European Intellectual Revival

1. European Intellectual Revival

2. Northumbrian culture in Britain • IrishCeltic culture permeated Roman Britain and Europe, partly by way of monastic missals and other books. • The Lindisfarne book • Venerable Bede wrote a history--The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation • The epic poem Beowulf was written in vernacular Anglo-Saxon.

3. The Carolingian Renaissance • A new culture based on Christian sources emerged. Its purpose was primarily the promotion of Christianity • Charlemagne fostered an intellectual revival that centered on his court at Aachen. • His scholars (the most important being Alcuin) encouraged interest in the classics and preserved Greek and Roman knowledge.

4. 75% of early European writing is written in Carolingian miniscule – first writing to incorporate capital and lower case as well as spaces between words. • Basic literacy was established among the clergy, and Christianity was spread. • Kings and other lords hired clerics to be administrators- gave church influence

5. Invasions of the 9th Century Disunity in Europe after Charlemagne's death was an invitation to aggression from the outside

7. The Magyars, or Hungarians, pushed into Europe from the east • Settled into what is now Hungary • Muslims pushed up from the south. • Mostly raids for loot and slaves • Dominated Mediterranean • These invasions accelerated the growth of feudalism

8. The Vikings from the north overran Europe. • Their superb seamanship gave them an overwhelming advantage • They did not take slaves, but held powerful people for ransom. • Reasons for their attacks include overpopulation, crop failures, and trade • Between 876 and 954 their control extended from Ireland to France, and perhaps even New York.

9. Rollo the Viking forces Charles the Simple to recognize his control of northwest coast of Frankish territory • Established Normandy

10. The Vikings and the Kievan principality – Beginnings of Russia • The Slavs lived as a single people until the mass migrations of the late Roman times • West, central, and southern • Vikings (the Rus)from Scandinavia moved up and down Slav lands and linked Scandinavia to the Black Sea and Constantinople; the Slavs became "slaves."

11. The Viking Ruirik founded the Varangian dynasty • Then his successor Oleg made Kiev the center of a confederation of Slavic territories--the Kievan state • The Vikings and the Slavs were converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity; trade was the major interest of the rulers.