Germanic kingdoms unite under charlemagne

- many Germanic kingdoms that succeeded the roman empire were reunited under charlemagnes empire
- charlemagne spread christian civilization throughout northern europe, where many of us came from

Middle ages - midieval period
500 - 1500 AD
Midieval Europe fragmented

Invasions trigger changes in west europe
- invasions and constant warfare spark trends
- drisruption of trade
- europe no longer has control of economic center
- money scarce
- downfall of cities
- cities no longer centers of administration
- population shifts
- nobles retreat to rural areas
- cities dont have strong leadership

- decline of learning
- germanic invaders illiterate, but they communicate through oral tradition
- only priests and church officials could read and write
- knowledge of greek almost lost
- loss of common language
- dialects develop in different regions
- by 800s, french, spanish, other roman based languages evolving

Germanic kingdoms emerge
concept of government changing
- roman society: loyal to public government
- germanic society: loyal to family
- germanic chief led warriors
- during peace he provided food, weapons, treasure, place to live
- during wartime, warriors fought for lord
- franks live in roman province of Gaul - their leader clovis

- franks under clovis
- another battlefield conversion
- clovis and 300 of his warriors are baptized by bishop
- church in rome approves of alliance
- clovis and church work together

511 AD - clovis united franks into 1 kingdom
600 AD - church and frankish rulers convert many people

- fear of muslims in southern europe spur many to become christians

- monasteries and convents

520 AD - benedict wrote rules for monks and monasteries

- poverty, chastity, obedience, study
- sister scholastica did same thing for nuns in convents

731 AD - venerable bede wrote a killer history of england

- monks opened schools, maintained libraries, and copied books