Middle Ages Vocabulary

1. MEDIEVAL: related or belonging to the Middle ages.

2. FEUDALISM: A political and economic system of Europe from the 9th to about the 15th century, based on the holding of all land in fief or fee and the resulting relation of lord to vassal and characterized by homage, legal and military service of tenants, and forfeiture.

3. VASSAL: (in the feudal system) a person granted the use of land, in return for rendering homage, fealty, and usually military service or its equivalent to a lord or other superior; feudal tenant.

4. CHIVALRY:the sum of the ideal qualifications of a knight, including courtesy, generosity, valor, and dexterity in arms.

5. MANOR:(in England) a landed estate or territorial unit, originally of the nature of a feudal lordship, consisting of a lord's demesne and of lands within which he has the right to exercise certain privileges, exact certain fees, etc

6. ARISTOCRATS:A member of a ruling class or of the nobility.

7. FIEF:a territory held in fee.

8.SERF:a person in a condition of servitude, required to render services to a lord, commonly attached to the lord's land and transferred with it from one owner to another.

9. NOBLES:Possessing hereditary rank in a political system or social class derived from a feudalistic stage of a country's development.

10. SECULAR:of or pertaining to worldly things or to things that are not regarded as religious, spiritual, or sacred; temporal

11.EXCOMMUNICATION:the act of excommunicating.

12. CRUSADES:A holy war undertaken with papal sanction.

13. RECONQUISTA:was the seven and a half century long process by which the Christian Kingdoms of northern Hispania conquered the Iberian peninsula from the Muslim and Moorish states of Al-Ándalus.

14. INQUISITION:an official investigation, esp. one of a political or religious nature, characterized by lack of regard for individual rights, prejudice on the part of the examiners, and recklessly cruel punishments.

15. BUBONIC PLAGUE:a serious, sometimes fatal, infection with the bacterial toxin Yersinia pestis, transmitted by fleas from infected rodents and characterized by high fever, weakness, and the formation of buboes, esp. in the groin and armpits.

What I learned this week

This week I learned that the first big event that happend was The Byzantine Empire, then the Crusades. Then the Christian failure, then the Ottomans emerge. Then the Ottomans sack Constantinople in 1453. Then that the Byzantine Empire came to an end after 1,000 years. I learned that the Ottomans Empire was enormous, from Central Europe to much of the Middle East and Africa. 50 million people were under control of the Ottomans. The Ottomans allowed other religions, besides muslim, but they must pay a price. But in the 1700's, The Ottomans begin to lose their land.

Time Line

1) 313 A.D - The Roman Empire's religion changes to Christianity.

2) Late 600's - The Muslims conquered modern-day Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and parts of Saudi Arabia.

3) 711 - They began to take parts of North Africa.

4)717 A.D - The Muslims begin to launch attacks on the Byzantine Empire.

5)732 A.D - They then move onto Europe, they conquer Spain, tried to conquer France. But then are defeated in a famous battle.

6)1071 - Seljuk Turks conquer large parts of modern-day Turkey, and begin to move in on Constantinople.

7)1096 - The first crusade is launched.

What I learned in class this week

Well, this week I have learned a lot. I learned about the Roman Empire, and about Christianity. And how the Roman Empire had their ups and downs. They didn't want Christians in the Roman Empire, but in the end it ended up being their "official" religion. I learned about who Constantine was. Which basically he was an emperor. Constantine was the one who suggested to make Christianity their "official" religion. But not too long after the Empire started to fall apart, because it got too big. So they decided to split the Empire into two empires, the East and West. The Western part falls apart, but the Eastern part stays strong. The Empire's capital was moved from Rome to Byzantium (which later was named Constantinople) The West went through the Dark Ages. So invaders started to come down into the empire. That is what I learned this week.