - Charlemagne
Among the various Barbarian tribes, the Franks in
particular made Western Europe their permanent home. Their

greatest king was Charles I later known as Charlemagne or

Charles the great. The biography of Charlemagne in Latin by
Einhard, composed shortly after his death is one of the
valuable sources of information for the study of the great king.
Charles, who was born in 768 C.E. at a place not exactly
known, who was the son of Pepin III, the Short (741-768 C.E.)
the son of Charles Martel (679-741 C.E) the king of Franks. It
may be noted here that Charles Martel had routed the Arabs in
the famous Battle of Tours in 752 C.E. The kingdom of Franks
was divided between Charlemagne who got the larger part and
his younger brother Carloman who got the smallest part. With
German blood commanding personality Charlemagne had
many characteristics of Germans. Six feet four inches tall stout
but proportionately well-built he had a regal bearing. He was
moderate in food and drink and disliked over-eating and
drunkenness. He strengthened his physique by sports like
hunting, horse-riding and swimming. He acquired of
tremendous stamina and power of endurance which any king
might have envied.
He was not very learned and had only the reading of a
few books to his credit. His most favourite book was the City
of God by St. Augustin. He spoke Old Testament and Latin
and undertook Greek. He learnt to write in his old age but
was not very successful. On the death of his younger brother
Carloman II in 771 C.E, the twenty-nine-year-old Charles
became the sole king of the Franks.
Military campaigns
Charlemagne was a military genius. His soldiers

worshipped him as a great leader. In 773 C.E, Pope Adrian II

appealed to Charlemagne for help to fight against the
Lombards led by king Desiderius. Charlemagne responded
with and army captured Pavia and became king of Lombardy
in 774 C.E. Italy was saved from the marauding Muslims. He
conquered Bavaria and Saxony and extirpated the power of the
harassing years. He fortified towns of Gaul after conquering it
completely and clearing it off all moors. He held in check the
ambitious and expanding Moors of Spain. The powerful tribe
of Saxons on the eastern frontier severely tested the endurance
of Charlemagne. They had reduced churches to ashes and had
raided Gaul of the times. He conducted revenge against them
eighteen campaigns for 32 years and put to death about 4500
Saxon rebels in one day. In crushing the power of the Saxons
and showed proverbial perseverance and showed that he could
be more stubborn than the most stubborn tribe of Europe.
However, in Spain he could not have his own way. In response
to the appeal of the Muslim Governor of Barcelona in 777 C.E.
Charlegmne led an army across the Pyrenees and captured the
Christian city of Pamplona. But he could achieve little against
the Caliph of Cordoba as the expected revolts of Muslims did
not materialise. In 778 C.E. almost his whole army was
destroyed at one of the passes in the mountains. In 795 C.E. he
again despatched an army beyond the Pyrenees and secured the
Spanish March a slice of northeast Spain. His Spanish
campaign was perhaps the only the major failure.
At the end of his series of military campaigns he found
himself as the master of large empire bounded by Vistula and

Atlantic and the battle of the Pyrenees. The area it was almost
equal to the Roman empire. His empire was greater than the
Byzantine empire though it was smaller than that of Abbasid
Caliphs. It covered the modern empires of France, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Austria parts of Germany, Spain,
Switzerland, Italy, Yugoslavia and Czech Republic. The
wheels of government would revolve smoothly only as long as
the king was vigilant and strong. Charlemagne was not only a
great conqueror but also an efficient administrator and
foresighted statesman. The various countries he conquered
were consolidated and brought under good and stable rule. The
capital was Aachen.
He believed in absolute power and not in idealise
dreams and utopian principles. He carefully studied the
problems of his vast empire and concluded that his authority
needed the support of military forces, the co-operation of
nobles and the sanction of the Catholic church. He did not
always do the theoretically the best but he regarded as
expedient and practical. Ingoverning over the far-flung empire,
he sagaciously combined the toughness of his grandfather,
Charles Martel and the wisdom of his father Pepin III.
He protected his empire from aggression from without
and revolts from within. He established peace and order and
promoted the material and moral welfare of his subjects. He
found that a standing army was far beyond his sources and
so far, defending his empire he threw the responsibility of his
counts over whom he exercised vigilant supervision. While he
did not compel all and sundry to bear arms, he asked every

free-man who owned property above certain size to provide

himself with military equipment and he ready to fight under
his count whenever he called for an army.
The emperor saw that he had the unfailing co-operation
of the nobles and the clergy and carried on the administration
with the help of the administrative barons, Seneschal or chief
of the palace, the Count Palatine or chief of justice and others.
He did not concentrate all power in his own hands, but left
much power in the hands of the counts and gave considerable
scope for local self-government. For administrative
convenience he divided his empire into countries. In each
country, a Count was put in charge of secular affairs and
Bishop or Archbishop in charge of spiritual affairs. The
problem ridden frontier or marches were places under the
control of Special Governors. He carefully selected the Counts
and Bishops and devised ways and means to see that they did
not entertain the great ambition of becoming independent
rulers. Charlemagne held periodical assemblies of armed
nobles and property- owners in the open air all Aachen,
Worms, Valenciennes, Paderborn and Geneva. All these
meetings the nobles and the higher clergy were expected in
report to him about the important happenings like revolts in
their respective areas of jurisdiction. The kings of Athens
following the custom of ancient Rome called the leading
citizen for an enquiry into taxable wealth, the law and order
situation and other important matters.
Rise of Spread of Christianity
Christianity is regarded as one of the great religions of

the world. Most of the people in the world are Christians. It

was established in Palestine. In other words, it was established
in West Asia spread in Europe and now it is turned as a world
religion.
Birth: The religion of Christianity was established by Jesus
Christ. He was a Jew by birth. His parents were Joseph and
Mary. He was born at Bethlehem in Palestine. It is West Asia.
Early life: Jesus lived in Nazareth for about thirty years.
During his stay at Nazareth his occupation was that of a
carpenter. John the Baptist was a notable preacher of that time.
Jesus was attracted by his preaching. After receiving Baptism,
Jesus began to preach. His ideas and thoughts were similar to
those of John. He visited many places including Judea and
Galilee. Wherever he went he was accompanied by his twelve
followers. He taught as he travelled and attracted increasing
number of followers. His ideas spread nook and corner of
Palestine. When he reached Jerusalem, thousands flocked to
see and hear him.
I. Teachings:
i. Jesus says that there is only one God according to Jesus
Christ.
ii. God is the loving Father of all that lives and that all men
are brothers.
iii. Jesus compared God to a King, but the kingdom of God,
he said, is notlike a worldly kingdom.
iv. ‗Do unto others as you would have others do to you‘.

v. Ceremonies, rules and regulations were of little

importance incomparison to brotherly behaviour.
vi. ‗Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you‘.
vii. ‗Turn the other when someone slaps one of your cheek‘.
viii. ‗Blessed are you who are poor in spirit for the
kingdom of God isyours‘.
ix. His teachings about the law, anger, adultery, divorce,
owes, revenge and love for enemies and about charity,
prayer and fasting are considered as gems and the
cornerstone of the Bible.
The sermon on the Mount occupied a prominent place
in his teaching. Jesus saw the crowds and went up the hill,
where he sat down, his disciples gathered round him and he
began to teach the above things.
The teachings of Jesus are recorded in the first three
books of the New Testament of the Bible. These books are
called the ‗Gospels‘ (Good News) according to St. Mathew, St.
Mark and St. Luke who were among the first followers of
Jesus. Jesus led a simple life and loved the poor. He realized
that service to people is the service to God. He preached
through parables or stories and his teachings appealed to the
masses.
Reaction Among the Jews: Though the Jews accepted the
teachings of Jesus in the beginning, they developed their
hatred towards him later on due to the increasing popularity of
Jesus. Some of his teachings opposed the commends of the
Jewish law. The idea of ‗Kingdom of God‘ was opposed by the

Jews. They considered themselves to be ‗God‘s chosen people‘

and looked down upon all non- Jews. At the same time the
Jewish prophets had prophesied that ‗a Messiah would be born
who would become king of Jews, rescue them from their
subjection to the Romans, and lead them to their glorious
destiny as ‗chosen people of God‘. The followers of Jesus
claimed that Jesus was the Messiah and regarded him as the
Christ. The world ‗Christ‘ means the ‗anointed one‘ in Greek
language, the word ‗Messiah‘ means same in the Hebrew
language. Hence, the orthodox Jews hated him like anything.
They become furious and wanted to put an end to him.
End to Jesus Christ: During this time Palestine was under
Roman rule. The Roman Procurator (Resident) was Pontius
Pilate. He was a stern man who opposed any rebellion or
serious disturbances in the country. The furious Jews put
pressure on the procurator and conveniently convinced him
that Jesus was a disturber of peace. As a result Jesus was
arrested and sentenced to be crucified.
Jesus was nailed on a wooden cross. There was heavy
bleeding and finally it took his life. This memorable even
happened probably in the year 30 C.E. during the time of the
Roman Emperor Tiberius.
Resurrection: According to the followers of Jesus, The
resurrection took place three days after his death (Resurrection
– coming back to life after having died). Some of the
disciples of Jesus claimed that they actually saw him alive and
were told by him not to be discouraged and that he would be
with them in spirit, if no more in bodily form. Even after this

incident, the followers of Jesus, increased tremendously. The

Jews were alarmed by this and they began to persecute the
followers of Jesus. To save their life they migrated to
Caesarea, Damascus and Antioch. At Antioch, the followers of
Jesus came to be called Christians.
Spread of Christianity: The spread of Christianity was
rapidly brought by the twelve followers of Jesus. They were
called Apostles. The followers of Jesus met in a council at
Jerusalem in 45 C.E. They decided to spread the religion in the
nook and corner of the world.
Paul: Paul of tarsus, a Jewish scholar played a leading part in
the propagation of this new religion. It spread in Asia Minor
and Greece by his earnest steps. In his ‗Epistles‘ he began the
work of building a Christian philosophy and theology that
could appeal to men of all races.
Peter: He was another great disciple of Jesus. He was highly
responsible for the spread of Christianity in Rome. He was
‗first Bishop of Rome‘. But he embraced his death at the hand
of his enemies in Rome for his faith. He was the head of the
Roman Church.
Church Organisation: The apostles established churches in
various cities of the empire. Many local churches were
established. Each church was placed under a Bishop. The
Bishop of the capital city of each Roman province was
recognized as a archbishop with authority over the other
Bishops in the provinces. Apart from Rome, many churches
were established in Egypt. Asia Minor, Greece, Gaul and

Spain. Thus, the systematic organization of the churches was

made during this time. Besides, all sections of people
embraced Christianity because it gave great hopes to the poor
and the downtrodden. Later, Christianity was made the
official religion of Rome.
Growth of Feudalism
Feudalism was an important feature of medieval
European civilization. It was a condition of society based on
the principle of protection, service, and payments. Those who
needed protection, service, and payments. Those who needed
protection secured it from a nobleman, who had his own army
and retainers. The nobleman in return secured services and
payments from those whom he protected.
Feudalism was an organization of society through the
medium of land. The word feudalism is derived from the Latin
word feudum, which means a fief or piece of land held by a
vassal. Feudalism was developed at a time when land was the
only source of wealth and power. Industry and trade had
suffered much during barbarian invasions, and it was difficult
to sell goods and have cash.
Feudalism was comprehensive in its range, but it
lacked regularity and uniformity. A study of feudal society in
different countries shows that conditions were not the same
everywhere, though the main principles were almost the same
in all countries. The want of uniformity makes some writers
speak of feudalism instead of feudal system. In the words of
Stubbs, feudalism ―may be describes as a complete

organization of society through the medium of land tenure in

which from the king down to the lowest landowner all are
bound together by obligation and defence‘‘.
Feudalism was of a slow and irregular growth it is
difficult to say precisely how and when it was introduced. It
took birth in critical times, when there was anarchy and
security to life and property was at stake. No king or law-giver
created it by an order or decree. The evolution of feudal
society was a spontaneous process. It must have been the result
of Roman, German and Celtic practices. It rose when people
were desperately in need of protection to their lives and
property and were prepared to surrender their liberty to those
who could protect them from violent hands. They were ready
to surrender their land besides agreeing to render service and
make certain payments.
It seems the germs of feudalism could be found even
before the days of Charlemagne, as the edicts of this emperor
indicate the existence of a feudal society earlier. The later
Roman emperors found it difficult to protect their frontiers
from barbarians. During the six centuries following the death
of Emperor Justinian (527-565 C.E.) many circumstances
contributed and the evolution of feudalism. The central
government was paralysed and law and order broke down.
Barbarians from Germany made the cities of Italy and Gaul
unsafe. As the king could not rule effectively and punish
barbarians, many nobles left their mansions in these cities and
went to their rural villas for safety. Around their villas lived
farmers and soldiers, who depended upon them.

The breakup of the Roman empire had endangered

industry trade and commerce. Means of communication were
disrupted and roads plagued by robbers were neglected. In the
rural areas, nobles began producing goods to make themselves
self-sufficient.
Feudalism mainly originated in Italy and Germany, but
its characteristic development took place in France. It was
taken to England by Anglo-Saxon conquerors. Feudalism did
not mature in Spain, northern Sweden, Norway, Greece and
other countries as in France and Britain.
In a way, the germs of feudalism were found in Roman
society, in which on a huge farm a large number of persons
depended on a nobleman. Then again, among German tribes it
was customary for many brave men to be led by a strong man.
After the death of Charlemagne and the consequent general
disorder, the problem of security become very, serious. For the
sake of self-defence, petty land –holders went to a powerful
nobleman in the neighbourhood and sought for his protection
could not be secured free. The seeker of protection had to
surrender his land to the lord and receive it back again as a
tenant. A person, who had no land, agreed to serve the lord in a
personal capacity. He could render menial services like waiting
on the lord‘s table or serving as a guard or watchman.
Basic Features
It is necessary to be familiar with the common words
used in feudal society. The man, who owned feudal land, was
known as lord, or liege lord or suzerain. The tenant, who held

the land was known as vassal, or liege man, or liege, or lord‘s

man, or man. The plot of land held in free, he was only a
vassal or tenant; but if he held it in fee simple, he was regarded
as owner. Feudalism was all-embracing. It applied to all
persons, classes and institutions. The king, the tenants-in-chief,
the subtenants, free men and serfs, laymen and clergymen, all
camein the feudal picture.
King: The king was believed to be the vassal of God and ruled
by divine right. He was the lord of all vassals. The whole state
or kingdom was the king‘s estate. He divided land among the
nobles, who become the tenants-in- chief in the country. For
having received the land, they were under obligation to render
military service and make some payments.
In feudal society the relationship between lord and man
was universal and it was said: ―No man without lord, no lord
without man‘‘. The tenant-in-chief sublet his lands to his
vassal, who might subinfeudate part of his land to a smaller
vassal. The relation between the vassal and the sub-vassal was
the same as between the baron and his vassal.
Manors: The country was divided into feudal units called
manors or estates in which the feudal lords lived almost like
kings. The size of the manor was not the same everywhere.
Some manors were small. Some were almost like a township.
Some were of the size of an entire district of twenty or thirty
villages. The manorial estate was worked by many families. It
contained the lord‘s castle, manorial court, mill, store-houses
and workers‘ quarters. The castle or chateau was not
beautiful. It was constructed more for security than of

comfort. It was surrounded by a deep moat. At the centre of

the castle, there was the donjon or lord‘s house. It was dark
inside, as it had few small windows. Each village in the manor
had a church with a parish priest. The church was the entre of
religious and social life.
Freemen, Serfs and Slave: The tenants were of two
categories: freeholders and villeins (i.e., those belonging to a
villa or a manor). Nobles, clergy, people following different
vocations traders, artisans and farmers owning land or holding
it on lease from a lord were freemen. Freeholders were in
minority, and they were free to live on the manor or go away if
they liked. Serfs were not slaves, though they were bound to
land. Their bodies could not be possessed, and they could not
be killed or mutilated. Slaves were like chattels , they could be
bought and sold. There were several types of serfs. The church
was against slavery, but it employed non-Christian slaves, who
were captured from Muslim countries. Italy dealt with slaves,
as she was influenced by Muslim countries. Gradually in
Europe the number of slaves diminished, as the number of
serfs increased.
A serf cultivated a piece of land owned by a lord or
baron. He paid annual rent in terms of goods, labour or money.
He paid three taxes in money, a head tax to the government
through the baron, rent and an arbitrary charge imposed by the
lord. He gave the lord one-tenth of his crops and livestock. On
many manors three days of free labour had to be given. He had
to repair ploughs, plant hedges, big ditches, shear sheep, and
do other miscellaneous jobs. Many restrictions were put on his

liberty. He could not sell his house or cattle, or give his

daughter in marriage without the consent of his lord.
Feudal society had different ranks. The king enjoyed
the highest status. Then came the lords, who were of noble
birth. Next in rank came the vassals. The serfs and slaves were
of the lowest rank in society, and they were badly exploited. In
feudal hierarchy, everyone was linked with land, whether he
was a king or a serf.
Rights and Duties
The feudal contract laid down duties and rights. The
lord was to protect his vassals and give justice. He was known
in English as Lord in Latin Dominus, in French Seigneur and
in German Herr. His main functions were to give military
protection to his lands and the people on it, to develop
agriculture, industry and trade, and to serve the king in war. A
person, who wished to be his vassal knelt bareheaded and
without any weapon before him, placed his hands in the palms
of the lord, on the bible or sacred relies and pledged permanent
fealty to the lord. The lord then raised him, granted him the
fief and in token gave him a flag, a straw, a stick, a clod of
earth, or a written deed. This ceremony was known as
Investiture. The piece of land given to the vassal was known as
fief. The vassal was called liege or liegeman. The primary
principle of feudalism was loyalty. The vassal had to do certain
services including military service. In times of peace he had to
cultivate the land. He had to make certain special money
payments called aids, when the lord‘s eldest son was to be
knighted when the lord‘s eldest daughter was to do be married,

and when the lord was to be ransomed.

The lord gave land to the serf for life. He allowed him
to use his ovens, milks, waters, woods, and fields. He took care
of him in sickness and old age. He built and maintained roads,
bridges and canals. He organized agriculture, industry and
trade. In some cases, a feudal lord owned more than one
manor. Such a lord appointed a Seneschal to exercise
supervision over all his manors. The lord was supposed to
protect the manor from robbers and invaders. He had to
maintain peace and order and settle disputes. In a manor the
lord maintained two type of courts. One was for the noble
vassals and the other for the tenants. Law was mostly
customary. When the armies were needed, the king asked the
tenants- in-chief to supply the troops. They in turn demanded
military service from their vassals.
Knights: In feudal society there arose a class of professional
soldiers called knights, who distinguished themselves in
tournaments and in acts of chivalry. The main duty of a knight
was to do military service. He had to equip himself with his
own horse and weapons, and serve for at least forty days each
year. Generally, a knight was attended by an esquire, who had
an extra horse and weapons. In case the knight was wounded,
the esquire had to help him. Knights were supposed to be men
of honour, who were ready to uphold justice and fair play. The
knights formed the finest armies of Europe. The status of a
lord was indicated by the number of knights he could
command for military service.
Church: The church also came under feudal organization. In

some cases, the manorial lord was an archbishop, bishop or an

abbot. He received land from the king and like the other
tenants-in-chief pledged his loyalty to the king. The king
conferred on the clergy titles like duke and count. The bishop
presided over the church courts , minted coins and enjoyed
other rights. In Germany and France, bishops and abbots
armed themselves like nobles.
High Status of Lords: The tenants-in chief had a high status
in feudal society. They did not do manual labour and soil their
fingers. They regarded themselves as lordsmen of noble birth
whose main duty was to rule over the manor and fight. The
nobles were of different grades: dukes, marquises, counts (or
earls in England) and barons.
Advantages
The very fact that feudalism was evolved to meet the
needs of society showed that it hadseveral advantages.
1. Saved Civilization: It saved civilization from the hands of
barbarians. It provided for defence at a time when the king was
unable to protect the people. It was a kind of mutual insurance
providing for protection in times of danger. The ordinary
people secured military protection from the strong. The needs
of the military strong persons in society were met by the
services rendered and payments made by the free-men and the
serf.
2. Social Harmony: It created social harmony on the basis of
fealty. Every person in feudal society knew his rank according
to which he had to render certain services, make payments and

enjoy certain rights. Society was bound by mutual obligations,

loyalty and services. The lord depended on his vassal, who in
turn depended on the lord. Thus, there was mutual support and
co-operation. Feudal society was like a ―mutual insurance
society‖.
3. Solved Economic Problems: It solved the economic
problems of society by providing for agricultural production
and the making of various kinds of commodities. The manor
was the economic unit, in which grain, vegetables and fruits
were grown and various types of commodities needed by
society were produces. One of the duties of the lord of the
manor wasto encourage the production of goods.
4. Made provision for Government: Feudalism provided
for good government relatively speaking at a time when kings
were unable to rule. The manor was a political unit also. The
lord of the manor governed more or less in the same way in
which a king ruled a country.
5. Protected Christianity: Christianity which was exposed to
the attacks of barbarians was saved. Like others, the clergy
were also feudalized.
Disadvantages
Feudalism had several drawbacks.
1. Weak kings: The king become weak, as the nobles had
large armies, which they used for challenging the king‘s
authority. The king could not impose his will on the barons
and compel them to do their duties as required by the feudal
contract. It was entirely dependent on the barons for men and

money. In some countries, the central government in the hands

of the king could not maintain peace and order. The barons
forgetting their obligations did whatever they liked and
promoted anarchy. In feudal England, under King Stephen,
who was a mere figure-head, the people suffered so much from
anarchy that the nineteen years of his rule were described as
―nineteen long winters‖ (1135-1154 C.E.). A manor was a self-
sufficient unit with the castle, church, mint, fields and
workshops. The baron could manage without the king‘s
support, and behave as if he were an independent ruler.
2. Wars: Feudalism was unfavourable to peace. The feudal
contract expected the barons to help the king to maintain
peace. They had to help him with their armies whenever the
king ordered. But in serval countries the barons used the
armies to fight among themselves or to rise in revolt against
the king. War was the normal law of the feudal world. As a
feudal lord had an army at his disposal more often than not, he
wished to measure its strength by fighting against the king or
other feudal lords. Thus, feudal lords sowed seeds of civil
wars.
3. Stagnant Society: Feudalism made society stagnant
instead of progressive and dynamic. The estate or manor was a
self-sufficient unit in which the political, social, economic and
religious needs of the people were met. It was a small world in
itself in which the people took birth and died without knowing
much about the outside world. The ordinary people were left
uninfluenced by what knowing anything about progress taking
place outside the manor.

4. Suffering of People: The common people and the serfs

suffered at the hands of the selfish and exploiting barons in
peace and in war. They were powerless and were thrown to the
tender mercies of the lords. The lords did not care to protect
the people or to promote their welfare. They harassed the king,
if he happened to be weak, and the king was incapable of
protecting the people.
The condition of the serfs was pitiable. They had to
suffer silently. They were expected to give free labour and
money payments totally out of proportion to the advantages
they had in the manor. They had no incentive to produce more,
as hens, eggs, honey, corn and several other things had to be
given free to the lord. They had very little rest, and were
bodily fatigued or worn out to take much interest in life.
5. Poor progress: in all fields of activity progress in feudal
society was poor. Politically there could be little progress in
which new ideas had no scope for their free play.
Economically feudalism was rigid and unprogressively. The
nobles were not interested in the rapid development of
agriculture and industry. They did not take any trouble or
risk to introduce better methods of production. Their immediate
objective was to secure as much wealth as possible. They spent
much of their time in war and had hardly any time left to plan for the
progress of society. They were not prepared to introduce any
changes, which would cut down their rights and privileges.
6. Hampered National Unification: Feudalism hampered
national unification people were conscious of smaller loyalties.
The concept of nation and loyalty to it was alien to feudal

society. In the feudal manor, people were loyal to the lord

rather than to the king. The lord was the superior on the spot,
and his word carried greater weight than that of themking.
Loyalty to the lord came in the way of developing loyalty to
the king and the country. People were accustomed to think in
terms of the inhabitants of the manor, and the concept of
nation could not be cultivated.
Decline and Disappearance
Feudalism declined in the 13th centuries. With the
outbreak of the Renaissance and movements, it disappeared in
the fifteenth century in several countries. It lingered in a few
countries even after that, as the people in them had not been
conscious of their rights or were unable to rebel against feudal
practices.
We may summarise here the important causes leading
to the decline and disappearance of feudalism.
1. Crusades: The crusades or the Holy Wars between the
Christians and the Muslims weakened the nobles. Many nobles
from various Christian countries had gone to the East to take
part in the Crusades. They lost heavily in the Crusades in terms
of men and money. Many died, and those who returned had
lost much of their wealth. The nobles impoverished by the
Crusades began selling their feudal rights.
2. Rise of Towns: The rise of towns was a blow to feudalism.
Many towns were able to have their freedom from baronial
control by paying a large sum of money and securing charters
of rights.

Towns also enabled serfs to have their freedom.

According to custom, a serf could not run away from the
manor. If he left the manor and was detected , he would be
brought back to the manor. But if he ran away to a nearby
town, and evaded detection for one year and one day after his
escape, he would earn his freedom. Many serfs escaped to the
towns, and evaded detection for a period longer than the
stipulated period.
3. Rise of the Middle Class: The rise of the middle class also
weakened the feudal structure. Middle class people were
against the mischievous and exploiting feudal barons, and
they were ready to help the king in crushing the power of the
nobles.
4. Rise of Strong Monarchy: The rise of powerful
monarchism several countries went far in bringing about the
decline of feudalism. Strong kings like Henry VII in England
seriously planned put down the nobles. They had the moral and
material support of the middle class. When gun-powder was
discovered, kings made their monopoly. In England, Henry VII
used gunpowder to batter the walls of the baronial castles, in
which the nobles had enriched themselves.
5. New Ideas: The impact of the new ideas was against
feudalism. As feudalism had outlived its purpose, it had to go.
In the dark age, people were in need of protection from nobles
against barbarians. Such protection was no more needed.
People who were increasingly becoming conscious of their
rights, were no more prepared to tolerate the tyranny of the
feudal barons.

The Germanic tribes

Germanic people were a diverse group of
migratory tribes with common linguistic and cultural roots
who dominated much of Europe during the Iron Age. When
the Roman Empire lost strength during the 5th century,
Germanic peoples migrated into Great Britain and Western
Europe, and their settlements became fixed territories. Various
Germanic tribes migrated into Italy, Gaul, Spain, and North
Africa. Many Germanic tribes merged, including the Jutes with
the Danes in Denmark, the Geats and Gutes with the Swedes in
Sweden, and the Angles with the Saxons in England. Germanic
peoples had a strong military, and warriors were fiercely
devoted to their military leaders, or chieftains. Political leaders
Odoacer and Theoderic the Great shaped later European
civilizations.
The Germanic peoples (also called Teutonic, Suebian,
or Gothic in older literature) are an ethno-linguistic Indo-
European group of northern European origin. They are
identified by their use of Germanic languages, which
diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre- Roman Iron
Age.
The term ―Germanic‖ originated in classical times
when groups of tribes living in Lower, Upper, and Greater
Germania were referred to using this label by Roman scribes.
These tribes generally lived to the north and east of the Gauls.
They were chronicled by Rome‘s historians as having had a
critical impact on the course of European history during the
Roman- Germanic wars. Particularly at the historic Battle of

the Teutoburg Forest, where the vanquishment of three Roman

legions at the hands of Germanic tribal warriors precipitated
the Roman Empire‘s strategic withdrawal from Magna
Germania.
As a linguistic group, modern Germanic peoples
include the Afrikaners, Austrians, Danes, Dutch, English,
Flemish, Frisians, Germans, Icelanders, Lowland Scots,
Norwegians, Swedes, and others (including diaspora
populations, such as some groups of European Americans).
Northernmost Europe, in what now constitutes the European
plains of Denmark and southern Scandinavia, is where the
Germanic peoples most likely originated. This is a region that
was ―remarkably stable‖ as far back as the Neolithic Age,
when humans first began controlling their environment
through the use of agriculture and the domestication of
animals.
Archeological evidence gives the impression that the
Germanic people were becoming more uniform in their culture
as early as 750 BCE. As their population grew, the Germanic
people migrated westwards into coastal floodplains due to the
exhaustion of the soil in their original settlements.
By approximately 250 BCE, additional expansion
further southwards into central Europe took place, and five
general groups of Germanic people emerged, each employing
distinct linguistic dialects but sharing similar language
innovations.
These five dialects are distinguished as North

Germanic in southern Scandinavia; North Sea Germanic in the

regions along the North Sea and in the Jutland peninsula,
which forms the mainland of Denmark together with the north
German state of Schleswig-Holstein; Rhine- Weser Germanic
along the middle Rhine and Weser river, which empties into
the North Sea near Bremerhaven; Elbe Germanic directly
along the middle Elbe river; and East Germanic between the
middle of the Oder and Vistula rivers.
Some recognizable trends in the archaeological records
exist, as it is known that, generally speaking, western
Germanic people. Still migratory, were more geographically
settled, whereas the eastern Germanics remained transitory for
a longer period.
Three settlement patterns and solutions come to the
fore; the first establishment of an agricultural base in a region
support larger populations; the second being that the Germanic
peoples periodically cleared forests to extend the range of their
pasturage; and the third that they often emigrated to other areas
as they exhausted the immediately available resources.
War and conquest followed as the Germanic people
migrated, bringing them into direct conflict with the Celts who
were forced to either Germanize or migrate elsewhere as a
result. West Germanic people eventually settled in central
Europe and became more accustomed to agriculture, and it is
the various western Germanic people that are described by
Caesar and Tacitus. Meanwhile, the eastern Germanic
people continued their migratory habits. They were
organized and classified people, and deliberate on their part to

recognize the tribal distinctions of the various Germanic

people.
Early Germanic people shared a basic culture, operated
similarly from an economic perspective, and were not
differentiated as the Romans implied. In fact, the Germanic
tribes are hard to distinguish from the Celts on many accounts
simply based on archaeological records.
Migration Period
During the 5th century, as the Western Roman Empire
lost military strength and political cohesion, numerous
nomadic Germanic peoples, under pressure from population
growth and invading Asian groups, began migrating en masse
in various directions, taking them to Great Britain and far
south through present-day Continental Europe to the
Mediterranean andNorthern Africa.
Over time this wandering meant intrusions into other
tribal territories, and the ensuing wars for land escalated with
the dwindling amount of unoccupied territory. Wandering
tribes then began staking out permanent homes as a means of
protection. This resulted in fixed settlements from which many
tribes, under a powerful leader, expanded outwards.
Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Lombards made their way
into Italy; Vandals, Burgundians, Franks, and Visigoths
conquered much of Gaul. Vandals and Visigoths also pushed
into Spain, with the Vandals additionally making it into North
Africa; and the Alamanni established a strong presence in the
middle Rhine and Alps.

In Denmark, the Jutes merged with the Danes; and in

Sweden, the Geats and Gutes merged with the Swedes. In
England, the Angles merged with the Saxons and other groups
(notably the Jutes), and absorbed some natives, to form the
Anglo-Saxons (later known as the English). Essentially,
Roman civilization was overrun by these variants of Germanic
peoples during the 5th century.
Germanic people were fierce in battle, creating a strong
military. Their love of battle was linked to their religious
practices and two of their most important gods, Wodan and his
son, Thor, both believed to be gods of war. The Germanic idea
of warfare was quite different from the pitched battles fought
by Rome and Greece, and the Germanic tribes focused on raids
to capture resources and secure prestige. Warriors were strong
in battle and had great fighting abilities, making the tribes
almost unbeatable. Men began battle training at a young age
and were given a shield and a spear upon manhood, illustrating
the importance of combat in Germanic life. The loss of the
shield or spear meant a loss of honor. The Germanic warrior‘s
intense devotion to his tribe and his chieftain led to many
important military victories.
Chieftains were the leaders of clans, and clans were
divided into groups by family ties. The earlier Germans elected
chieftains, but as time went on it became hereditary. One of the
chieftain‘s jobs was to keep peace in the clans, and he did this
by keeping the warriors together and united. Military
chieftains relied upon retinues; a body of followers
―retained‖ by the chieftain. A chieftain‘s retinue might include,

but was not limited to, close relatives. The followers depended
on the retinue for military and other services, and in return
provided for the retinue‘s needs and divided with them the
spoils of battle. This relationship between a chieftain and his
followers became the basis for the more complicated feudal
system that developed in medieval Europe.
Political and diplomatic leaders, such as Odoacer and
Theodoric the Great, changed the course of history in the late
400s CE and paved the way for later kings and conquerors.
Odoacer, a German general, took over the Western Roman
Empire in his own name, becoming the first barbarian king of
Italy. Theodoric the Great became a barbarian king of Italy
after he killed Odoacer. He initiated three decades of peace
between the Ostrogoths and the Romans and united the two
Germanic tribes. Theodoric the Great lived as a hostage at the
court of Constantinople for many years and learned a great
deal about Roman government and military tactics, which
served him well when he became the Gothic ruler of a mixed
but largely Romanized ―barbarian people.‖
Nobility
Nobility is a social class normally ranked immediately
below royalty and found in some societies a formal
aristocracy. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm that
passed more acknowledged privilege and higher status than
most other classes in the society. The privilege associated with
nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative
to non-nobles or may be largely honorary and vary by country
or era. Membership in the nobility including rights and

responsibilities is typically hereditary. Membership in the

nobility has been granted historically by King or government
by acquisition of power, wealth, military strength or royal
favour has occasionally enabled commoners to ascend into the
nobility. From the Roman Republic families descended from
persons who had achieved the consulship. Those who belonged
to the hereditary patrician families were nobles but plebeians
whose ancestors were consults were also considered as nobles.
In the Roman empire the nobility were descendants of the
republican aristocracy. Modern European nobility have no
connection to the Roman nobility because they originated from
the feudal or seignorial system that arose in Europe during the
Middle ages. Hereditary titles such as Prince, Lord or Lady as
well as honorifics often distinguish between nobles from non-
nobles in conversation and written speech. In many most of
the nobility have been untitled and some hereditary titles do
not indicate nobility. The nobility derived from noble status
usually privileges were granted or recognised by the monarch
in association with possession of a specific title, office or
estate. Most noble‘s wealth derived from one or more
estates large or small that might include fields, pasture,
orchards, timberland, hunting grounds, streams. It also
included infrastructure such as castle well and mill to which
local peasants were allowed some access often at a price.
Nobles were expected to live nobly that is from the proceeds pf
these possessions. Work involving manual labour or
subordination of the lower rank was either forbidden or
frowned upon socially. On the other hand membership in the
nobility was usually a prerequisite for holding office of the

trust in the realm and for career promotion in the military,

court, judiciary and church.
Serfdom
Serfdom was the status of many peasants under
Feudalism specially related to manorialism and other similar
titles. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured
servitude with similarities and differences from slavery which
had developed during late Middle ages in Europe and
continued to mid-19th century. Unlike slaves, serfs could not be
bought, sold or traded individually though they could depend
on the area be sold together with land. The Kholops in Russia,
Villeins in England could be traded like slaves could be abused
with no rights over their own bodies could not leave the land
they were bound and could marry with their Lord‘s
permission. Serfs who occupied a plot of land were required to
work in the Lord of the Manor who owned the land. In return
they were entitled to protection, justice and right to cultivate
certain fields within the Manor to maintain their own
subsistence. Serfs were often required not only to work on the
Lord‘s fields but also in his mines and forests and to labour to
maintain roads. The Manor formed the basic unit of feudal
society and the Lord of the manor and villeins and to a certain
extent the serfs were bound legally: by taxation in the case of
the former, and economically and socially in the latter.
Dynamics of change in feudal Europe
Western European city around 1200 C.E. epitomized
Europe‘s greatest new accomplishments it was in Paris, that

city was not only a bustling commercial centre and an

important centre of learning. It was also the capital of Europe‘s
most powerful Government. France like England and the new
Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula, was taking shape
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a National Monarchy a
new form of government which was to dominate Europe‘s
political future. Because of developing national monarchies
were the most successful and promising European
governments. But before it is well happening from the political
point of view in Germany and Italy. Around 1050 C.E
Germany was unquestionably the most centralized and best-
ruled territory in Europe. But by 1300 C.E it had fallen into a
congeries of warring petty states. Since most other areas of
Europe were gaining stronger rule in the very same period, the
political decline of Germany became an intriguing historical
problem. It is also a problem of fundamental importance
because from the political point of view Germany and belated
efforts to gain its full place in the European political system
created difficulties that have just come to be resolved in our
own age. The major sources of Germany‘s strength from the
reign of Otto the great in the middle of the tenth century
until the later part of the eleventh century were its succession
of strong rulers. Its resistance to political fragmentation and
the close alliance of its Crown with the Church. By
resoundingly defeating the Hungarians and taking the title
Emperor, Otto kept the country from falling prey to further
invasions and won great prestige for the monarchy. For over a
century afterwards there was a nearly uninterrupted succession
of rulers as able and vigorous as Otto. The nearest political

rivals were dukes, military leaders of five German territories

such as Lorrain, Saxony, Franconia, Swabia and Bavaria but
throughout the most of the period the dukes were overawed by
emperor‘s greater power. The latter, in order to rule their wide
territories which included Switzerland, eastern France and
most of the Low countries as well as claims to northern Italy
relied heavily on cooperation with the Church. The leading
royal administrators were archbishops and bishops whom the
emperors appointed without interference from the Pope and
who often came from their own families. The German
emperors were so strong that they chose to do so they could
come down to Italy and name their own Popes. The
archbishops and bishops ran the German government fairly as
well as for the time without any elaborate administrative
machinery and they counter balanced the strength of the dukes.
In the course of the eleventh century the emperors were
starting tentatively to develop their own secular administration.
Had they been allowed to continue this policy; it might have
provided a really solid governmental foundation for the future.
But just then whole system shaped by Otto the Great and his
successors was dramatically challenged by revolution within
the Church.
The challenge to the German Government came in
the reign of Henry IV (1056-1106 C.E) and was directed by
Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085 C.E) wished to free the Church
from the secular control and launched a struggle to achieve this
aim against Henry IV. Gregory immediately placed Henry on
the defensive by forging an alliance with the dukes and other

German princes who only needed a sufficient pretext to rise up

against the ruler. When the princes threatened to depose Henry
because of his disobedience to the Pope, the hitherto mighty
ruler was forced to seek absolution from Gregory VII in one of
the most melodramatic scenes of the Middle ages. In the
depths of winter in 1077 C.E, Henry hurried over the Alps to
abase himself before the Pope in the north Italian castle of
Canossa. As Gregory described the scene in a letter to the
princes. There was on three successive days standing before
the castle gate laying aside all royal insignia, barefooted and in
coarse attire, Henry ceased not with many tears to beseech the
apostolic help and comfort. No German ruler had ever been so
humiliated. Although the events at Canossa forestalled Henry‘s
deposition, they robbed him of his great prestige. By the time
his struggle with the Papacy, continued his son, was over, the
princes had won far more practical independence from the
Crown than they had ever had. More than that in 1125 C.E
they made good for their claims to be able to elect a new ruler
regardless of hereditary succession –principle that would
thereafter often lead them to choose the weakest successors or
to embroil the country in Civil war. Meanwhile France and
England were gradually was losing its own.
A major attempt to stem the tide running against the
German monarchy was made in the twelfth century by
Frederick-I (1152-1190 C.E) who came from the family of
Hohenstaufen. Frederick, called Barbarossa (meaning red
bread), tried to reassert his imperial dignity by calling his
realm the Holy Roman Empire on the theory that it was

universal empire descending from Rome and blessed by God.

Laying claim to Roman descent he promulgated old Roman
imperial laws-preserved in the Code of Justinian-that gave him
much theoretical power. But he could not hope to enforce such
laws unless he had his own material base of support.
Therefore, the major policy of his reign was to balance the
power of the princes by carving out his own geographical
domain from which he might draw wealth and strength.
• Feudalism was essentially a system of extreme political
decentralization with public power widely vested in private
hands. From a historical perspective it was most fully
experienced in France during the tenth century when the
Carolingian empire had disintegrated and the area was
being buffeted by devasting Viking invasions.
• The Carolingian had maintained a modicum of public
authority but they proved to be no help ever watching off
the invasions. So local landlords had to fend for
themselves. They raised their own small armies, dispensed
their own crude justice and occasionally issued their own
primitive coins.
• Despite such decentralization however it was never
forgotten that there once had been higher and larger units of
government. Above all no matter the weak king there
always remained a king in France descended directly or
indirectly from the western branch of the Carolingians.
• The minor feudal lords did not held their powers outright
but only held them as so- called fiefs which could be

revoked upon non-compliance with certain obligations.

The king or higher lords granted fiefs that is
governmental rights over various lands, to lesser lords in
return for a stipulated amount of military service. In return
the lesser lords could grant some of those fiefs to still
lesser lords for military service until the chain stopped at
the lowest level of knights. The holder of a fief was called
a vassal of the granter but this it has granted vassalage –
much unlike serfdom for backward was purely honorable
status and all fief-holders were noble.
• Since Feudalism was originally a form of decentralization,
at once was reconstructed by corrosive or divisive use of
the word feudal as synonym for backward. But recently
feudalism was a force of progress and a fundamental
point of departure for the growth of modern state. They
note that in the areas such as Germany and Italy where
there was hardly any feudalism political stabilization and
unification came only in the later times whereas areas of
France and England, which was full feudalization,
stabilization and governmental centralization came rapidly
afterwards.
• Feudalism was originally spontaneous and makeshift. It
was highly flexible. Local lords instead of being bound by
anachronistic, procrustean principles could rule as seemed
best at the moment or could bend to dictates of particular
local customs. Thus, their governments however crude
worked the best of their times and could be used for
building an even stronger government as time went on.

• A second reason for the effectiveness of feudalism was that

it drew more people into direct contact with the actual
workings of political life than had the old Roman or
Carolingian systems. The government on the most local
level could most easily be seen or experienced as it become
tangible people began to appreciate and identify with it for
more than they had appreciated empires.
• The result was that feudalism included growing
governmental loyalty and once that loyalty was developed
it could be drawn upon by still larger units. Feudalism
helped lead to certain more modern institutions by its
emphasis on courts.
• As the feudal system became more regularized it became
customary for vassals to appear at the court of their
overlords at least once a year. Thus, they were expected to
pay court that show certain ceremonial signs of loyalty and
also to serve on courts in the sense of participating in trials
and offering counsel. Thus, they became more and more
accustomed to performing governmental business and
began to behave more like courtiers or politicians.
• As monarchical states of France and England themselves
developed, kings saw how useful the feudal court was
made and it the administrative kernel of their expanding
governmental systems.
Technology
The late-medieval accomplishments would be
incomplete without mention of certain epoch- making

technological advances. Sadly, but probably not unexpectedly,

treatment of this subject has to begin with reference to the
invention of artillery and firearms. The prevalence of warfare
stimulated the development of new weaponry, gunpowder
itself was a Chinese invention, but it was first put to
particularly devasting uses it in the late- medieval west. Heavy
cannons were first employed around 1330 C.E. The earliest
cannons were so primitive that it often was more dangerous to
stand behind than Infront of them, but by the middle of the
fifteenth century they were greatly improved and began to
revolutionize the nature of warfare in the year 1453 C.E.
Heavy artillery played a leading role in determining the
outcome of two crucial conflicts; the Ottoman Turks used
German and Hungarian cannons to breach the defenses of
Constantinople-hitherto the most impregnable in Europe and
the French used heavy artillery to take the city of Bordeaux,
thereby ending of Hundred Years War. Cannons thereafter
made it difficult for rebellious aristocrats to hole up in their
stone castles and thus they aided in the consolidation of the
national monarchies. Placed aboard, ship-cannons enabled
European vessels to dominate foreign waters in the subsequent
ages of the overseas expansion. Guns also invented in the
fourteenth century, were gradually perfected afterwards. Once
lance-bearing cavalries became outmoded and fighting could
more easily be carried on by all the monarchical states that
could turn out the largest armies completely subdued internal
resistance and dominated the battlefields of Europe. Other late
technological developments were more life-enhancing.
Eyeglasses, first invented 1280‘s were perfected in the

fourteenth century. These allowed older people to keep on

reading when nearsightedness otherwise could have stopped
them. In fourteenth century, Petrarch, who boasted excellent
sight in the youth wore spectacles after his sixteenth year and
was enabled to complete some of his most important works.
Around 1300 C.E the use of magnetic compass helped ships to
sail faraway from land and venture out into the Atlantic. One
immediate result was the opening of direct sea commerce
between Italy and the north. Subsequently numerous
improvements in ship building, map making and navigational
devices contributed to Europe‘s ability to start expanding
overseas. In the early fourteenth century the Azores and Cape
Verde Islands were reached, then after a long pause caused by
Europe‘s plague and wars, the African Cape of Good Hope
was founded in 1487 C.E, the West Indies discovered in 1492
C.E, India reached by the sea route in 1498 C.E and Brazil
discovered in 1500 C.E. Partly as a result of technology the
world was thus suddenly made much smaller.
Among the most familiar implements of our modern
life that were invented by Europeans in the later Middle ages
were clocks and printed books. Mechanical clocks were
invented shortly before 1300 C.E and proliferated in the years
immediately after. The earliest clocks were too expensive for
private purchase but towns quickly vied each other to install
the most elaborate clocks in their prominent public buildings.
These clocks not only told the time but showed the course of
the sun, moon, planets and performed mechanical tricks on the
striking of the hours. The new invention ultimately had two

profound effects. One was the further stimulation of European

interest in complex machinery of all sorts. Thus the interest
had already been awakened by the high-medieval proliferation
of mills but clocks ultimately became even more omnipresent
than mills because after about 1650 C.E they became quite
cheap and were brought into practically every European home.
Household clocks served as models of marvelous machines.
Equally if not more significant was the fact that the clocks
began to rationalized the course of European daily life. Until
the advent of the clocks in the Middle ages time was flexible.
Men and women had only rough idea of how late in the day it
was and rose and retired more or less with the sun. Especially
people who lived in the country performed different jobs at
different rates according to the rhythm of seasons. Even when
hours were counted, they were measured at different lengths
according to the amount of light in the different seasons of the
year. In the fourteenth century, however, clocks first started
relentlessly striking equal hours through the day and night.
Thus, they began to regulate work with new precision. People
were expected to start and end work on time and many came to
believe that time is money. This emphasis on time-keeping
brought new efficiencies but also new tensions.
The invention of printing with movable type was
equally momentous. The major stimulus was the invention
was the replacement of parchment by paper as Europe‘s
primary writing material between 1200 C.E to 1400 C.E.
Parchment made from the skins of valuable farm animals
was extremely expensive since it was possible to get only

about four good parchment leaves from one animal. It was

necessary to slaughter between two to three hundred sheep or
calves to gain enough parchment for a Bible. Paper made
from rags turned into pulps by mills brought prices down
dramatically. Late Medieval records show that paper sold at
one- sixth the price of parchment. Accordingly, it became
more cheaper to learn how to read and write. With literacy
become ever more widespread, there was a growing market for
cheap books and the invention of printing with movable type
around 1450 C.E. fully met with this demand.
Demography
The population of Europe remained at a low level in
the Early Middle Ages, boomed during the High Middle Ages
and reached a peak around 1300, then a number of calamities
caused a steep decline, the nature of which historians have
debated. Population levels began to recover around the late 15th
century, gaining momentum in the early 16th century.
The population levels of Europe during the Middle
Ages can be roughly categorized as follows.
From 400 to1000 C.E.
As the ancient world came to an end there was a steep
decline in population, reaching its lowest point around 542
with the bubonic plague (the Plague of Justinian, the last
great plague in Europe until the Black Death of the 14th
century). Estimates of total population of Europe are
speculative, but at the time of Charlemagne it is thought to be
between 25 and 30 million, and of this 15 million are in

Carolingian France. Unlike the frontier settler image of a lone

self-sufficient farmer who moves when he sees smoke from the
neighbor's chimney, medieval settlements were thickly
populated, with large zones of unpopulated wilderness in
between. To be alone in the Middle Ages, and not part of a
community, carried great risks. Crowded communities existed
as islands in a sea of uncultivated wilderness.
From 1000 to 1250 C.E.
In the 11th century, people began to move outward
into the wilderness, in what is known as the "great
clearances". During the High Middle Ages, forests and
marshes were cleared and cultivated. At the same time,
settlements moved beyond the traditional boundaries of the
Frankish Empire to new frontiers in eastern Europe, beyond
the Elbe River. Crusaders expanded to the Crusader States, the
Iberian Peninsula was reconquered from the Moors, and the
Normans colonized southern Italy. These movements and
conquests are part of larger pattern of population expansion
and resettlement that occurred in Europe at this time.
Reasons for this expansion and colonization include an
improving climate known as the Medieval warm period
allowing longer and more productive growing seasons; the end
of barbarian raids by Vikings, Arabs, and Magyars resulting in
greater political stability; advancements in medieval
technology allowing more land to be farmed; reforms of the
Church in the 11th century further increasing social stability;
and the rise of Feudalism, which also brought increased
social stability and thus more mobility. Nobles encouraged

colonization. The bonds of serfdom that tied peasants to the

land began to weaken with the rise of a money economy. Land
was plentiful while labor to clear and work the land was
scarce; lords who owned the land found new ways to attract
and keep labor. Urban centers began to emerge, able to attract
serfs with the promise of freedom. As new regions were
settled, both internally and externally, population naturally
increased.
From 1250 to 1350 C.E.
By 1300 Europe had become, some say, overpopulated.
England, which had around 1 million people in 1086, was
estimated to have a population that ranges from 5 to 7 million.
France in 1328 (which was geographically smaller than France
is today) was believed to have between 18 to 20 million
people, which it would not surpass again until the early
modern period. The region of Tuscany had 2 million people in
1300, which it would not reach again until 1850. Overall, the
population of Europe is believed to have reached a peak of 70
to 100 million.[2] By comparison, the 25 member-states of the
European Union in 2007 had a population of 494 million. This
compares to grain yields that in the 14th century was between
2:1 and 7:1 (2:1 means for every seed planted, 2 are
harvested). Modern grain yields are 30:1 or more, but the
population is only 5-7 times higher.
By the 14th century the frontiers had ceased to expand
and internal colonization was comingto an end, but population
levels remained high. Then in the 14th century a number of
calamities struck that devastated millions. Starting with the

Great Famine in 1315, then the Hundred Years' War and the
Black Death of 1348-1350, the population of Europe
plummeted.
From 1350 to 1500 C.E.
The period between 1348 and 1420 witnessed the
heaviest loss. In Germany, about 40% of the named
inhabitants disappeared. The population of Provence was
reduced by 50% and in some regions in Tuscany 70% were
lost during this period.
Historians have struggled to explain how so many
could have died. There are problems with the long-standing
theory that it was just caused by a medical illness (see further
discussions at Black Death) and so social factors are looked at.
A classic Malthusian argument has been put forward that says
Europe was overcrowded with people, even in good times it
was barely able to feed its population. A gradual malnutrition
developed over decades lowering resistance to disease, and
competition for resources meant more warfare. In short, the
catastrophes were Malthusian checks on a population too large
for its available resources. However, critics say that if this
were true, the sudden fall in population would have endowed
the survivors with abundant resources that would enable them
to recover quickly. This was not the case; populations
continued to fall and remained low almost to the 16th century.
Thus, classic Malthusian theory does not offer a fully
satisfactory explanation.
According to the most recent explanation, although still

tentative, by 1250, the population peaked and competition for

resources meant that there was a great imbalance between
property owners and workers. Rents went up, and wages
sank, the unequal distribution of wealth increased between
rich and poor. The conditions of the poor became so bad, they
achieved net zero population growth. The economic
conditions of the poor also aggravated the calamities of the
plague because they had no recourse, such as fleeing to a villa
in the country like the nobles in the Decameron, the poor lived
in crowded conditions and could not isolate the sick, and had
weaker immunities from a lacking diet and difficult
subsistence lifestyle. After the plague and other exogenous
causes of population decline this caused wage increases
because of a lower labor supply, and a redistribution of wealth;
however, this did not happen right away because property
owners resisted change through wage freezes and price
controls. The wage freezes and price controls were partly
responsible for popular uprisings, such as the Peasants' Revolt
of 1381, and not until the later 15th century did the lower
classes start to gain benefits. By 1500 the total population of
Europe was substantially below that of 200 years earlier, but
all classes overall had a higher standard of living.
*****

MODULE II
MEDIEVAL WEST ASIA
Rise of Islam
By the early 7th century, in West Asia there existed a
combination of cultured settled world and a world on its
frontiers which was in closer contact to its northern neighbours
and opening itself up to their cultures. The power of the
Byzantine (defeated by the Ottomans in 1453) and the
Sassanid empire (lost to the Arabs in 651) was somewhat on a
decline while the settled tribal communities in Arabian
Peninsula were consolidating their position and some of them
on the borderlands were actively participating in the politics of
Syria and Iraq. Soon a new political order was created in
which the ruling group was formed not by the peoples of the
earlier empires but by the Arabs from western Arabia,
particularly Hejaz.
The new political order identified itself with a
revelation given by God to Muhammad in the form of Quran.
Abul Qasim Muhammad b. Abdullah was born in Mecca in
570 C.E. He belonged to the Hashim clan of the tribe of
Quraysh. Quraysh had well-established themselves in the field
of trade and commerce and were counted amongst the
wealthiest merchants of Arabia though the clan of Muhammad
was not the most prominent one within it. Due to their role in
trade, they emerged as the single most powerful tribe of the
peninsula. In fact, trade was not the only source from where

their prominence sprang. The control of the sanctuary Ka‘aba,

where the images of local gods were kept and which was
central to the religious orientation of the people of the region,
by the Quraysh enhanced the prestige of the tribe. They had
fostered the pilgrimages (and accompanying fairs) made at
certain seasons to Mecca itself and to a neutral spot not far
away (‗Arafat), as well as other markets held in the region.
Muhammad had grown up an orphan, under the care of
uncle Abu Talib. He had shown his competence as a trader in
the service of a well-to-do widow, Khadijah. In his thirties,
Muhammad seems to have become engrossed with questions
of how to live a serious life of truth and purity. He meditated
intensely during periods of retirement in a cave on Mount
Hira‘ outside the town. He did not dissociate himself from the
rites and customs of the Quraysh, which indeed continued to
be dear to him. But he sought something more which they
lacked. Around the age of forty, during one of his retirements
in Mount Hira‘, he heard a voice and saw a vision which
summoned him to offer worship to the God who had created
the world, one God of the monotheists. Encouraged by his
wife, Khadijah, he accepted the summons as coming from God
Himself. Thereupon, he received further messages which he
interpreted as divine revelation, and the prayer recitation of
which formed a major element of the new cult. The messages
collectively were called the Qur‘an. For a time, only his wife
and a few close friends shared the cult with him. But after
some years the messages demanded that he summon his fellow
Quraysh to the worship of God, warning them of impending

calamities if they refused. From a private monotheist, he was

to become a Prophet to his people.
As support for Muhammad grew, his relations with the
leading families of Quraysh became worse. They did not
accept his claim to be the messenger of God and was
considered as someone who attacked their way of life. The
situation of Muhammad became dodgy when Khadija and Abu
Talib died in the same year. As the teachings developed, more
opposition from the followers of accepted beliefs became
clearer. Muhammad realised that for the safety of his men, to
overcome the resistance of Quraysh and to increase the
number of his adherents, some political base was necessary.
Finally, his position became so difficult that in 622 he left
Mecca for an oasis settlement 200 miles to the north, Yathrib,
later known as Medina. This movement to Medina in 622 C.E.
is known as the hijra, the date from which the Muslim era
began. Medina was an agricultural oasis. Like Mecca it was
not inhabited by a single tribe, but unlike Mecca it was marked
by bitter feuds between the leading tribal groups — the Aws
and the Khazraj which threatened at times the existence of
Medina. Also, like Mecca, Medina was undergoing social
changes, which was undermining Bedouin form of kinship.
Agriculture rather than pastoral needs governed its economy,
and its social life was increasingly governed by spatial
proximity rather than kinship ties. He had been welcomed by
the inhabitants of Medina who accepted him as the arbitrator of
their disputes.
In a society with no common law or government, a man

with a religious vision and who was just, politic, tactful was
often selected by the feuding clans as the arbitrator. The early
biographers have preserved the texts of agreements signed
between the adherents of Muhammad on one hand and the two
main tribes, Aws and Khazraj together with some Jewish
groups on the other. From Medina, Muhammad began to
consolidate his power and soon entered in an armed struggle
with the Quraysh. The community came to believe that it was
necessary to participate in the wars to fight for what was right.
First the Muhajirun, the exiled Meccans, raided Meccan
caravans for booty. The raids soon turned into battles. By 624,
at the Battle of Badr, Muhammad defeated a larger Meccan
force and won tremendous prestige everywhere in Arabia. It
was taken as divine favour which led to the defection of some
of the Bedouin tribe who had the responsibility to protect the
Mecca‘s caravan lines. In the following years, Meccans took
the initiative and attacked Muhammad and Medina first in the
Battle of Uhud (625) and then in the Battle of Khandak (627),
though the first one was a defeat for Muhammad, but both the
battles proved profitable for him. He faced the worst attacks of
Mecca. However, each time the circumstances helped him
to consolidate his position with the Jewish clans of Medina.
Muhammad‘s aim was not to fight Mecca till death but to
convert her people to Islam. Therefore, he eased after the battle
of Khandak.
In 628 C.E., Muhammad along with his followers,
made a pilgrimage to Ka‘aba. Accordingto Ira Lapidus, he did
this to show that Islam was an Arabian religion and would

preserve the pilgrimage rites in which Mecca had a great stake.

The idea that Abraham was the founder of a high monotheistic
faith and of the sanctuary at Mecca already existed. Now he
was seen neither a Jew nor a Christian but a common ancestor
of both, and as ancestor of Muslims too. There was also a
change in Muhammad‘s relations with Quraysh and Mecca.
Muhammad concluded a truce at al-Hudaybiya as he marched
for pilgrimage in which the Meccans agreed to admit the
Muslims for the pilgrimage and Muhammad dropped his
demand that he be regarded as the Prophet of God. Moreover,
he agreed to an unequal arrangement. According to this treaty
children who left Mecca to become Muslims would have to be
returned if they did not have parental consent, while Muslim
apostates would not be returned. Though this was an unequal
alliance, Muhammad made tremendous gain from it.
Muhammad was a power to contend with and that Mecca had
given up her efforts to defeat him. Muhammad‘s adherents in
Mecca continued to swell.
In 630, the leaders of the city of Mecca surrendered it
to Muhammad who occupied it without resistance. He gave
amnesty to everyone and announced the principles of new
order that every claim of privilege or blood or property is
abolished by him except the custody of the shrine Ka‘aba and
the watering of the pilgrims. In the year 632, Muhammad
died.
Spread of Islam After the Death of prophet Muhammad
The death of Prophet Muhammad created a vacuum. It
was believed that there would be no further Prophet after

Muhammad. But Prophet was not only the religious but

political leader as well. The question of no one assuming his
position as Prophet received general acceptance but someone
had to take physical charge of the state and guide the religious
community. As no specific rules were laid down for this
purpose, there was considerable scope for dispute at this point.
The question of who should have religious and political
authority after the Prophet was to become increasingly
contentious with passage of time, leading to conflicts and often
serious doctrinal differences.
Why Prophet did not appoint his successor? In Sunni
tradition, Prophet was involved in careful coalition and prudent
politics was silent on succession because he wanted the
success of radical monotheism which required holding to
traditional tribal practice which gave little or no attention and
shift to authority that was purely inherited or transpired (rather
than earned). The other reason was that the community was
fragile and the Prophet thought not to impose his wishes.
Another is to posit on his part an impending sense of the end.
However, nothing can be said with certainty. Though, Sunnis
accept that Prophet had appointed a successor, and wanted
community to be rallied around Abu Bakr who was being
among the firsts to convert and senior most and hence, the
natural choice. But Shias argue that Mohammad had appointed
Alias his successor. At the time of the death of Prophet there
were three groups: The Meccan Quraysh aristocracy and the
Ansar of Medinese ‗helpers‘ who provided critical support,
and who argued that the succession should take place within

the family of Prophet.

The Abbasid Caliphate
The Abbasids had come to power espousing many
popular causes particularly the claims of the Shias. However,
once in power, it was clear that their commitment to them was
not very deep and they continued to treat the caliphate as an
absolute monarchy. The Shias, in their religious idealism were
looking for a rightly guided Imam, who would lead through
divine guidance. This guidance, they believed could only come
from someone who came from the family of Muhammad. They
were to be disappointed in the Abbasids. Abbasid power was
based on the military support of their Khurasani soldiers. They
asserted their authority by restoring stability and worked out
various compromises with the groups who had opposed the
Umayyads. The Abbasids built the city of Baghdad and made
it their capital. This indicated that the predominance of Syria in
the affairs of the Caliphate was ending. Under the Abbasids no
province, barring perhaps Syria, was discriminated against.
The Abbasids also tried to remove the differences between the
Arabs and the new Muslims. They defused the opposition
from religious elements by appointing their learned critics to
represent the legal system and by patronising the development
of Islamic learning, jurisprudence and theology. They widened
the base of their power by introducing non-Arabs into the
ruling class. To hold this class together they encouraged the
development of a court oriented high culture. They also
allowed the ularna to work towards evolving comprehensive
cultural traditions like law (shariah), jurisprudence (fiqh) and

philosophy (falsafa) for the rest of the Muslims.

The Caliphs started building up autocratic traditions
more in keeping with their great Iranian predecessors - the
Sassanians. This was symbolically indicated by their decision
to build their capital near Ctesiphon. They tried to incorporate
the mystic aura of divine glory that the Sassanian rulers had
assumed into their political behaviour by assuming titles like
'the shadow of God on earth'. The Caliphs became more and
more unapproachable with the courtiers forming an effective
cocoon around them. Rituals like the kissing the ground before
the caliphs were introduced. The caliph could also dispense
summary and unchallenged justice. The worst hit was those
closest to the seat of power and this was an effective way of
dealing with the troublesome elements within the nobility. The
Umayyads had moved further towards building up an
absolutist state. Al-Saffah (750-54), the first Abbasid caliph,
had every member of the Umayyad family that he could find
slaughtered. He was succeeded by his brother al- Mansur (754-
75) who had every Shia leader that he considered dangerous,
executed. It was an assertion that the caliphate would not
compromise its power by recognising the claims of any group
as being privileged. An efficient system of espionage was
created. Spies kept track of all sources of potential trouble. The
financial affairs of the empire were organised under the
supervision of one trusted aide. This office was to soon
become permanent in the form of the Wazir, the all-powerful
minister. Heavy investment in Iraq was continued. Trade was
encouraged by the sheer expanse of territory included into one

political boundary. Baghdad was on major land and river

(through Tigris and Euphrates) trade routes. Baghdad was
different from the early Islamic capital in that it was not
organised on tribal basis. It soon became the cultural and
economic centre of the Caliphate. During his reign Spain broke
away and an independent Umayyad Caliphate was established
there. Al Mansur was succeeded by his son a1 Mahdi (755-85).
He improved the financial organisationof the state and made an
attempt to reconcile the Shia opposition to the Abbasids by
making peace with the more moderate among them. He faced
another threat, this time from Manichaeism. This populist
ideology preached detachment from mundane worldly affairs
but the exact nature and extent of this movement is not clear. It
definitely involved an attempt to keep alive Persian cultural
traditions in face of the assimilative policy being advocated by
the rulers. The ulama pressed for their suppression and a1
Mahdi used this to get rid of many dissenters. Towards the end
of his reign there was an Umayyad revolt in Egypt and a Shia
revolt in Arabia. Both were suppressed.
The most important caliph was Harun al Rashid (786-
809). His was a period known for its splendour and grandeur.
The government was largely left to the wazirs who controlled
other departments (diwans) through secretaries. It is as a
patron of the arts and learning that I-Iarun is most
remembered. Music and poetry were encouraged and artistes
were liberally rewarded. Baghdad attracted philosophers,
poets, scholars and artistes and became the center for the study
of natural science and metaphysics. Important works of

astronomy, medicine and mathematics were translated from

Greek and Sanskrit. The Arabic knowing zimmis, were the
ones most active in this field. The opulence of the court and
lifestyle of the rich in Baghdad became the subject of many
legends. The cultural flowering was possible because of the
active economy of the state. The empire encompassed all the
major regional trade routes. With increasing commerce,
urbanization, was rapid. Baghdad continued to flourish
even when abandoned as a capital. Economic growth was
accelerated by the development of an absolutist state.
Commerce flourished because of peace within the
empire. The empire had extremely busy ports not only in the
Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf but also in the Black, Red,
Caspian and the Mediterranean seas. Markets grew and
prospered. The increasing wealth of individuals (usually
members of the Abbasid family, government officers and large
land owners) generated a phenomenal trade in luxury items.
One authority includes in the list of such items the following:
silks and brocades; skins and furs of such animals like panther,
sable, grey squirrel, ermine, minx, fox, beaver spotted hare,
and goat; many varieties of spices and aromatics; drugs;
musk; aloes; camphor; woods particularly teak and ebony;
amber; rubies; gold; tin; wax; honey; hazel nuts; gold and
silver utensils; crockery; a wide variety of slaves and even
animals like tigers, panthers, elephants, peacocks, falcons,
horses, sheep and cattle. Goods came from China, South-east
Asia, Western Europe and from as far places as Scandinavia,
Eastern Europe, Russia and Spain. Trade encouraged local

production. Banking and credit facilities developed. The

government used bankers for the transfer of its taxes. The
governing classes invested in trade and speculated.
Partnerships were common often involving Muslims and non-
Muslims or with partners based in places as far as Gujarat or
Spain. The government organised messenger services and it
seems individuals had also organised a postal service along the
main land and sea routes.
Money was invested in handicraft industries. Paper
making technology was imported from China and it soon
replaced papyrus leaves for writing and gave a tremendous
boost to literary activities. Production of textiles flourished.
State workshops employed many craftsmen but most craftsmen
continued to work independently. The wealth, in turn
strengthened the absolutist tendencies of the state.
Conversion, encouraged since the time of Umar II, now
got a further impetus. The vast numbers migrating to the towns
found it convenient to convert. A more popular version of
Islam, independent of the fierce theological debates going on
at that time, emerged in these cities. The new converts brought
into Islam the cultural traditions of their former beliefs. Harun
decided to divide his empire among his sons to ward off any
succession struggle. Al Amin was to inherit the title of the
caliph as well as Fertile Crescent and western provinces. A1
Mamun, his brother, was to get Khurasan and the eastern
provinces, full autonomy and an army. Al Mamun would have
to recognize the sovereignty of Al Amin whom he would
succeed as the caliph. This personal and whimsical decision

nearly wrecked the state structure built with such effort. A

civil war Followed Harun's death.
Al Mamun laid siege to Baghdad, Al Amin was killed
and Al Mamun proclaimed Caliph in 818. He had to face
persistent opposition from the Shias and disaffection in the
distant provinces. He personally had to proceed to Egypt to
quell one such disturbance. Al Manun's reliance on his
Khurasani soldiery and his initial decision to stay away from
Baghdad led the city to revolt. A1 Mamun crushed the
rebellion and decided to return to Baghdad. Provincial
governors (for example the Aghlabids in North Africa,
'Tahirids in Khurasan) who had been used to suppress
rebellions now started behaving as independent rulers. The
governor of Khurasan succeeded as governor by his son. A
vigorous ruler, a1 Mamun managed to keep a major portion of
the empire together. Al Mutasmim (833-842 C.E.) who
succeeded his brother recognized the implications of the
developments of the previous reign. In order to free himself
of the dependence on the army of the governors and of the
Khurasani soldiers who till now had been the main source of
support for the Abbasids, he started relying on his personal
guards composed largely of purchased slaves. The caliph
believed that an army of Turkish slaves, with no local links
would be loyal to him. To free himself further he shifted his
capital to Samarra (836 C.E.). The Caliph was physically safe
in Samarra but clearly losing his hold over the state apparatus.
The dependence of the caliphs on their slave troops increased
further during the reign of the next caliph Al Wasiq (842-47

C.E.).
The financial crisis was heightened by the decline of
the economy of the Sawad in Iraq due to geological changes.
Sawad was a major source of state income. The intensive
irrigation projects in the region also caused salinization of the
soil due to poor drainage. The spread of factional fighting and
the pampering of the slave troops accompanied decline in
revenue. Decline in state income increased corruption, which
weakened the caliph further.
Al Wasiq became aware at his vulnerability at the
hands of his slave troops and tried to introduce other ethnic
elements into this body. He introduced factions within a group
whose main advantage till now had been its cohesiveness.
Factions within the slave corps soon turned the caliphs into
pawns in their struggle for power.
When Mutawakkil (847-61C.E.) designated his three
young sons as his successors he divided up the empire an sent
them off to their particular areas. The commanders and the
administrators accompanying them were allowed to deduct
military expenditure before sending it to the central treasury.
The commanders were also given iqtas (land grants) within the
provinces. Till now the iqtas were only given to royal relatives
or civil functionaries. The iqtas became a crucial institution in
the militarised states that emerged from the wreckage of the
Abbasid Empire.
The tenth century, as we have indicated earlier, saw a
serious trouble brewing within the economy of the empire

leading to peasant rebellions. The Caliphs, incapable of

running the state surrendered their powers to the Turkish
generals. By the time of the Caliph Mamum the military
branch of the empire had come to dominate the civil and the
money that came from the tax farms was insufficient to pay.
them. So the practice of giving the military the right to collect
taxes was resorted to.
This new iqta was the outcome of two previous existing
institutions-the tax farm and the amirate or the provincial
government. The latter institution till now had worked
through loyal governors and a strict separation of the military
and financial arms of government through the Amir and the
Amil. By the time Mutadid came to power in 892 the central
treasury was empty and the military iqta was the only way of
controlling the provinces. The military governors were
instructed to protect trade and soon the military iqta included
in it taxes from inter regional trade. Once a military governor
was assigned the right to collect taxes from a large area, it was
very easy for him to become semi- independent.
Decline of the central authority was reflected in the
series of disturbances, which the caliphs had great difficulty in
quelling. The new movements against the caliphs tended to be
concentrated in territorial blocks. The populations preferred
the effective local governor to the distant and ineffective
caliph. In the ninth century the Aghlabids became independent
in Tunisia. In 909 the Fatimids replaced them. In 897 C.E. the
Zaydi Shias had established their independent rule in the
Yemen. In 905 C.E. the Hamdanids became independent in

Mosul. The Samanids came to control northeast Iran. Finally,

in 945, the Buyids, who had originated in the lands south of
the Caspian Sea occupied Baghdad and control the Caliph. The
Caliphal state from now on ceased to exist as an independent
entity and the Muslims living in independent political
kingdoms. The Caliph continued to exist but his role was
purely symbolic and religious.
Iqta and changes in agrarian relations
Iqta was and Islamic practice of tax farming that
become common in Asia during the Buyid dynasty. It is a form
of administrative grant, often translated by the European word
as fief and nature of Iqta was varied according to time and
place and translation borrowed from other systems of
institutions and conceptions has served only too often to
mislead. Iqtas were not hereditary by law and had to be
confirmed by a higher authority like a sultan or the king.
Individual Iqta holders in Middle Eastern societies had little
incentive to provide public goods to the localities assigned to
them. The power of the Iqta was revocable and uninheritable.
It was not an investment in a particular holding of land, the
Iqta-as a fiscal device-gave soldiers a vested interest in the
regime.
As with other feudal-like tax farming systems, Iqta
evolved from the tribal practices. It originated from the need to
secure one‘s self by paying taxes to the most powerful leader,
but later developed into something exchangeable by the land
owners like with the fiefdoms of Europe. The Buyids codified
the already existent system of tax farming. They united the

Amir‘s of Persia and recognised their land into Iqtas, whose

borders remained largely similar to the predecessor states.
Contrary to other forms of Iqta. It was hereditary but the land
was divided when there were sons of the age.
In the Seljuk empire the move towards the Iqta system
was facilitated by the Persian bureaucrat Nizam al-Mulk who
developed and systematized the trend towards Feudalism that
was already inherent in the tax farming practices of the
immediately preceding period. Muqtis had no claim over
peasants or subjects other than collecting them from proper
manner the due land tax assigned to them. The subjects
should remain secure from any demands of the Muqtis in
respect of their persons, wealth, family, lands and goods. They
can‘t hold any further claim over them and can go the king and
address their grievances in case they are being subjugated by
the Muqtis. The Sultan give the right to collect appropriate
taxes. They had obligations to Sultan. They had to maintain
troops and furnish them at call. The revenue got from the Iqtas
were meant for resources for him to do the same. The revenue
meant for Muqti‘s own expenses, payment and maintenance of
the troops and the rest had to be sent back to the king. The
Muqti was the Tax-Collector and army pay master rolled into
one.
Shams-ud-din Iltumish established Iqta system based
on Mohammad Ghori‘s ideas. The main function of Iqtas was
to collect taxes by Muqtis. Both Iqta system and the common
fief system followed in the west at same periods. The Iqta
holders did not hold their own lands but merely assumed the

right to collect the revenue from the land and the right that the
government typically reserved the right to change. Many Iqta
holders were not hold Iqta for life.
Gunpowder Empires
In the 15th and 16th centuries, three great powers arose
in a band across western and southern Asia. The Ottoman,
Safavid, and Mughal dynasties established control over
Turkey, Iran, and India respectively, in large part due to a
Chinese invention: gunpowder.
In large part, the successes of the western empires
depended on advanced firearms and cannons. As a result, they
are called the "Gunpowder Empires." This phrase was coined
by U.S. historians Marshall G.S. Hodgson (1922–1968) and
Willian H. McNeill (1917–2016). The gunpowder empires
monopolized the manufacture of guns and artillery in their
areas. However, the Hodgson-McNeill theory isn't today
regarded as sufficient for the rise of these empires, but their
use of the weapons was integral to their military tactics.
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire was a transcontinental empire
based out of modern-day Turkey, which covered much of
South eastern Europe, Western Asia and North Africa between
the 14th and early 20th centuries. It was one of the three
‗Gunpowder Empires‘ of the late medieval period. The other
two being the Safavid Empire of Iran and the Mughal Empire
of India.
The Ottoman Turks, named after the Turkish ruler

Osman I who founded the empire in 1299, began a rapid

expansion into the territories of the erstwhile Byzantine
Empire in the mid 14th century. Eventually it led to the fall
of Constantinople in 1453, ending the Byzantine Empire.
This marked the beginning of a Turkish golden age. Indirectly,
the capture of Constantinople was one of the events that set the
Renaissance in motion. Further conquests would be made
during the rule of Suleiman I, also known as Suleiman the
Magnificent. During his rule, the Ottomans invaded Persia,
captured Baghdad, took control of the island of Rhodes and
crossed the river Danube into Hungary where they won the
battle of Mohacs in 1526. By 1529, the Turkish army was
outside the walls of Vienna, poised to burst into western
Europe. However the siege of Vienna was lifted and Europe
breathed a sigh of relief. Ottoman Sea power was virtually
unchallenged in the Mediterranean basin until the battle of
Lepanto in 1571 ended Turkish threat to Europe by sea.
Suleiman I also sought to expand his Empire‘s borders
or at least it‘s influence in the Indian subcontinent. This put
them at odds with the Portuguese. However, this venture was
permanently put to a stop following the Siege of Diu in 1538
which ended in a Portuguese victory and permanently stopped
Ottoman forays into Indian territory. The Ottoman Empire was
always in a perpetual rivalry with the Safavid Empire of
Persia. Thrice did Suleiman try to conquer it with various
results. But Europe benefited from the Ottoman-Safavid Wars
as it stopped the empire‘s advancing into Europe. Following
the death of the Suleiman I in 1566, the empire still maintained

a flexible economy and military through the 16thcentury. But

the Ottoman military system began to stagnate in contrast to
those of its European rivals, Habsburg and Russian empires.
A series of military defeats at their hands prompted the
Ottoman administration to modernise and reform itself. The
empire became relatively stable despite the loss of its Eastern
European territories. Hoping to escape diplomatic isolation and
further territorial losses the Ottoman Empire allied itself with
German and eventually, the Central Powers when World War I
broke out in 1914. Toits credit, it held on to its territories
despite internal dissent. The Empire did end up on the losing
side of World War I. Subjected to the Treaty of Versailles,
parts of its territories were occupied by the Allied Powers
resulting in its partitioning and the loss of its Middle Eastern
territories, which were divided between the United Kingdom
and France. One result of this territorial division was the
drawing up of the Sykes-Picot agreement The successful
Turkish War of Independence led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
against the occupying Allies led to the emergence of the
Republic of Turkey in the Anatolian heartland and the
abolition of the Ottoman monarch in 1922.
Administration and Economy of the Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman administration system consisted of two
main dimensions: civilian and military. The Sultan was the
highest authority. The civil system was based on local
administrativeunits based on the region's characteristics.
• Though the sultan was the supreme monarch, the sultan‘s

political and executive authority was delegated. The

politics of the state had advisors and ministers part of
council know as Divan.
• The Divan in the initial years of the Ottoman state was
composed of the elders of the various Turkish tribes. Its
composition was modified to include military officers and
local elites
• In 1320 C.E., a Grand Vizier was appointed to assume
certain responsibilities.
• The Grand Vizier wielded considerable power,
independent from that of thesultan.
• Beginning with the late 16th century, sultans withdrew
from politics and the Grand Vizier became the de facto
head of state.
The Ottoman legal system accepted the religious law
over its subjects. At the same time the Qanun (or Kanun), a
secular legal system, co-existed with religious law. The
Ottoman Empire was always organized around a system of
local jurisprudence. Legal administration in the Ottoman
Empire was part of a larger scheme of balancing central and
local authority.
Economic System
The Ottoman economic system closely resembled the
basic concepts of state and society of the Middle-East in which
the basic idea was that it was the state‘s duty to consolidate
and extend the ruler‘s power in getting rich resources of
revenues. It believed that a productive and prosperous

population was the key to a robust economy.

The Ottoman economy greatly expanded during the
early modern period, with particularly high growth rates during
the first half of the eighteenth century. By developing
commercial centres and routes, encouraging people to extend
the area of cultivated land in the country and international
trade through its dominions, the state performed basic
economic functions in the Empire. But in all this, the financial
and political interests of the state were dominant.
Legacy of the Ottoman Empire
After ruling for more than 600 years, the Ottoman
Empire is remembered for its powerful military, ethnic
diversity, artistic ventures, religious tolerance and architectural
marvels. The great empire‘s influence is still very much alive
in the present-day Turkish Republic, a modern, mostly secular
nation thought of by many scholars as a continuation of the
Ottoman Empire. But the other legacies it left behind still
continues to affect the Middle-East in a different way
particularly from the fallout of the Sykes Picot agreement,
which resulted in the division of the region based more on
European lines rather than ethnic and religious ones. But the
ultimate outcome was the foundation laid for decolonisation of
the Middle East, as the absence of a central authority and the
presence of foreign powers gave way to many nationalist
movements in the Middle-East.
The Safavid empire in Persia
The Safavid state began from a local Sufi ṭariqah of

Ardabil in the Azerbaijan region of Iran. The ṭariqah was

named after its founder, Shaykh Safi al-Din (1252/53–1334
C.E.), a local holy man. As for many ṭariqahs and other
voluntary associations, Sunni and Shiite alike, affection for the
family of Ali was a channel for popular support. During the
15th century Shaykh Safi‘s successors transformed their local
ṭariqah into an interregional movement by translating Alid
loyalism into full-fledged Imam Shiism. By asserting that they
were the Sufi ―perfect men‖ of their time as well as
descendants and representatives of the last imam, they
strengthened the support of their Turkic tribal disciples (known
as the Kizilbash, or ―Red Heads,‖ because of their symbolic
12-fold red headgear). They also attracted support outside Iran,
especially in eastern Anatolia (where the anti-Ottoman Imam
Bekṭashi ṭariqah was strong), in Syria, the Caucasus, and
Transoxiana. The ability of the Iranian Shiite state to serve as
a source of widespread local opposition outside of Iran was
again to become dramatically apparent many years later, with
the rise of the ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini‘s Islamic republic
in the late 1970s.
Expansion in Iran and beyond
By 1501 C.E. the Safavids were able to defeat the Ak
Koyunlu rulers of northern Iran, whereupon their teenage
leader Ismail I (ruled 1501–24 C.E.) had himself proclaimed
shah, using that pre-Islamic title for the first time in almost 900
years and thereby invoking the glory of ancient Iran. The
Safavids thus asserted a multivalent legitimacy that flew in the
face of Ottoman claims to have restored caliphal authority for

all Muslims. Eventually, irritant became threat: by 1510, when

Ismail had conquered all of Iran (to approximately its present
frontiers) as well as the Fertile Crescent, he began pushing
against the Uzbeks in the east and the Ottomans in the west,
both of whom already suffered from significant Shiite
opposition that could easily be aroused by Safavid successes.
Having to fight on two fronts was the most difficult military
problem any Muslim empire could face. According to the
persisting Mongol pattern, the army was a single force attached
to the household of the ruler and moving with him at all times;
so, the size of an area under effective central control was
limited to the farthest points that could be reached in a single
campaign season. After dealing with his eastern front, Ismail
turned west. At Chaldiran (1514) in north western Iraq, having
refused to use gunpowder weapons, Ismail suffered the kind of
defeat at Ottoman hands that the Ottomans had suffered from
Timur. Yet through the war of words waged in a body of
correspondence between Shah Ismail and the Ottoman sultan
Salim I, and through the many invasions from both fronts that
occurred during the next 60 years, the Ṣafavid state survived
and prospered. Still living off its position at the crossroads of
the trans-Asian trade that had supported all previous empires in
Iraq and Iran, it was not yet undermined by the gradual
emergence of more significant sea routes to the south.
The first requirement for the survival of the Safavid
state was the conversion of its predominantly Sunni population
to Shia. This was accomplished by a government-run effort
supervised by the state-appointed leader of the religious

community, the ṣadr. Gradually forms of piety emerged that

were specific to Safavid Shiism; they centred on pilgrimage to
key sites connected with the imams, as well as on the annual
remembering and re-enacting of the key event in Shiite history,
the caliph Yazid I‘s destruction of Imam al-Ḥusayn at Karbala
on the 10th of Muḥarram, (680 C.E.). The 10th of Muḥarram, or
ʿAshuraʾ, already marked throughout Islamdom with fasting,
became for Iranian Shiites the centre of the religious calendar.
The first 10 days of Muḥarram became a period of communal
mourning, during which the pious imposed suffering on
themselves to identify with their martyrs of old, listened to
sermons, and recited appropriate elegiac poetry. In later
Safavid times the name for this mourning, taziyyeh, also came
to be applied to passion plays performed to re-enact events
surrounding al-Ḥusayn‘s martyrdom. Through the depths of
their empathetic suffering, Shiites could help to overturn the
injustice of al-Ḥusayn‘s martyrdom at the end of time, when
all wrongs would be righted, all wrongdoers punished, and all
true followers of the imams rewarded.
Shah Abbas I
The state also survived because Ismail‘s successors
moved, like the Ottomans, toward a type of legitimation
different from the one that had brought them to power. This
development began in the reign of Ṭahmasp (1524–76) and
culminated in the reign of the greatest Safavid shah, Abbas I
(ruled 1588–1629). Since Ismail‘s time, the tribes had begun to
lose faith in the Safavid monarch as spiritual leader; now
Abbas appealed for support more as absolute monarch and less

as the charismatic Sufi master or incarnated imam. At the same

time, he freed himself from his unruly tribal emirs by
depending more and more on a paid army of converted
Circassian, Georgian, and Armenian Christian captives.
Meanwhile, he continuedto rely on a large bureaucracy headed
by a chief minister with limited responsibilities, but, unlike his
Ottoman contemporaries, he distanced members of the
religious community from state involvement while allowing
them an independent source of support in their
administration of the waqf system. Because the Shiite ulama
had a tradition of independence that made them resist
incorporation into the military ―household‖ of the shah,
Abbas‘s policies were probably not unpopular, but they
eventually undermined his state‘s legitimacy. By the end of the
period under discussion, it was the religious leaders, the
mujtahids, who would claim to be the spokesmen for the
hidden imam. Having shared the ideals of the military
patronage state, the Ottoman state became more firmly
militarized and religious, as the Safavid, became more
civilianized and secular. The long-term consequences of this
breach between government and the religious institution were
extensive, culminating in the establishment of the Islamic
republic of Iran in 1978.
Abbas expressed his new role by moving his capital
about 1597–98 to Esfahan in Fars, the central province of the
ancient pre-Islamic Iranian empires and symbolically more
Persian than Turkic. Esfahan, favoured by a high and scenic
setting, became one of the most beautiful cities in the world,

leading its boosters to say that ―Esfahan is half the world.‖ It

came to contain, often thanks to royal patronage, myriad
palaces, gardens, parks, mosques, medreses, caravansaries,
workshops, and public baths. Many of these still stand,
including the famed Masjed-e Shah, a mosque that shares the
great central mall with an enormous covered bazaar and many
other structures. It was there that Abbas received diplomatic
and commercial visits from Europeans, including a Carmelite
mission from Pope Clement XIII (1604) and the adventuring
Sherley brothers from Elizabethan England. Just as his visitors
hoped to use him to their own advantage, Abbas hoped to use
them to his, as sources of firearms and military technology, or
as pawns in his economic warfare against the Ottomans, in
which he was willing to seek help from apparently anyone,
including the Russians, Portuguese, and Habsburgs.
Under Safavid rule, Iran in the 16th and 17th centuries
became the centre of a major cultural flowering expressed
through the Persian language and through the visual arts. This
flowering extended to Safavid neighbour states as well—
Ottomans, Uzbeks, and Indo-Timurids. Like other Shiite
dynasties before them, the Safavids encouraged the
development of falsafah as a companion to Shiite esotericism
and cosmology. Two major thinkers, Mir Damad and his
disciple Mulla Ṣadra, members of the Ishraqi, or
illuminationist, school, explored the realm of images or
symbolic imagination as a way to understand issues of human
meaningfulness. The Safavid period was also important for the
development of Shiite Shariah-minded studies, and it produced

a major historian, Iskandar Beg Munshi, chronicler of Abbas‘

reign.
Decline of Safavid central authority
None of Abbas‘ successors was his equal, though his
state, ever weaker, survived for a century. The last effective
shah, Ḥusayn I (1694–1722 C.E.), could defend himself
neither from tribal raiding in the capital nor from interfering
mujtahids led by Muhammad Baqir Majlisi (whose writings
later would be important in the Islamic republic of Iran). In
1722, when Mahmud of Qandahar led an Afghan tribal raid
into Iran from the east, he easily took Esfahan and destroyed
what was left of central authority.
Arab Science
The Arab world covers an area of vast geographic
having different countries in Asia and Africa. The
contemporary world owes much its progress in all field of
human intellectual activity. In Arab medicine made golden age
of Arabic –Islamic science (8th to 13th C.E) The glorious
historic background of the Arabic world permits us to identify
the debt that humanity owes to the Golden Age of Arabic
Science and to evaluate the research contributions made by
Arab countries to Bio-Medical science. The Bio-Medical
science of the Arabic-Islamic world underwent remarkable
development during 8th to 13th centuries C.E. It was a
flowering of knowledge and intellect that later spread
throughout Europe and greatly influenced both medical
practice and education. The scientific glory of the Arabic

nation originated on the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century

C.E. The preaching of Prophet Mohammad united the Arab
tribes and inaugurated the Muslim religion. The Islamic
state was formed in 622 C.E. when the Prophet moved from
Mecca to Medina.
Medicine
The Islamic Medicine went through impressive
developments which were influenced medical education and
practice in Europe. The intense efforts for translation and
analysis of the works of Hippocratus, Rufus of Ephesus,
Dioscorides and Galen took place. The Arab scholars
synthesized and further elaborated the knowledge they had
gathered from ancient manuscripts adding to their own
experience. Numerous Arab pioneers are mentioned in medical
history. Among the most famous are Yuhanna Ibn Massuwayh
who performed dissections and described Allergy. Abu Bakr
Muhammad Ibn Zakariyya al-Razi who differentiated
smallpox from measles, described the laryngeal branch of the
recurrent nerve, introduced mercurial ointments and hot moist
compresses in surgery, investigated psychosomatic reactions
and wrote the famous Al-Hawl, a medical encyclopedia of 30
volumes. Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi known as the Father of
modern surgery who performed tracheotomy and lithotomy
introduced the use of cotton and catgut and described extra-
uterine pregnancy, cancer of the breast and the sex-linked
inheritance of hemophilia.
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) who differentiated meningitis
from other neurologic diseases described anthrax and

tuberculosis introduced urethral drug instillation stressed the

importance ofhygiene and dietetics and the holistic approach to
the patient mentioned in his work al- Quanun-fil -Tibb (the
Canon of Medicine) represented the absolute authority in
medicine for 500 years. Ibn-Zuhr (Avenzoar) who described
pericarditis, mediastinitis and paralysis of the pharynx and who
pointed out the importance of drugs for body and soul and Ibn-
Nafis who studied and described pulmonary circulation.
Progress was apparent in all medical fields including anatomy,
surgery, anesthesia, cardiology, ophthalmology, orthopedics,
bacteriology, urology, obstetrics, neurology, psychiatry
(including psychotherapy), hygiene, dietetics, and dentistry.
The medical education of the Arab-Muslim world was
created from Arabic medical studied consisted of initial
training in such as basic sciences as alchemy, pharmacognosy,
anatomy and physiology which was followed by clinical
training in hospitals where students performed physical
examinations attended ward rounds and clinical lectures. Upon
completion of training future physicians were required to pass
oral and practical exams in order to be licensed. Medicine was
not only a profession or science but also a philosophical
attitude based on religion and culture obeying codes of ethics
characterizing the physician‘s behaviour and obligations to
patients, colleagues and the community.
Mathematics
Mathematics during the Golden age of Islam
especially during the 9th and 10th centuries was built on Greek
mathematics(Euclid, Archimedes, Apollonius) and Indian

mathematics (Aryabhata, Brahmagupta) important progress

was made such as full development of the decimal place -value
system to include decimal fractions the first systematized study
of algebra and advances in geometry and trigonometry. The
study of algebra the name of which is derived from the Arabic
word meaning completion or reunion of broken parts
flourished during the Islamic golden age. Muhammad Ibn
Musa al-Khwarizmi a scholar in the House of Wisdom in
Baghdad is along with Greek mathematician. Diophantus
known as the Father of algebra. In his work The Compendious
Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing. Al-
Khwarizmi deals with ways to solve for the positive roots of
first and second degree-linear and quadratic polynomial
equations. He also introduces the method of reduction and
unlike Diophantus gives general solutions for the equations he
deals with Al-Khwarizmi‘s algebra was rhetorical which
means that the equations were written out in full sentences.
This was unlike the algebraic work of Diophantus which was
syncopated meaning that some symbolism is used the
transition to symbolic algebra where only symbols are used
can be seen in the work of Ibn al-Banna al-Marrakushi and
Abu al-Hassan Ibn Ali al-Qalasadi.
Astronomy
Islamic astronomy comprises the astronomical
developments in the Islamic world particularly during the
Islamic Golden Age (9th to 13th centuries) and mostly written
in the Arabic language. Developments took place during the
Middle East, Central Asia, Al-Andalus and North Africa and

later in the Far East and India. It closely parallels the genesis
of other Islamic sciences in its assimilation of foreign material
and the amalgamation of the disparate elements of that
material to create a science with Islamic science
characteristics. These included Greek, Sasanid and Indian
works in particular which were translated and build upon.
Islamic astronomy played a significant role in the revival of
Byzantine and European astronomy following the loss of
knowledge during the early medieval period. Notably withthe
production of Latin translation of Arabic works during the
12th century Islamic astronomy also had an influence on
Chinese astronomy and Malian astronomy. Significant number
of stars in the sky such as Aldebaran, Altair and Deneb and
astronomical terms such as alidade, azimuth and nadir are still
referred to by their Arabic names. A large corpus of literature
from Islamic astronomy remains numbering approximately
10,000 manuscripts scattered throughout the world many of
which have not been read or catalogued. While Abbasid era
and later Muslim scholars made great contributions to
astronomy. The first astronomical texts that were translated
into Arabic were Indian and Persian origin. The notable text
was Zij-al-Sindhind, an 8th century Indian astronomical work
that was translated by Muhammad Ibn Ibrahim al-Fazari and
Yaqub Ibn Tariq. After 770 C.E with the assistance of Indian
astronomers who visited the court of Caliph Al-Mansur in 770.
Abu Rayhan Biruni discussed the possibility of whether the
earth rotated about its own axis and round the Sun, but in his
Masudic Canon he set forth the principles that the earth at the
centre of the universe and that it has no motion of its own. He

was aware that if the earth rotated on its axis, this would be
consistent with his astronomical parameters but he considered
this a problem of natural philosophy rather than mathematics.
Alchemy
After the fall of the Western Roman empire the focus
of alchemical development moved to Caliphate and the Islamic
civilization. Arabic alchemy is as mysterious as Greek in its
origins, and the two seem to have been significantly different.
The respect in which Physicaet mystica was held by the Greek
alchemists was bestowed by the Arabs on a different work, the
Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistos, the reputed
Hellenistic author of various alchemical, occultic, and
theological works. Beginning ―That which is above is like to
that which is below, and that which is below is like to that
which is above,‖ it is brief, theoretical, and astrological.
Hermes ―the thrice great‖ (Trismegistos) was a Greek version
of the Egyptian god Thoth and the supposed founder of an
astrological philosophy that is first noted in 150 B.C.E. The
Emerald Tablet, however, comes from a larger work called
Book of the Secret of Creation, which exists in Latin and
Arabic manuscripts and was thought by the Muslim alchemist
ar-Rāzī to have been written during the reign of Caliph al-
Maʾmun (ad 813–833), though it has been attributed to the 1st-
century-ad pagan mystic Apollonius of Tyana.
Some scholars have suggested that Arabic alchemy
descended from a western Asiatic school and that Greek
alchemy was derived from an Egyptian school. As far as is
known, the Asiatic school was not Chinese or Indian. What is

known is that Arabic alchemy was associated with a specific

city in Syria, Harran, which seems to have been a fountainhead
of alchemical notions. And it is possible that the distillation
ideology and its spokeswoman, Maria—as well as
Agathodaimon-represented the alchemy of Harran, which
presumably migrated to Alexandria and was incorporated into
the alchemy of Zosimos.
The existing versions of the Book of the Secret of
Creation have been carried back only to the 7th or 6th century
but are believed by some to represent much earlier writings,
although not necessarily those of Apollonius himself. He is the
subject of an ancient biography that says nothing about
alchemy, but neither does the Emerald Tablet nor the rest of
the Book of the Secret of Creation. On the other hand, their
theories of nature have an alchemical ring, and the Book
mentions the characteristic materials of alchemy, including, for
the first time in the West, sal ammoniac. It was clearly an
important book to the Arabs, most of whose eminent
philosophers mentioned alchemy, although sometimes
disapprovingly. Those who practiced it were even more
interested in literal gold making than had been the Greeks. The
most well- attested and probably the greatest Arabic alchemist
was ar-Razi (c. 850–923/924), a Persian physician who lived in
Baghdad. The most famous was Jabir ibn Ḥayyan, now
believed to be a name applied to a collection of ―underground
writings‖ produced in Baghdad after the theological reaction
against science. In any case, the Jābirian writings are very
similar to those of ar-Razi.

Ar-Razi classified the materials used by the alchemist

into ―bodies‖ (the metals), stones, vitriols, boraxes, salts, and
―spirits,‖ putting into the latter those vital (and sublimable)
materials, mercury, sulfur, orpiment and realgar (the arsenic
sulfides), and sal ammoniac. Much is made of sal ammoniac,
the reactive powers of which seem to have given Western
alchemy a new lease on life. Ar-Razi and the Jabirian writers
were really trying to make gold, through the catalytic action of
the elixir. Both wrote much on the compounding of ―strong
waters,‖ an enterprise that was ultimately to lead to the
discovery of the mineral acids, but students have been no more
able to find evidence of this discovery in the writings of the
Arabic alchemists than in those of China and India. The Arabic
strong waters were merely corrosive salt solutions.
Ar-Razi‘s writing represents the apogee of Arabic
alchemy, so much so that students of alchemy have little
evidence of its later reorientation toward mystical or quasi-
religious objectives. Nor does it seem to have turned to
medicine, which remained independent. But there was a
tendency in Arabic medicine to give greater emphasis to
mineral remedies and less to the herbs that had been the chief
medicines of the earlier Greek and Arabic physicians. The
result was a pharmacopoeia not of elixirs but of specific
remedies that are inorganic in origin and not very different
from the elixirs of Ar-Razi. This new pharmacopoeia was
taken to Europe by Constantine of Africa, a Baghdad-educated
Muslim who died in 1087 as a Christian monk at Monte
Cassino (Italy). The pharmacopoeia also appeared in Spain in

the 11th century and passed from there to Latin Europe, along
with the Arabic alchemical writings, which were translated into
Latin in the 12th century.
Optics
Hasan Ibn-al-Haytham (965-1040A.D) was a Muslim
Arab mathematician, astronomer and physicist of the Islamic
Golden age. He was known as the Father of Modern Optics.
He made significant contributions to the principles of Optics
and Visual perception in particular. His most influential work
is titled as Kitab-al-manazir written during (1011-1021 C.E.).
*****

MODULE III
MEDIEVAL CHINA - TANG &
MING DYNASTIES
Rise of the Tang Dynasty in China

The Tang Dynasty came to power in China in 618 C.E.
is considered to be a golden age of Chinese arts and culture. In
power from 618 to 906 C.E., Tang China attracted an
international reputation. China spilled out of its cities and,
through the practice of Buddhism, spread its culture across
much of Asia. At the beginning of the sixth century C.E..,
north and south China were divided, but would be united
through conquest by the Sui Dynasty, which ruled from 581 to
617 C.E.
Li Yuan was the founder of the Tang Dynasty and he
was the cousin of the first Sui emperor and gained during a
period of mass rebellion. He ruled as Gaozu until 626 C.E. His
son Taizong ascended the throne after killing his two brothers
and several nephews. In 630 C.E., Taizong seized a portion of
Mongolia from the Turks and earned the title Great Khan.
Taizong also set up more aggressive systems to identify
Confucian scholars and put them in civil service placements.
He created Confucian state schools along with a sanctioned
state. The talented scholars with no family connections to work
their way up in the government. Taizong‘s son, Gaozong,
became emperor in 650 . C.E., but spent most of his rule under
the control of Empress Wu. Wu was one of Taizong‘s

concubines, sent away to a convent after his death, but

Gaozong—long in love with her—initiated her return to the
court.
Wu won his favour over his wife, who was dismissed
against the wishes of Gaozong‘s advisors. In 660 C.E.
Gaozong became incapacitated because of a stroke and Wu
took on most of his duties. Gaozong died in 683 C.E. Wu
maintained control through her two sons. Wu proclaimed
herself Empress in 690 C.E. and announced a new dynasty, the
Zhou the Great Cloud Sutra, which claimed the Buddha
Maitreya was reincarnated as a female ruler, giving herself
divine Buddhist legitimacy. Wu ruled until 705 C.E., which
also marked the end of the brief Zhou Dynasty
Empress Wu‘s grandson, Emperor Xuanzong, is
renowned for the cultural heights reached during his rule from
712 to 756 C.E. He welcomed Buddhist and Taoist clerics to
his court, including teachers of Tantric Buddhism is a form of
the religion. Xuanzong had a passion for music and horses. To
this end he owned a troupe of dancing horses and invited
renowned horse painter, Han Gan into his court. He also
created the Imperial Music Academy, taking advantage of the
new international influence on Chinese music.
The fall of Xuanzong became an enduring love story in
China. Xuanzong fell so much in love with concubine Yang
Guifei that he began to ignore his royal duties and also
promoted her family members to high government positions.
Sensing the emperor‘s weakness war lord An Lushan mounted
a rebellion and occupied the capital in 755 C.E., forcing

Xuanzong to flee.
The royal army refused to defend Xuanzong unless
Yang Guifei‘s family was executed. Xuanzong complied, but
the soldiers demanded Yang Guifei‘s death as well. Xuanzong
eventually complied, and ordered her strangled. Lushan
himself was later killed, and Xuanzong abdicated the throne to
his son. The Lushan Rebellion severely weakened the Tang
Dynasty and eventually cost it much of its western territory.
The Tang Dynasty is well remembered for the era‘s
contributions to poetry, partly the result of Xuanzong‘s
creation of an academy for poets. It helped preserve over
48,900 poems written by well over 2,000 poets of the era. One
of the best remembered is Li Bai, born in 701 B.C.E. He spent
most of his life wandering around, and his poems focus on
nature, friendship and the importance of alcohol. Bai Juyi,
born in 772 C.E., ushered in a new style of poetry that was
written to be understood by peasants and addressed political
issues and social justice. Bai Juyi was a lifelong government
worker and died in 846 C.E.
Wang Wei, born in 699 C.E. served in the Tang court,
but wrote many of his most famous poems from a Buddhist
monastery. He took up study following a rebellion that led to
the death of his wife. Late period poet Li Shangyin, born in
813 C.E., is known for his eclectic, visual style that evoked
eroticism alongside political satire. His popularity came
primarily after his death. Wood block printing was developed
in the early Tang era with examples of its development dating
to around 650 C.E. More common use is found during the

ninth century, with calendars, children‘s books, test guides,

charm manuals, dictionaries and almanacs. Commercial books
began to be printed around 762 B.C.E.
 In 835 B.C. there was a ban on private printing brought on
because of the distribution of unsanctioned calendars. The
oldest surviving printed document from the period of Ming
era is the Diamond Sutra from 868 C.E., a 16-foot scroll
featuring calligraphy and illustrated Woodblock printing is
published.
 Buddhism a regular part of ordinary Chinese life by giving
Buddhist monks the opportunity to mass-produce texts.
Monasteries had gained power under Empress Wu, though
Xuanzong tried to temper that.
 Monasteris insinuated themselves in many aspects of life,
including schools for children, lodging for travellers and
spaces for gatherings and parties.
 Monasteries were large landowners, which provided them
with the funds to act as moneylenders and pawnbrokers as
well as own businesses like mills.
 Buddhist monks were proactive in spreading Buddhist
stories into the Chinese popular culture, which led to
Buddhist festivals that were embraced by the people.
 There was some backlash, however, to the growing
influence of Buddhism. In 841 C.E. the royal court ordered
a crackdown on Buddhism, as well as other religions.
 Nearly 50,000 monasteries and chapels were destroyed,

150,000 slaves seized and 250,000 monks and nuns forced

back into civilian life. The orders were abolished in 845
C.E.
 After 820 C.E. was full of palace intrigue marked by
plotting eunuchs assassinating one emperor after another.
In 835 C.E., Emperor Wenzong hatched a plot with his
chancellor and general to put an end to eunuch plotting.
Their plan, later known as ―The Sweet Dew incident,‖ led
to the murder of 1,000 government officials, as well as the
public executions of three top ministers and their families.
 By 860 C.E. the countryside was in chaos, with gangs and
small armies robbing merchants, attacking cities and
slaughtering scores of people. Huang Chao, who had
failed his civil service exams, led his army on the capital
and took control.
 In contrast to the golden age of poetry in the Ming
Dynasty, Huang Chao ordered the deaths of 3,000 poets
after an insulting poem had been written about his regime.
 In 907, the Tang Dynasty was obliterated for good when
Zhu Wen, a former follower of Huang Chao, proclaimed
himself Emperor Taizu he first emperor of the Hou Liang
dynasty. He would be the first of the infamous Five
Dynasties short-lived kingdoms that rose and fell during
the next 50 years of chaotic power struggles in Chinese
history.
Ming Dynasty of China
Ming dynasty founder Emperor Taizu, or Zhu

Yuanzhang, was born into poverty, and spent part of his youth
wandering the country after his parents died following a series
of natural disasters centered around the Yellow River. He
spent several years begging for a Buddhist monastery, and
several more living there, but that life came to an end when a
militia burned it down to quell a rebellion. In 1352 C.E. Taizu
joined a rebel group related to the White Lotus Society and
rose up the ranks speedily, eventually leading a successful
invasion on the city of Nanjing, which he used as a base to lash
out at regional warlords. Taizu‘s ultimate quarry was the
Mongolian rulers of the Yuan empire. Taizu captured Beijing
in 1368, destroying the palaces, sending the Mongolian rulers
fleeing and announcing the Ming Dynasty.
Emperor Taizu‘s empire was one of military discipline
and respect of authority, with a fierce sense of justice. If his
officials did not kneel before him, he would have them beaten.
Taizu was considered a suspicious ruler who transformed his
palace guard into a form of secret police to root out betrayals
and conspiracies. In 1380 C.E., he began an internal
investigation that lasted 14 years and brought about 30,000
executions. So deep was his paranoia that he conducted two
more such efforts, resulting in another 70,000 killings of
government workers,ranging from high government officials to
guards and servants. Taizu was succeeded by his 15-year-old
grandson, but one of Taizu‘s sons, Chengzu, ignited a
civil war to take thethrone.
From 1405 to 1433, Chengzu launched ambitious
flotillas to expand the Chinese tribute system to other

countries, sending ships to India, the Persian Gulf and the east
coast of Africa, pre-dating European efforts of similar scope.
By 1557, the tribute system was replaced by maritime trade
which saw China exporting silk and allowing a European
presence in the empire. This was a time of expansion of
cuisine, as food like sweet potatoes and peanuts entered China
for the first time. The period also brought about significant
emigration outside of the empire for the merchant class. The
best-loved exports of the Ming Dynasty was its porcelain.
Created by grinding china-stone, mixing it with china-clay and
then baking until translucent, the technique was developed
during the Tang but perfected in the Ming era. An imperial
porcelain factory was created in Jingdezhen in 1368 to produce
wares for the imperial court. Though various colours might be
featured on a piece, the classic Ming porcelain was white and
blue.
The Jingdezhen factory became the source of
porcelain exports that were extremely popular in Europe,
which hoped to replicate the form. Maintenance of the Great
wall of China not consistent throughout the history of China,
and by the time of the Ming Dynasty, it required significant
repair work. The Mongols were a constant threat to the citizens
of the Ming Dynasty, and the Great Wall was believed to be
the most effective defense against invasion. After several
clashes, the Mongols captured Emperor Zhengtong in 1449
C.E. The Ming government chose to replace the emperor with
his half-brother rather than pay a ransom. The government also
decided that restoring the Great Wall to its full glory and

power was the best use of their money to effectively protect

the Ming dynasty. Zhengtong was later released and eventually
sat on the throne again under the name Tianshu Christian
missionaries from Europe also began to enter the country and
provided the world with the first glimpses of life in China.
Matteo Ricci was a Jesuit priest from Italy who, in 1583,
started the first Catholic mission in China. Ricci learned
Chinese, translated Chinese classic literature into Latin and
wrote a series of books about the country. Ricci also translated
books by Euclid into Chinese, and those proved to be very
popular. Ricci was known for embracing Chinese ways, often
dressing in silk robes and going by the name Li Matou. The
Ming Dynasty saw a publishing boom in China, with an
avalanche of affordable books being produced for commoners.
Reference books were popular, as well as religious tracts,
school primers, Confucian literature and civil service
examination guides.
There was a sizable market for fiction, especially for
stories written in colloquial language. Writer Feng Menglong
had a popular series of humorous short stories that featured
palace figures and ghosts and sold well among merchants and
educated women. Play scripts sold very well also. One well-
regarded playwright was Tang Xianzu, who specialized in
social satire and romance. It was during the Ming Dynasty that
full-length novels began to grow in popularity. Many were
adaptations of ancient story cycles that had been part of oral
traditionsfor centuries.
Ming rule was partly undone by enormous fiscal

problems that resulted in a calamitous collapse. Several factors

contributed to the financial trouble. The Imperial clan became
overstuffed and paying all the clan‘s members became a severe
burden. Military campaigns had also become a significant
drain on the empire‘s purse, with efforts in Korea and Japan
doing the worst damage, as well as the constant costs of
defending against insurgents,particularly the Mongols.
A drop in average temperatures resulted in earlier
freezes, shortened growing seasons and produced pitiful
harvests. These circumstances lead to famine, which forced
starving soldiers to desert their posts and form marauding
gangs ravaging the country sides. By 1632, the gangs were
moving east, and the Imperial military proved incapable of
stopping them. Soon after, the country was further decimated
by flooding, locusts, drought and disease. Rebellion and riots
became commonplace.
In 1642, a group of rebels destroyed the dikes of the
Yellow River and unleashed flooding that killed hundreds of
thousands of people. As the social order broke down and
smallpox spread, two competing rebel leaders, Li Zicheng and
Zhang, took control of separate parts of the country and both
declared new dynasties. The last Ming emperor, Chóngzhēn,
committed suicide in 1644. Later that year, the semi-nomadic
Manchu people prevailed over the chaos and became the ruling
Qing Dynasty.
Civil Service Examination
The Qin dynasty (221–207 B.C.E.) established the first

centralized Chinese bureaucratic empire and thus created the

need for an administrative system to staff it. Recruitment into
the Qin bureaucracy was based on recommendations by local
officials. This system was initially adopted by the succeeding
Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.), but in 124 B.C.E, under
the reign of the Han emperor Wudi, an imperial university was
established to train and test officials in the techniques of
Confucian government.
The Sui dynasty (581–618 C.E) adopted this Han
system and applied it in a much more systematic way as a
method of official recruitment. They also introduced the rule
that officials of a prefecture must be appointees of the central
government rather than local aristocrats and that the local
militia was to be subject to officials of the central government.
The Tang dynasty (618–907 C.E) created a system of local
schools where scholars could pursue their studies. Those
desiring to enter the upper levels of the bureaucracy then
competed in the jinshi exams, which tested a candidate‘s
knowledge of the Confucian Classics. This system gradually
became the major method of recruitment into the bureaucracy;
by the end of the Tang dynasty, the old aristocracy was
destroyed, and its power was taken by the scholar-gentry, who
staffed the bureaucracy. This nonhereditary elite would
eventually become known to the West as ―mandarins,‖ in
reference to Mandarin, the dialectof Chinese they employed.
The civil service system expanded to what many
consider its highest point during the Song dynasty (960–1279
C.E). Public schools were established throughout the country

to help the talented but indigent, business contact was barred

among officials related by blood or marriage, relatives of the
imperial family were not permitted to hold high positions, and
promotions were based on a merit system in which a person
who nominated another for advancement was deemed totally
responsible for that person‘s conduct.
Almost all Song officials in the higher levels of the
bureaucracy were recruited by passing the jinshi degree, and
the examinations became regularly established affairs. After
1065 they were held every three years, but only for those who
first passed qualifying tests on the local level.
Under the Ming dynasty (1368–1644 C.E), the civil
service system reached its final form, and the succeeding Qing
dynasty (1644–1911/12) copied the Ming system virtually
intact. During this period no man was allowed to serve in his
home district, and officials were rotated in their jobs every
three years. The recruitment exam was divided into three
stages: the xiucai (―cultivated talent‖), or bachelor‘s degree,
held on the local-prefecture level; the juren (―recommended
man‖), given at the prefectural capital; and the jinshi, held at
Beijing. Although only the passage of the jinshi made one
eligible for high office, passage of the other degrees gave one
certain privilege, such as exemption from labour service and
corporal punishment, government stipends, and admission to
upper-gentry status (juren).
Elaborate precautions were taken to prevent cheating,
different districts in the country were given quotas for
recruitment into the service to prevent the dominance of any

one region, and the testing matter was limited to the Nine
Classics of Confucianism. The examination became so stylized
that the set form for an examination paper came to be the
famous ―eight-legged essay‖ (bagu wenzhang), which had
eight main headings, used not more than 700 characters, and
dealt with topics according to a certain set manner. It had no
relation to the candidate‘s ability to govern and was often
criticized for setting a command of style above thought.
The examination system was finally abolished in 1905
by the Qing dynasty in the midst of modernization attempts.
The whole civil service system as it had previously existed was
overthrown along with the dynasty in 1911/12.
Gentry society
Technological innovations and emergence of wood block
printing
China has been the source of many innovations,
scientific discoveries and inventions. It includes paper making,
the compass, gunpowder, printing both woodblock and
movable type. China experienced mechanics, hydraulics and
mathematics applied to horology, metallurgy, astronomy,
agriculture, engineering, music, craftsmanship, naval
architecture and warfare. The inhabitants of warring states had
advanced metallurgical technology including blast furnace and
cupola furnace while the finery forge and puddling process
were known by the Han dynasty (202 B.C.E-220 C.E) and
sophisticated economic system in imperial China gave birth to
inventions such as paper money during Song dynasty (960-
1279).

The inventions of gunpowder during the mid-9th

century led to array of inventions such as the fire lance,
landmine, naval mine, hand cannon exploding cannonballs,
multistage rocket and rocket bombs with aerodynamic wings
and explosive payloads with navigational aid of 11th century
compass and ability to steer at sea. In water-powered
clockworks, the pre-modern Chinese has used the escapement
mechanism since the 8th century and endless power
transmitting chain drive in the 11th century. They also made
large mechanical puppet theaters driven by waterwheels and
carriage wheels, wine-serving automatons driven by paddle
wheelboats.
Paper
Chinese people wrote records on silk or bamboo
however each of these was expensive and difficult to produce.
Paper was first invented in China during the Han dynasty
around 105 C.E. by a government worker called Cai Lun. He
developed a way to make paper using the bark of trees and
rags of cloth. Paper was made by creating a mix of bark and
rags that would float on water. The water was then drained
away leaving a thin layer which would then be dried into a
large sheet of paper. This large sheet could then be cut into
smaller pieces. The Chinese emperor was so pleased with Cai
Lun that he gave him a noble title as well as a huge amount of
money. Cai Lun's invention allowed Chinese people to spread
ideas and literature much more quickly than they could have
done if they still had to write on silk or bamboo. By the 700s
C.E. paper making had spread to Korea and Japan. In 751C.E.

several Chinese paper makers were captured by Muslims who

then learned how to make paper themselves. By the 1200s
paper making had reached Europe where it was hugely
important in spreading knowledge. Despite his huge
achievements Cai Lun's life ended in tragedy. In 121C.E. a
new emperor came to power and ordered Cai Lun to report to
prison. Rather than go to prison Cai Lun committed suicide by
drinking poison.
Wood Block Printing
Before the invention of printing everything had to be
written by hand. This took a long time and meant that books
and other written materials were very rare and expensive.
Around 220 C.E. the Chinese began printing pictures on silk
and other fabrics. Then around 650 C.E. they began printing
on paper using wooden blocks. Wood block printing works by
carving words or pictures onto a large block of wood. Once
carved ink is then spread across the block and then sheets of
paper are pressed against it. The most difficult part of the
process is to remember that images or text has to be carved in
reverse so when the paper is pressed on it. It creates an image
the right way. Wood block printing was used mostly to print
religious books. The most famous book printed during the
Tang dynasty was the Diamond Sutra. This huge book
included pictures and text and helped to spread Buddhism
throughout China.
Movable Type
Woodblock printing could be used to create large
numbers of books and other printed materials however it did

have one big disadvantage. Once carved the block could only
be used to create a single page. In 1040 C.E a man named Bi
Sheng improved things by inventing movable type printing.
Movable type worked by carving a single Chinese character on
a block of wood, clay, or metal. These could then be combined
with other characters to create words, sentences, or whole
pages. Once printed these letters could then be separated and
reused to create a whole new page. Although movable type
was more flexible than woodblock printing it did have one
major disadvantage in China. The Chinese language does not
have an alphabet and uses thousands of different characters
(small pictures) to represent sounds and ideas. Combining
these different characters and organizing them would take a
long time. However movable type was useful in printing large
numbers of documents as well as money as the amount printed
on the money could be quickly changed if needed. Like many
other Chinese inventions the Muslims were the first to adopt it
then passing on the knowledge to Europe. By the 1450s
printing had spread to Europe.
Compass
Before the invention of the compass people navigated
by using landmarks like mountains and rivers to tell where they
were. Travel over land was not too difficult but travelling at
sea was almost impossible unless the ship stayed close to land.
This however was very dangerous as there were many
dangerous rocks and reefs close to shore that could sink a ship.
Sailors also had to cope with bad weather and fog which could
easily lead them off course. During the 400s C.E. the Chinese

discovered magnetism – a force that attracts or repels objects

(this is the same force that makes magnets cling to a fridge
door). The Chinese first used their knowledge of magnetism to
assist them in telling peoples fortunes according to their belief
in Feng Shui. Around 1000 the Chinese began using magnetic
compasses for navigation. The earliest navigational compasses
were suspended in water. Later compasses were placed on a
metal plate. Because these compasses were used at sea they
quickly spread throughout Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.
Using these compasses sailors could sail farther away from
land and even through bad weather without losing their way.
This encouraged the spread of trade and made many cities
wealthy. Sailors would eventually use compasses to help them
cross whole oceans allowing them to settle new lands.
Paper Money
For most of human history people used precious
materials like gold, silver, and copper for money. These were
melted down into bars and coins which were then traded. This
became known as specie money (meaning money in coins).
The obvious disadvantage of this was that it would be difficult
to move large amounts of money around both because of the
weight and the risk of it being stolen. During the Song Dynasty
trade expanded rapidly in China and many merchants needed a
new way to move money around. The government started
printing paper money as a way to make trade easier. Paper
money was only accepted because it was backed by the
government and the promise that if the holder wanted to it
could be exchanged for gold or silver if requested. This type of

money is called fiat money (from a Latin word meaning ―let it

be done‖) Paper money did help trade but it also had huge
risks. The paper could be easily destroyed or stolen. However,
the biggest danger was that governments would print too much
money causing something called inflation. Inflation is when
there is too much money and not enough things to buy. As a
result, prices start to go up quickly – this is called inflation.
This happened in China during the 1300s and 1400s which
caused huge damage to the economy as people began to
distrust the paper money. In the end the Ming Dynasty got rid
of the paper money in the 1500s. Despite this early failure
paper, or other fiat money like debit and credit cards, were
adopted by many other countries during the 1900s. It is now
the major way that people buy goods and services.
Gunpowder
Before the invention of gunpowder all weapons had to
be powered by hand. Even large weapons like catapults needed
human power to wind them up. Early weapons also could only
be thrown short distances. Because of this most fighting was
done very close using swords and shields with soldiers wearing
armor to protect themselves. Many cities also protected
themselves by building huge walls knowing that they could not
be destroyed by an enemy using catapults. In the 900s
Chinese alchemists began looking for a substance that
would grant the person who ate it immortality (eternal life).
They mixed together various substances but then they found
that one of these mixtures would explode when lit. By the
1100s the Chinese had found hundreds of different recipes for

gunpowder. The earliest use of gunpowder was in fireworks

which were used to chase evil spirits away. However, by the
1200s, the Chinese had begun to use it in weapons such as
guns and bombs. By 1250 Muslims had learned how to create
gunpowder which they used to defeat their rivals and expand
their empire. The most famous use of gunpowder was during
the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453
C.E. The Ottomans used huge cannons to blow apart the
Theodosian walls that had protected the city for over 1000
years. Knowledge of gunpowder soon spread into Europe
with the first picture of a gun dating from 1300. After the
invention of gunpowder many armies began using cannon and
guns. Although soldiers fighting with swords and armor didn't
disappear until the 1800s, they slowly became less important.
Building also changed with cities stopping building walls to
protect themselves as these could be easily destroyed by
cannon. Gunpowder was also used for other things such as
mining and the construction of canals and tunnels as it could
be used to quickly blast away rock.
Peasant revolts
Life for the lower class was gruesome during the Tang
dynasty. Although they were not forced to work on large
construction projects as peasants were in other dynasties, they
were still forced to work in the fields. The government tried to
redistribute the land so that the peasants could have more, but
the peasants still could not afford the land because of the taxes.
Since the lower class was treated this way it led them to begin
rebelling.

There were two main rebellions: An Lushan Rebellion

and The Great Peasant Uprising. In the Lushan Rebellion, the
peasants and people under Lushan leadership attacked the
Tang military and took over Chang`an. Eventually, they were
stopped by an emperor when he joined forces with Asian
nomads. The Great Peasant Uprising was a little different. The
Great Peasant Uprising took place because everyone wanted
land, from merchants to Buddhist monasteries. In result, they
began to take the land of the peasants away which made them
very upset. The peasants began to fight back and took over
Chang`an again. They made their own government until the
military drove them out again. Peasants have had strenuous
lives throughout most dynasties. In the Tang dynasty peasants
could no longer handle the harsh treatment and decided it was
time to revolt.
Li Zicheng's rebellion was a peasant rebellion aimed at
the overthrow of the Ming dynasty; it led to the establishment
of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty. Li Zicheng began recruiting
troops at Xi'an in Shaanxi province, and later went on to gain
power throughout northeastern China. From 1620, towards the
end of the Wanli Emperor's reign, social and economic
conditions under Ming rule worsened drastically. Li Zicheng
did not become the emperor, but he paved the way for the
rising of the new Qing dynasty, after overthrowing the Ming
emperor by capturing Beijing. The Qing troops, arriving from
the northeast (originally from Manchuria) were allied with Wu
Sangui, a former Ming general, an alliance which eventually
led to the defeat of Li Zicheng, though the impact of his
rebellion was tremendous.

Maritime expedition-Cheng Ho
Cheng Ho was a eunuch and a military commander
who had assisted the Yongle emperor, Zhu Di (1360-1424
C.E.) to overthrow his nephew and become emperor. The
fleets he commanded on the seven voyages were comprised of
up to 317 ships, the largest of which were treasure ships,
estimated to have been between 390 and 408 feet (119 and 124
m) long and more than 160 feet (49 m) wide. Some of the
voyages included a crew of as many as 28,000 men. Although
Cheng Ho was nominally in charge of all seven expeditions, he
did notpersonally participate in all of them.
Historians suggest a number of reasons for the voyages.
Part of the immediate impetus for the expeditions ordered by
the Yongle emperor is said to have been the search for his
nephewand predecessor, the Jianwen emperor, Zhu Yunwen,
whose throne Zhu Di had seized in 1402. There were rumors
that Zhu Yunwen was still alive and living abroad, so,
according to an unofficial history of the time, the emperor
ordered Cheng Ho to search for him across the seas.
The purpose of the expeditions is best described as
diplomatic. The size and grandeur of the expeditions, designed
to inspire awe, expressed the majesty and power of Zhu Di and
the dragon throne to distant lands. Although their mission was
primarily peaceful, most members of the crew were troops
who were well equipped to defend the fleet and its interests.
The most dramatic example of this was the Chinese military
victory in Sri Lanka on the third voyage (1409-1411 C.E.)
after a refusal to pay tribute. However, the presence of military

weapons and soldiers was no doubt intended to display the

might of the emperor and gain the allegiance and tribute of
peoples without the use of actual force, as was indeed the case
in the majority of places visited.
After the Yongle emperor died, the voyages of the
treasure fleet ceased for six years. Then the Xuande emperor,
Zhu Zhanji (1399-1435 C.E.), ordered one final voyage in
1430 that also served a diplomatic purpose. As well as
encouraging peace between Siam and Malacca, it intended to
reverse a decline in the tribute trade and again display the
majesty of the Chinese Empire, reinforcing the authority of the
new emperor.
The voyages of Cheng Ho need to be understood in the
wider context of Chinese seafaring and relationships with
outsiders. Although his voyages were impressive for their scale
and grandeur, they were not unique as diplomatic expeditions.
Twelve centuries before his voyages, China carried out a
diplomatic mission which spanned two decades and included
visits to southeast Asia and the Arabian Sea, reaching as far as
the eastern Roman Empire. Part of Marco Polo's (1254-1324
C.E.) famous voyages can also be regarded as a precursor to the
voyages of Cheng Ho, as Polo undertook a diplomatic mission
as far as Persia in 1292 for Khublai Khan (1215-1294 C.E.).
This great Mongol ruler sent emissaries to Sumatra, Sri Lanka,
and southern India and the Yongle emperor possibly attempted
to emulate him.
There was no sudden technological breakthrough in
Cheng Ho's time that made his voyages possible. Although his

journeys demonstrated technology on an impressive scale, they

used ship design and navigational techniques that had been
developed in China many years earlier. The enormous treasure
ships were based on earlier ship designs and were built in
drydocks, which were used in Chinese shipbuilding some five
centuries before their appearance in Europe at the end of the
fifteenth century. The ships' hulls were divided into watertight
compartments to give them strength, an invention that the
Chinese had perfected by the end of the twelfth century. They
also featured balanced rudders which gave them gave
additional stability and facilitated steering. European
shipbuilders did not use these innovations until the late
eighteenth or early nineteenth century. Similarly, the compass
had been commonly used as a navigational aid by Chinese
seafarers since the thirteenth century.
Impact Cheng Ho’s Expeditions
The immediate impacts of Cheng Ho's voyages were
primarily diplomatic and economic. He established the flow of
overseas tribute from as many as fifty new places,
underscoring the radiance of the emperor and the dragon
throne, as well as stimulating China's overseas trade—indeed
the voyages have even been credited with signaling an age of
commerce in southeast Asia. Cheng Ho took with him cargoes
including silk, porcelain, silver, and gold to offer as gifts to
foreign rulers and exchange for luxuries, including spices and
rare woods. He even built a transfer station in Malacca for
trading purposes, an event unique in China's history. The
spectacular porcelain pagoda built by Zhu Di at Nanjing from

1412, considered to be one of the seven wonders of the world

by later European observers, is said to have been built using
revenue from the voyages.
Cheng Ho had two tablets erected in 1431 documenting
the achievements of his voyages. According to one of these,
the Changle tablet, Cheng Ho believed that the achievements
of "[t]he Imperial Ming Dynasty, in unifying seas and
continents" surpassed those of previous dynasties. He added
that "[t]he countries beyond the horizon and at the ends of the
earth have all become subjects. Thus, the barbarians from
beyond the seas, though their countries are truly distant
have come to audience bearing precious objects and presents"
for the emperor.
The tablet also suggests that the voyages had made a
significant contribution to Chinese geographic knowledge,
allowing "the distances and the routes" of foreign lands to be
calculated, "however far they may be."
However, the long-term consequences of the voyages
were less impressive. Just at the point at which the Chinese
had demonstrated their superior seafaring capabilities, the
voyages ceased and the empire withdrew into itself. The
strength of the Ming navy was greatly reduced over the
following century and overseas trade outside the tribute system
was banned. The tribute system itself declined. In 1477 another
powerful eunuch named Wang Zhi wished to mount an
expedition. When he asked for the official records from the
voyages of Cheng Ho, the records were declared "lost" and his
efforts were frustrated.

Such behavior may seem inexplicable to western

scholars but it accorded with contemporary Chinese cultural
beliefs and political climate. Internal conflict at court between
the eunuchs and Confucian officials played a major role in
creating this climate. Seafaring was traditionally the domain of
the eunuchs while the Confucians adhered to an ethical code
that regarded foreign travel and commerce as distasteful. By
successfully stopping the voyages, the Confucians were
striking a blow at their rivals. Moreover, they regarded the
voyages to be a waste of the empire's resources and believed
that China had no need of foreign curiosities. Indeed, there
were economic and political factors that made the voyages
seem less practical. There was severe inflation in the mid-
fifteenth century and the empire's tax base shrank by almost
half from what it had been at the turn of the century. In
addition, the increased Mongol threat along the northern
frontier diverted the empire's military resources away from
coastal areas.
Unlike the European nations whose voyages of
discovery gained rapid momentum in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, the Chinese were not interested in
colonization. The difference between the experiences of
Europe and China were economic and cultural rather than
technological. As the voyages of Cheng Ho demonstrate, the
Chinese certainly possessed the maritime technology and
expertise to undertake long voyages of discovery.
However, the Chinese were not interested in the
wholesale exploitation of the resources of foreign lands, unlike

subsequent European voyages of discovery. In Europe, such

behavior was driven in part by the fierce competition between
nation-states, which had fostered an attitude that encouraged
the appropriation and adaptation of ideas and material
resourcesfrom outside lands. China, however, believed itself to
be self-sufficient and culturally superior to foreign lands,
which meant it had no real need of outside resources, a belief
that the voyages of Cheng Ho appeared to confirm.
*****

MODULE IV
ASPECTS OF TRANSITION
Decline of Feudalism
Feudalism was a hierarchical system of land use and
patronage that dominated Europe between the 9th and 14th
centuries. Under Feudalism, a monarch‘s kingdom was divided
and subdivided into agricultural estates called manors. The
nobles who controlled these manors oversaw agricultural
production and swore loyalty to the king. Despite the social
inequality it produced, Feudalism helped stabilize European
society. But in the 14th century, Feudalism waned. The
underlying reasons for this included warfare, disease, political
change etc.
Causes of decline of feudalism
1. Feudalism contained seed of destruction
Feudalism contained in itself the seeds of its
destruction. As Henry Martin has observed, ―Feudalism
concealed in its bosom the weapons with which it would
be itself one day smitten‖. In course of time when the feudal
lords began to assert themselves too much, the kings who
headed the feudal hierarchy, thought of bringing them under
control. In this task they received full support from the newly
emerged middle classes and freemen who were not under the
control of the lords.
The middle classes consisting of traders and

businessmen provided the king with money with which they

began to maintain independent armies. With the help of these
armies they were able to bring the turbulent nobles under
control. The discovery of gun-powder and weapons like
cannons also greatly helped the kings to reduce the lords to
subjection and reduced their dependence on them.
2. Growth of trade and commerce
The liberation of the serfs due to enormous growth in
trade and commence also greatly contributed to. The decline of
feudalism. With the growth of trade and commerce a number
of new cities and towns grew which provided new
opportunities for work. The serfs got an opportunity to free
themselves of the feudal lords by taking up work in the new
towns. It may be observed that according to the existing feudal
laws, a serf could become a freeman if he stayed away from
the manor for more than one year.
3. Crusades
The Crusades or the Holy wars also greatly contributed
to the decline of the feudal system in the following ways:
a) As a result of these wars the Europeans learnt the
use of gun-powder from the Muslims. The discovery of
gunpowder greatly undermined the importance of the
feudal castles. As a result, it was no more possible for the
feudal lords to take shelter in these castles and defy the
authority of the king.
b) During the Crusade a large number of feudal lords lost
their lives which gave a series set back to the feudal

system. Some of the feudal lords who returned alive from

the Crusades were forced to sell charter of liberties to
towns which they once controlled. As a result, a larger
number of serfs self-attained freedom.
c) Crusades opened up trade between Europe and cities of
Constantinople and Alexandria. As a result, commerce
and industry in Europe received a fillip and a number of
important cities developed. The merchants and artisans
residing in these cities wished to free themselves from
the control of feudal lords. Therefore, they either
purchased freedom or obtained it by force. They secured
the right of self-government and freedom from feudal
dues and taxes. After freeing themselves from the control
of the nobles, the cities began to maintain their own armed
militia and constructed high turreted walls to protect
themselves.
4. The Hundred Years’ War
To succeed, feudalism required considerable
manpower. Vassals and serfs worked the manor year in and
year out, bound by law to a lifetime of labour. But when war
broke out between England and France in 1337 C.E., both
nations undertook an unprecedented military build-up. This
marked the start of the Hundred Years‘ War, a series of
intermittent conflicts that lasted until 1543 C.E. In both
countries, the army swelled its ranks with feudal laborers,
undermining the manorial system while increasing the value of
commoners by teaching them much-needed military skills.

5. The Black Death

Ten years after the Hundred Years‘ War began, the
bubonic plague broke out in Europe. Spreading northwards
from Italy, the bacterial infection known as the Black Death
claimed at least a third of Western Europe‘s total population.
With the young men of France and England off at war,
agricultural output was already declining. Now there was a
new challenge facing feudalism. Manor after manor suffered
devastating losses. Conditions were so severe, in fact, that
waves of laborers ran away to larger cities, an act that would
have once been punishable by law.
6. Political Changes
Feudalism was a coercive system that granted few
individual liberties. Ancient laws kept peasants tied to the land,
making their labour compulsory. Yet over time, concepts of
individual rights gradually gained footing, especially in
England. The 12th century reforms of Henry II, for instance,
expanded the legal rights of a person facing trial. In 1215 C.E.,
King John was forced to approve the Magna Carta, a document
obligating the crown to uphold common law. Eighty years
later, Edward I finally extended parliamentary membership to
commoners. These developments gradually made the concept
of agricultural servitude appear inexcusable.
7. Social Unrest
By the 1350s, war and disease had reduced Europe‘s
population to the point that peasant labour had become quite
valuable. Yet conditions for the serfs themselves remained

largely unchanged. They were still heavily taxed on wages

kept artificially low. Unable to survive in these circumstances,
Europe‘s peasantry revolted. Between the 1350s and the
1390s, uprisings took place in England, Flanders, France, Italy,
Germany and Spain. After an English revolt in 1381 C.E.,
Richard II promised to abolish serfdom. Though he later failed
to keep his word, serfdom nonetheless died out in the next
century.
8. End of the Middle Ages
The end of serfdom meant the end of feudalism itself.
Europe‘s manors could no longer function without a labour
supply. As feudalism faded, it was gradually replaced by the
early capitalist structures of the Renaissance. Land owners
now turned to privatized farming for profit. Laborers began
demanding – and were given – better wages and additional
liberties. Thus, the slow growth of urbanization began, and
with it came the cosmopolitan worldview that was the
hallmark of the Renaissance.
Scientific and intellectual interaction between Europe and
Asia
The period we call Modern Science begin during the
Renaissance. The Renaissance thinkers rejected the blind
acceptance of authority. They criticized the medieval
speculative thought and asserted the importance of observation
and experimentation in gaining knowledge. The new outlook
has prepared the way for the emergence of modern science.
The post- Renaissance period witnessed the phenomenal

growth of science. The encouragement and support given to

science by Protestant countries, the foundation of scientific
academies and development of capitalism were the important
factors leading to the growth of science. Developments in the
field of science and technology in fact created a revolution in
science in the 17th century. The Copernicus theories began to
gain wide acceptance and real age of science started emerging.
The country of science produced leading scientists in different
branches of science. John Kepler and Galileo in astronomy,
Robert Boyle in chemistry, William Harvey in Medicine and
Sir Isaac Newton in mathematics and physics. The scientists of
this period developed an extraordinary fruitful method of
inquiry called scientific method which was based on
observation and experiment.
Science become indispensable feature of a new
industrial civilization during 18th century and 19th centuries.
The enlightenment with its emphasis on the idea of progress,
secularism, reason and naturalism gave a great fillip to the
growth of modern science. The development of science and
technology during this period was also closely linked with the
development of capitalism. Capitalism created the need for
greater production and wish for increasing wealth, which
provided the conditions for the development of experimental
science. Technical advances were necessary for the growth of
capitalist agriculture, industry, and trade. Here it is worth
noting that the application of science to industry marked the
beginning of industrial revolution in the second half of the 18th
century.

The 19th century was a great age of science, science

proved its utilitarian value by revolutionizing transport and
communication, by developing new sources of energy, by
providing material comforts and by improving bodily health.
The material advances brought about by science gave
discipline the kind of dominant status once occupied by
theology and philosophy. Science emerged as the intellectual
lodestar and scientists were hailed as torch bearers of progress.
The neutral, value-free and objective image of science created
by the Enlightenment was now firmly established.
Significant developments in technology began to take
place in the mid-eighteenth century and brought about the
Industrial revolution. New materials, new sources of energy
and availability of appropriate technology led to the setting
up of new factories and industries. The process of
technological innovations was first made in textiles, eventually
it passed on to other branches - metallurgy, power and
transport. The new technological changes consisted of many
major innovations-the substitutions of the inanimate for
animate sources of power and substitution of iron and steel for
wood and other non-durable materials. These technological
innovations were made possible by an active collaboration of
industrial capitalists and scientists.
The technical changes were most evident in the
manufacturing industries, particularly textiles. The textile
industry had been the first to use machines. It was entirely
mechanized through a host of inventions such as flying shuttle,
spinning-jenny, water-frame, spinning- mule, cotton gin etc.

Another major technological change was the use of steam

power. The invention of steam engine by James Watt in 1769
C.E. revolutionised production and it had become the chief
source of power in the factories. The technology of iron
industry was also revolutionised. The use of coal to smelt
the iron ore, the invention of Blast Furnace by Abraham
Darby and invention of steel by Henry Bessemer were
important breakthroughs in the field of iron-manufacturing.
Significant technological changes also took place in
transport and communication. The use of coal tar enabled the
construction of hard roads. Metcalfe, Telford and Macadam
introduced a new method of constructing roads. A remarkable
development in transport was the application of steam engine
to the railway and ocean transport. It was George Stephenson
who successfully adapted the steam engine to the rail road.
Steam Boats and Steam Ships were made extensively. Along
with transportation, communication underwent an important
change. Post and telegraph were introduced, which made
communication easier and helped industrial development.
The scientific and technological changes radically
altered the structure of production and Organisation of society.
It brought about a radical transformation from a pre-industrial
to an industrial economy. It produced a shift from older forms
of manufacture to factory production, brought a redistribution
of population, helped the emergence of new industrial cities,
increased the output and created a new class of proletariat. The
development of science and technology also shattered faith and
superstitions and many illusions about the universe.

The origin and spread of Universities and acquisition of

classical and Islamic knowledge made the actual progress in
thought of westerners. Any one of these accomplishments
would have earned the High Middle ages a signal place in the
history of Western learning. It taken together they began the
era of Western intellectual predominance which became a
hallmarkin modern times.
The high medieval educational boom was more than
merely growth of schools for the nature of the schools changed
and as time went on so did the curriculum and clientele. The
first basic mutation was that monasteries in the eleventh
century abandoned the practice of educating outsiders. Earlier
monasteries had taught a few privileged nonmonastic students
how to read because there were no other schools for such
pupils. But by the twelfth century sufficient alternatives were
existed. The main centers of European education became the
cathedral schools located in the growing towns. The Papal
monarchy energetically supported this development by
ordering in 1179 C.E. that all Cathedral had set aside income
for some school teacher who could then instruct all who
wished, rich or poor, without fee. The Papacy believed
correctly that this measure would enlarge the number of well-
drained clerks and political administrators.
At first Cathedral schools existed almost exclusively for the
basic training of priests, with a curriculum designed to teach
only such literacy necessary for reading the Church offices.
But soon after 1100 C.E. the curriculum was broadened
because the growth of both ecclesiastical and secular

governments created a growing demand for trained officials

who had to know more than how to read a few prayers. The
revived reliance on law especially made it imperative to
improve the quality of primary education in order to train
future lawyers. The rise of education was an enormously
important development in western European history for two
related reasons. The first was that the Church lost its
monopoly over education for the first time in almost
millennium. The emergence of Universities was part of the
same time high-level medieval educational boom. Originally
universities were institutions that give specialized instruction
in advanced studies which could not be pursued in average
Cathedral schools. In Italy the earliest universities took shape
in the 11th and 12th centuries were Salerno specialized in
medicine; Bologna specialized in law.
Diseases and medicine in medieval Europe
Medieval medicine in Western Europe was composed
of a mixture of pseudoscientific ideas from the early middle
ages following the decline of western Roman empire.
Standard Medical knowledge was based on Greek and Roman
texts. Medieval medicine had a uniform attitude composed of
placing hopes in the church and God to heal all sickness itself
exists as a product of destiny, sin, and astral influences as
physical causes. On the other hand, medieval medicine,
especially in the second half of the medieval period (1100-
1500 C.E.) became a formal body of theoretical knowledge
and institutionalized in the universities. Medieval medicine
attributed illnesses and disease, not to sinful behavior, but to

natural causes, and sin was only connected to illness in a more

general sense of the view that disease manifested in humanity
as a result of its fallen state from God. Medieval medicine also
recognized that illnesses spread from person to person, that
certain lifestyles may cause ill health, and some people have a
greater predisposition towards bad health than others.
Greeks had been influenced by their Egyptian
neighbours in terms of medical practice in surgery and
medication. However, the Greeks also absorbed many folk
healing practices including incantations and dream healing.
Some of the medicine in the middle ages had its roots in pagan
and folk practices. This influence was highlighted the interplay
between Christian theologians who adopted aspects of pagan
and folk practices and chronicled them in their own works. The
practices adopted by Christian medical practitioners around the
2nd century and their attitudes towards pagan and folk
traditions, reflected an understanding of these practices
especially Humorism and Herbalism. The practice of medicine
in the early middle age was empirical and pragmatic. It caused
mainly on curing disease rather than discovering the causes of
diseases. It was believed that the cause of the diseases was
supernatural or secular approaches to curing diseases existed.
Folk medicine of the middle age dealt with the use of herbal
remedies for ailments. The practice of physic gardens teeming
with various herbs with medicinal properties was influenced
by the gardens in the Roman antiquity. Many early medieval
manuscripts had been noted for containing practical
descriptions of the use herbal remedies.

Monasteries developed not only as spiritual centers but

also the centers of intellectual learning and medical practice.
Locations of the monasteries were secluded and designed to be
self-sufficient, which required the monastic inhabitants to
produce their own food and also care for their sick. Prior to the
development of hospitals people from the surrounding towns
looked to the monasteries for help with their sick. Christian
practice and attitudes towards medicine drew on from Jew and
Greek influences. The Jews took their duty to care for their
fellow Jews seriously. This duty extended to lodging and
medical treatment of pilgrim to the temple at Jerusalem.
Temporary medical assistance had been provided in classical
Greece for visitors to festivals and the tradition extended
through the Roman empire. In the early medieval period-
hospitals, poor houses, hostels and orphanages began to spread
from the Middle East each with the intention of helping those
most in need.
Medieval European medicine became more developed
during the Renaissance of the 12th century, when many
medical texts both in Ancient Greek medicine and on Islamic
medicine were translated from Arabic during the 13th century.
The most influential among these texts was Avicenna‘s
Cannon of Medicine, a medical Encyclopedia written in circa
1030 C.E. which summarized the medicine of Greek, Indian
and Muslim physicians until that time. The Canon became an
authoritative text in European medical education until the early
modern period. Anglo-Saxon translations of classical works
like Dioscorides‘ Herbal survive from the 10th century

showing the persistence of elements of classical medical

knowledge. Other influential translated medical texts at the
time included Hippocratic Corpus attributed to Hippocrates
and writings of Galen. Medieval surgery arose from a
foundation created from ancient Egyptian, Greek and Arabic
medicine. An example of such influence would be Galen, the
most influential practitioner of surgical or anatomical practices
that he performed while attending to gladiators at Pergamon.
The accomplishments and advancements of medicine made by
the Arabic world were translated and made available to the
Latin world. The new wealth of knowledge allowed for a
greater interest in surgery.
Role of Crusades
The Crusades are one of the most significant events in
the history of Europe and the Middle East. They were a series
of religious wars carried out by Christian crusaders from
Europe during the timeframe of the Middle Ages. Beginning in
1095 CE, the crusades saw European knights and noblemen
travel to the Middle East in an attempt to capture the Holy
Land away from Muslim people that had controlled the region
for the previous centuries. The term crusade means ‗cross‘.
Therefore, the Europeans that became crusaders viewed
themselves as ‗taking up the cross‘. In fact, many of the
crusaders wore crosses on their clothing and armor as they
made their pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
The crusades were a major event in the Middle Ages
and had a profound impact on the world at the time. For
example, one of the first major impacts of the crusades was

that it increased interaction between different societies and

groups of people. For instance, the crusades caused the
religions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam to clash. In this
conflict, people of all faiths travelled vast distances to fight
over the city of Jerusalem, which each faith considered
important to its religious heritage. This clash of religious ideals
caused a sharing of ideas between the different religious
groups and helped the principles of each religious faith to
spread into new areas. Arguably, the clash between these three
religions and this area of the world continues still today.
Beyond religion, the interaction between different groups of
people led to a spread of scientific and philosophical
knowledge. The existence of the Silk Road had already caused
a massive spread of ideas and knowledge across Eurasia, but
the crusades continued and expanded the trend. At the
outbreak of the crusades in the 11th century, the Middle East
was a major center of learning and knowledge. Due to its
geographical location, the major Middle Eastern civilizations
were at the crossroads of the Silk Road and therefore
benefitted greatly from having access to both European and
Asian knowledge. As such, when European crusaders came
into contact with Middle Eastern peoples they were exposed
to new ideas and inventions which eventually made their way
back into European society. For example, the Europeans
learned new understandings about mathematics from Middle
Eastern mathematicians who were by far the most advanced at
that time. Also related to knowledge, the different societies
involved in the crusades were exposed to each other‘s culture.
This meant that each side learned new understandings about

food, cultural practices and celebrations.

Another major impact of the crusades was the effect it
had on trade. The pilgrimage of thousands of Europeans to the
Holy Land created a need for new routes for supply shipments
to feed and arm the crusaders. As such, towns and cities grew
in size along the route to the Holy Land with many shops and
markets. As well, port cities in Italy grew in size and wealth as
merchants worked to meet the needs of travelling crusaders. In
fact, some of these cities grew to such prominence that they
became the famous city-states of the Renaissance centuries
after.
A third major impact of the crusades was the effect it
had on the role of feudalism in the lives of Europeans.
Feudalism was a form of government common during
medieval Europe that involved society being structured in a
very rigid and hierarchical way. It was popular in European
society from the 9th century until the 15th century and was the
form of government in which the country was dominated by an
absolute monarch, in which all power was held within a single
king. The monarch would rule over the country while the rest
of the people were bound by a hierarchical system in which
people were placed into classes in which they were born. Due
to the crusades, thousands of nobles and peasants left Europe
in order to ‗take up the cross‘ in the Holy Land. This meant
that large populations of people left their land to fight and
since feudalism was centered on the principles of land
ownership and farming, this caused feudalism to lose its
significance in European societies. As well, the increase in

trade at certain ports and towns led to the rise of a merchant or

middle class. This meant that peasants were able to build up
small fortunes for themselves through trading. As a result, the
feudal system began to lose its hold on society which
eventually led to the ideals of the Renaissance and the
emergence of powerful city-states instead of absolute
monarchs. In all, the crusades had a profound impact on the
world, but especially led to changes and advancements in
Europe.
In conclusion, the crusades were a vitally important
event to European and Middle Eastern History. They were
centered on a clash between different religions and helped
transform Europe and the Middle East during the years of the
Middle Ages. As well, many historians consider the effects of
the crusades as an important event in the emergence of the
Renaissance in Europe a few centuries later.
*****

SLM - World History-2 - 0

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

SLM - World History-2 - 0

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

SLM - World History-2 - 0

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

WORLD HISTORY - 2

Core Course (HIS4B05) : WORLD HISTORY - 2

Module I MEDIEVAL WORLD: STATE 1 – 61

Module II MEDIEVAL WEST ASIA 62 – 96

Module III MEDIEVAL CHINA - TANG & 97 – 121

Module IV ASPECTS OF TRANSITION 122 – 137

Europe after the collapse of Rome

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 1

longer able to conquer, the supply of slaves dried up. Since

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 2

Due to the many problems that plagued the Empire in

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 3

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 4

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 5

was necessary in order for the world to be what it is today, but

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 6

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 7

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 8

was Alexius Comnenus. The Turks frequently attacked the

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 9

Justinian: Justinian, the ‗Roman Law Giver‘ occupies a

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 10

Vandals ruled North Africa. The Visigoths gained control over

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 11

went well with the imperialists. Belisarius took Rome in 536,

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 12

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 13

by the government. Tariff were increased by him during his

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 14

judges‘ decisions were in thousands of volumes. In short,

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 15

erected were of very high artistic quality and inaugurated the

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 16

compiled encyclopaedia and lexicons. Historical writings were

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 17

The mosaic works were made prominent by the

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 18

greatest king was Charles I later known as Charlemagne or

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 19

worshipped him as a great leader. In 773 C.E, Pope Adrian II

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 20

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 21

free-man who owned property above certain size to provide

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 22

the world. Most of the people in the world are Christians. It

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 23

v. Ceremonies, rules and regulations were of little

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 24

Jews. They considered themselves to be ‗God‘s chosen people‘

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 25

incident, the followers of Jesus, increased tremendously. The

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 26

Spain. Thus, the systematic organization of the churches was

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 27

organization of society through the medium of land tenure in

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 28

The breakup of the Roman empire had endangered

School of Distance Education, University of Calicut 29

the land was known as vassal, or liege man, or liege, or lord‘s