I have checked with Clare regarding the presence of a map question on the test and there will be a map where you will be asked to identify the location (roughly) of places like Aachen and Rome. Please remember to review your maps in time for the test!
To help us with this I've pasted another map below to help remind everyone of the geography of early medieval Europe.
For those of you who have yet to purchase a unit reader and found that the Caulfield bookstore had recently run out we will be ordering more in. I'm not sure how quickly they will arrive but my suggestion would be to check occasionally next week when you are on campus. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any left available at the Clayton bookstore. To access the weekly readings without the reader you can check the Unit Guide which is available on Blackboard to get all the unit information details. The link on this blog under the 'Weekly Readings' tab will also direct you to a library site that lists all of the readings for this course and where they can be accessed. If anyone has any difficulty accessing the readings please let me know.
Good luck studying everyone!
*** The blog post for Week 4 follows this post ***
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| Europe in the Age of Charlemagne |
I found this reading a little difficult to follow. I took commerce at school and didn't do very well, so maybe economics isn't my strong suite. The conflict of opinions between Davis and Pirenne confused me and left me wondering what really went on in the ninth century. The second half of the reading on agrarian society I still don't understand! Perhaps it's just the vocabulary I'm having trouble getting my head around. I'm going have to read the chapters a few more times to make some sense out of them.
ReplyDeleteI found the disparity between the economies of the East and west very interesting. Particularly the west's declining reliance on money, to the point that it became almost defunct. Obviously, this had a lot to do with traveling, and because those in the west did very little travel and trade, they didn't see the need for money. This made me wonder why those in the west stopped traveling. I thought maybe because they were descendants of people had traveled large distances, they became content where they had settled? Obviously i wont know, but it was interesting to think about.
ReplyDeleteThe rise of manorial culture was also interesting. It made it clear to me how medieval western europe developed the typical villages with a manor, a parish church, and all the necessary shops, with appropriate artisans providing goods to the rest of the community.
Lastly, reading about the manorial culture demonstrated how the church was able to gain so much power in medieval europe. People living under a lord, and also a monarch, i imagine engrained the notion of people being subservient to a higher power into everyone in every facet of their lives. I suppose this would have made being subservient to a God and a Church seem very normal, and it is clear how people could become so devout - especially when the church was such a centre of learning; combined with the fact that essentially all the things people relied on to live (rain, healthy animals, fertile soil, etc) they believed was provided by god.
Thanks, ill see you all on wednesday
church influence
The most interesting point I found from these readings was the gradual insignificance of money in the Latin West. The ownership of land became what was most sought after, and therefore gives explanation to the underlying development of feudalism.
ReplyDeleteI liked Pirenne's theory of how the Muslim's, after gaining a foothold in Tunisia, managed to control the Mediterranean and effectively stop all trade between the West and the East. However, his theory was proved wrong after the discovery that trade across the Mediterranean had not entirely stopped, and that the crossover between gold and silver coins did not represent an economic downfall in the West, merely a convenient change.
Despite understanding the theory's within these readings, I struggled to come to terms with how everything panned out geographically, which made them difficult at times.
Having already had the lecture on Monday the readings for this were a little easier than it would of been for many (having already had a brief overview), but none the less, the second reading was still pretty tough work. It's pretty interesting to see how the disruptions and fear of the time plays out in the economy, not just in political events like wars ect. but how it impacts everyone across the whole continent. This is really rekindling my love for this period...even though it's not such a nice period.
ReplyDeleteWhat I also find interesting is the lack of literary sources from this period, and therefore having such a reliance on archaeological data just for the simple things is pretty cool.
I found Pirenne’s ideas intersting and valid in possibly their simplest form, stressing the significance of the Mediterranean commercial trade in relation to the economy, the downward cycle leading to the basis of the feudal system and the resulting environment facilitating and complementing Charlemagn and his style of rule.
ReplyDeletehowever when his thesis was described as forming the basis of all subsequent discussions on the economic history of the period i thought it very heavily weighted bearing in mind the many simple considerations that he is later described as overlooking.
Pirenne’s method and approach to explaining the events had the potential to be effective but he simply failed to consider many of the variables outside of the obvious that seriously undermine his writings.
I found the reading to be relatively clear and use good examples when explaining Pirenne’s pitfalls. i particularly liked the example of the coin that demonstrate the interconnectedness despite the diminished mediteranian commercial activity.
i had the same problem as James with getting a sense of how these events panned out geographically as well as in relation to some of the other events we have covered.