WEBVTT 00:02.133 --> 00:04.503 PAUL FREEDMAN: It does seem as if 00:04.500 --> 00:07.230 we are back to invasions again. 00:07.233 --> 00:10.933 We end the course the way we began it, except they're 00:10.933 --> 00:13.273 different invaders. 00:13.267 --> 00:16.267 One thing that I'm sure Professor Frank will want you 00:16.267 --> 00:18.597 to get out of the Vikings course-- 00:18.600 --> 00:21.800 and not all of you are going to take that, obviously, so I 00:21.800 --> 00:25.600 will mention this-- is they did not have horned helmets. 00:25.600 --> 00:27.500 The horned helmet idea-- 00:27.500 --> 00:30.930 actually, Roberta Frank has researched where this totally 00:30.933 --> 00:38.273 inaccurate idea comes from and why it is ineradicable. 00:38.267 --> 00:42.367 But if there's one thing you should come out of the second 00:42.367 --> 00:46.427 part of this course knowing, it's that. 00:46.433 --> 00:49.603 So we're discussing people from Scandinavia, different 00:49.600 --> 00:53.270 parts of Scandinavia, who had different destinations. 00:53.267 --> 00:55.367 So different parts of Scandinavia: 00:55.367 --> 00:57.797 Denmark, Norway, Sweden. 00:57.800 --> 01:02.130 Different destinations: the Frankish Empire of Charlemagne 01:02.133 --> 01:06.003 for which they bear some responsibility for unraveling, 01:06.000 --> 01:10.530 Russia, the British Isles, Iceland, 01:10.533 --> 01:13.233 Greenland, the New World. 01:13.233 --> 01:15.473 They certainly got around. 01:15.467 --> 01:19.927 They're not always the same populations. 01:19.933 --> 01:23.503 And they have different ambitions in different places. 01:23.500 --> 01:29.630 Basically, those ambitions can be divided into raiding, 01:29.633 --> 01:31.973 trading, and settling. 01:31.967 --> 01:34.897 These are not mutually exclusive. 01:34.900 --> 01:39.130 Although usually they began by raiding almost always if they 01:39.133 --> 01:41.803 were dealing with a place that had people. 01:41.800 --> 01:45.730 Thus obviously Iceland when they came didn't 01:45.733 --> 01:47.373 have people at all. 01:47.367 --> 01:52.567 So they came there as explorers or settlers. 01:52.567 --> 01:57.327 The crucial changeover is in their attacks on the British 01:57.333 --> 01:59.503 Isles and on the Frankish Empire. 01:59.500 --> 02:07.300 They begin as raiders, that is as seaborne warriors who would 02:07.300 --> 02:10.170 plunder opportunistic targets-- 02:10.167 --> 02:12.867 monasteries, for example-- 02:12.867 --> 02:19.267 and then leave with their spoils. 02:19.267 --> 02:22.497 They also, however, were traders. 02:22.500 --> 02:25.870 And I don't want to make too much of this as if it were a 02:25.867 --> 02:29.627 timeless statement, but in the period we're dealing with, 02:29.633 --> 02:34.633 raiding and trading weren't all that far apart. 02:34.633 --> 02:39.233 When the Vikings in the east, mostly from Sweden, were 02:39.233 --> 02:47.303 dealing with the Caliphate in Baghdad or the Byzantine 02:47.300 --> 02:51.300 Empire, they found these targets too well organized 02:51.300 --> 02:56.900 with too overpowering a military presence to 02:56.900 --> 02:59.930 intimidate in the way that they were able to do with 02:59.933 --> 03:01.703 Britain and the Frankish Empire. 03:01.700 --> 03:04.300 So here they were more traders. 03:04.300 --> 03:10.330 They brought various products, particularly slaves and fur, 03:10.333 --> 03:13.873 to the Caliphate and to the Byzantine Empire. 03:13.867 --> 03:19.127 And they came back with a lot of coins, among other things. 03:19.133 --> 03:22.703 80,000 coins from the Caliphate have been found in 03:22.700 --> 03:24.430 Sweden alone. 03:24.433 --> 03:26.103 So here they're traders. 03:26.100 --> 03:27.370 Settlers. 03:29.300 --> 03:35.400 They would eventually settle in the Frankish Empire and in 03:35.400 --> 03:39.400 the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. 03:39.400 --> 03:41.100 They would settle in Ireland. 03:41.100 --> 03:45.330 Indeed, the city of Dublin was founded by the Vikings. 03:45.333 --> 03:48.303 They would settle in Iceland completely. 03:48.300 --> 03:50.300 That is, the people who live in Iceland now are the 03:50.300 --> 03:54.500 descendants of mostly Norwegian, some Danish 03:54.500 --> 03:59.670 settlers of the tenth and eleventh centuries. 03:59.667 --> 04:06.567 They would even try to settle as far afield as Newfoundland. 04:06.567 --> 04:10.667 There is a place in Newfoundland that it is 04:10.667 --> 04:13.997 unmistakably, by the archaeological evidence, a 04:14.000 --> 04:16.230 Viking site. 04:16.233 --> 04:19.673 This doesn't ultimately work. 04:19.667 --> 04:26.127 So it is wrong to think of them exclusively as savage 04:26.133 --> 04:30.503 warriors, as barbarians, but then again, we've seen that 04:30.500 --> 04:34.170 it's wrong to think of most of the invading peoples of the 04:34.167 --> 04:37.267 period we've been discussing as just 04:37.267 --> 04:39.297 totally savage raiders. 04:39.300 --> 04:43.830 These are extremely skilled raiders, and as I've just 04:43.833 --> 04:46.773 gotten through saying, they're raiders with several different 04:46.767 --> 04:48.327 possible agendas. 04:48.333 --> 04:49.873 They're very adaptive. 04:49.867 --> 04:54.227 The question remains, what made Scandinavia so powerful 04:54.233 --> 04:57.333 in the ninth and tenth centuries, especially since 04:57.333 --> 05:03.803 Scandinavia tends not to be a major 05:03.800 --> 05:05.630 actor in European politics. 05:05.633 --> 05:09.503 The two periods in which it is are this one-- 05:09.500 --> 05:12.000 basically the ninth, tenth, eleventh centuries-- 05:12.000 --> 05:15.100 and the seventeenth century when the armies of Sweden 05:15.100 --> 05:21.500 under Gustavus Adolphus terrorized Central Europe. 05:21.500 --> 05:26.300 That effort was ultimately ended not in Central Europe 05:26.300 --> 05:28.130 but in Eastern Europe by Russia. 05:28.133 --> 05:31.173 And the Russians defeated the Swedes sufficiently in the 05:31.167 --> 05:33.997 early eighteenth so that they basically never got themselves 05:34.000 --> 05:36.600 very heavily involved in European politics again. 05:39.200 --> 05:43.000 Part of the answer of "Why Scandinavia? 05:43.000 --> 05:48.230 Why now?" is that we're dealing with another savage or 05:48.233 --> 05:52.033 certainly less civilized population who erupt from 05:52.033 --> 05:55.173 their homeland and devastate a weak but 05:55.167 --> 05:57.867 relatively rich society. 05:57.867 --> 06:02.397 There's nothing very unusual about that. 06:02.400 --> 06:07.930 We have seen it with the Roman Empire, and you can see it 06:07.933 --> 06:11.673 later with such successful campaigns as those of the 06:11.667 --> 06:15.397 Mongols in the thirteenth century. 06:15.400 --> 06:22.270 So the other reason besides opportunity is tactics. 06:22.267 --> 06:25.427 The Vikings were masters of the sea. 06:25.433 --> 06:29.403 If you ever do go to Denmark, Sweden, or Norway, you must go 06:29.400 --> 06:31.170 to the Viking museums there. 06:31.167 --> 06:32.927 They are absolutely enthralling. 06:32.933 --> 06:37.673 And you see these ships that seem unbelievably flimsy for 06:37.667 --> 06:39.997 the voyages that they undertook. 06:40.000 --> 06:44.000 On the other hand, by reason of their small size and 06:44.000 --> 06:46.270 particularly shallow draft-- 06:46.267 --> 06:50.297 that is to say they're able to be stable without being so 06:50.300 --> 06:54.770 deep underneath the ship, having a keel underneath-- 06:54.767 --> 06:57.067 that they can sail up rivers. 06:57.067 --> 07:02.697 They can both, therefore, go in the Atlantic and be stable 07:02.700 --> 07:06.130 enough to make the journey and go up rivers that are no more 07:06.133 --> 07:10.333 than five or six feet deep at points like the Seine in 07:10.333 --> 07:12.433 France or the Loire in France. 07:12.433 --> 07:16.603 And so they could raid far inland with these ships. 07:16.600 --> 07:22.830 And as masters of seas and rivers, they could easily 07:22.833 --> 07:27.403 outrun the clumsy, slow Carolingian armies. 07:27.400 --> 07:33.230 They could raid a monastery, check out another monastery 07:33.233 --> 07:35.003 the same afternoon. 07:35.000 --> 07:36.200 "Oh, there's an army there. 07:36.200 --> 07:37.570 Well, we'll just get back in the ship, and 07:37.567 --> 07:38.597 we'll go further down. 07:38.600 --> 07:41.830 And then we'll look for more tempting targets-- 07:41.833 --> 07:46.433 palaces, towns, monasteries." 07:46.433 --> 07:48.773 They were not good at fortification. 07:48.767 --> 07:52.027 If a place was fortified, they tended to pass it by. 07:52.033 --> 07:55.303 They were not siege masters. 07:55.300 --> 08:01.030 Their control, therefore, of the water is not dissimilar to 08:01.033 --> 08:05.033 the Arabs' advantage in the beginning of the Arab 08:05.033 --> 08:07.833 expansion that we talked about with regard to the desert. 08:07.833 --> 08:09.673 The desert functions the same way. 08:09.667 --> 08:13.467 An environment that these people controlled in the sense 08:13.467 --> 08:18.327 that they could maneuver easily in it, and their more 08:18.333 --> 08:22.733 civilized opponent with larger armies could not. 08:22.733 --> 08:27.603 The Persian and the Byzantine armies couldn't really go very 08:27.600 --> 08:28.900 far into the desert. 08:28.900 --> 08:32.870 They had supply line, water problems. They actually didn't 08:32.867 --> 08:33.897 know the desert. 08:33.900 --> 08:36.300 It all looked the same to them. 08:36.300 --> 08:40.770 So this is the same or at least a similar advantage for 08:40.767 --> 08:43.467 the Vikings. 08:43.467 --> 08:48.167 The Vikings are different from other raiders partly in their 08:48.167 --> 08:51.697 ability to construct governments, not only to 08:51.700 --> 08:58.100 settle lands, but to create governments ranging from the 08:58.100 --> 09:01.770 what advertises itself with some accuracy as the world's 09:01.767 --> 09:06.927 oldest democracy, Iceland, where tourists are still 09:06.933 --> 09:13.403 pointed out the place where the kind of parliament of all 09:13.400 --> 09:17.370 citizens took place as early as 2,000 [correction: 1,000] 09:17.367 --> 09:18.797 years ago. 09:18.800 --> 09:23.100 And they're also the founders of Russia, probably not to be 09:23.100 --> 09:25.800 advertised as the world's oldest democracy. 09:25.800 --> 09:28.970 Certainly not a country that's had a whole lot of experience 09:28.967 --> 09:30.727 with that particular form of government. 09:30.733 --> 09:35.903 But in fact, the first Christian rulers of Russia, 09:35.900 --> 09:41.000 the same Vladimir and his successors, who were baptized 09:41.000 --> 09:47.270 and crowned under Byzantine auspices were Scandinavian. 09:47.267 --> 09:50.267 And the Scandinavian groups are called the Rus. 09:50.267 --> 09:54.767 They quickly lose their Scandinavian language and 09:54.767 --> 09:57.997 identity, but nevertheless that is the founding dynasty 09:58.000 --> 10:02.300 of the first Russian rulers. 10:02.300 --> 10:06.330 So the Vikings have a fascinating culture and 10:06.333 --> 10:11.603 literature, amazing sagas mostly preserved through their 10:11.600 --> 10:17.030 Icelandic versions, very interesting art, very 10:17.033 --> 10:20.233 interesting forms of decoration, and then these 10:20.233 --> 10:23.503 magnificent ships. 10:23.500 --> 10:26.930 Their major contribution to the history of Europe may be 10:26.933 --> 10:31.573 geopolitical in the sense that they connect parts of the 10:31.567 --> 10:34.897 world that were otherwise minimally 10:34.900 --> 10:37.070 or not at all connected. 10:37.067 --> 10:43.327 So from Central Asia to Greenland, they build various 10:43.333 --> 10:45.203 kinds of cultural and 10:45.200 --> 10:47.770 particularly commercial networks. 10:51.300 --> 10:53.570 They also contribute to the destroying of the Carolingian 10:53.567 --> 10:55.127 Empire, the destroying of what we were 10:55.133 --> 10:57.433 discussing before the vacation. 10:57.433 --> 10:59.103 They're not the sole cause. 10:59.100 --> 11:02.230 We talked about weaknesses within the Carolingian Empire, 11:02.233 --> 11:04.803 but certainly the Viking invasions have devastated it 11:04.800 --> 11:08.870 during the ninth century did not at all help. 11:08.867 --> 11:13.167 Where did this drive for expansion come from besides 11:13.167 --> 11:14.497 opportunity? 11:14.500 --> 11:16.870 And there's not a tremendous agreement on 11:16.867 --> 11:19.497 this point among scholars. 11:19.500 --> 11:24.400 Overpopulation and land hunger are possible. 11:24.400 --> 11:29.600 To this day, these are not densely populated countries. 11:29.600 --> 11:35.100 And in the pre-modern period, they could not support 11:35.100 --> 11:38.470 anything but a very small population given the fact that 11:38.467 --> 11:42.227 most of the land is not capable of being cultivated. 11:42.233 --> 11:44.003 So you can get to a point of 11:44.000 --> 11:48.000 over-population pretty quickly. 11:48.000 --> 11:51.100 Opportunities afforded by the weakness of others-- 11:51.100 --> 11:53.270 I've mentioned this. 11:53.267 --> 11:58.097 Internal feuding and the creation of exiles. 11:58.100 --> 12:00.800 It's hard to separate legend from history, but the legends 12:00.800 --> 12:03.730 about the founding of Iceland and Greenland in particular 12:03.733 --> 12:08.433 involve people who were too rowdy for the Vikings. 12:08.433 --> 12:11.703 I pause on that, because it's a little hard to imagine what 12:11.700 --> 12:14.000 such a person would have been like. 12:14.000 --> 12:18.270 Nevertheless, these sagas tell us that various people were 12:18.267 --> 12:24.897 just too mean for quiet, civilized old Norway or even 12:24.900 --> 12:29.270 couldn't get their energies fulfilled by plundering the 12:29.267 --> 12:31.897 Frankish Empire and went off to Iceland 12:31.900 --> 12:33.170 and places like that. 12:36.167 --> 12:39.027 The climate conditions may have been favorable. 12:39.033 --> 12:41.703 It may have been relatively warm. 12:41.700 --> 12:45.230 There's a lot of debate about the settlement of Greenland in 12:45.233 --> 12:47.673 this regard in particular. 12:47.667 --> 12:51.327 We know that by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, 12:51.333 --> 12:56.603 Greenland was becoming too cold for the Scandinavians and 12:56.600 --> 13:01.170 not for the Inuit, who were better adapted to real polar 13:01.167 --> 13:03.997 conditions. 13:04.000 --> 13:10.170 But this is something that is of crucial importance in 13:10.167 --> 13:14.427 tracing the history of climate and is hotly debated. 13:14.433 --> 13:16.973 But it certainly looks as if it gets colder in the 13:16.967 --> 13:18.427 thirteenth, fourteenth century-- 13:18.433 --> 13:20.333 fourteenth century particularly-- 13:20.333 --> 13:25.473 throughout Europe and the Atlantic and probably warmer 13:25.467 --> 13:28.027 in the tenth and eleventh centuries when this expansion 13:28.033 --> 13:29.873 is taking place. 13:29.867 --> 13:33.467 And then finally, there's a cult of personal valor that is 13:33.467 --> 13:37.297 even stronger than that of early medieval Europe. 13:37.300 --> 13:44.300 A male cult of violent military bravery and the 13:44.300 --> 13:47.630 opportunity to demonstrate that was a kind 13:47.633 --> 13:49.073 of competitive sport. 13:52.333 --> 13:55.503 The Viking raids in England and the Continent 13:55.500 --> 13:57.770 begin around 800. 13:57.767 --> 14:03.267 One of the first stunning events is the sack of the 14:03.267 --> 14:07.967 island monastery of Lindisfarne on the eastern 14:07.967 --> 14:11.297 coast of northern England. 14:11.300 --> 14:13.500 The monastery of Lindisfarne was sacked by 14:13.500 --> 14:18.570 the Vikings in 797. 14:18.567 --> 14:25.697 Charlemagne was able to repulse these raids and the 14:25.700 --> 14:28.300 English as well. 14:28.300 --> 14:32.700 But the civil wars that we were talking about among the 14:32.700 --> 14:41.530 sons of Louis the Pious started to encourage the 14:41.533 --> 14:44.203 Vikings indirectly by the disunity of the Frankish 14:44.200 --> 14:47.070 Empire, the wasting of military resources on what 14:47.067 --> 14:50.397 was, in effect, a kind of civil war. 14:50.400 --> 14:54.600 But also the Vikings just got stronger and more ambitious, 14:54.600 --> 14:57.270 because their raids on relatively well organized 14:57.267 --> 15:04.797 Britain start to reach their height in the 830s. 15:04.800 --> 15:09.530 So you start having the abandonment of monasteries, 15:09.533 --> 15:12.533 for example, the abandonment of Lindisfarne and the moving 15:12.533 --> 15:13.833 of its relics. 15:13.833 --> 15:16.703 So the relics of Saint Cuthbert of York 15:16.700 --> 15:18.770 move around a lot. 15:18.767 --> 15:23.527 Monks on the western coast of France abandon their 15:23.533 --> 15:27.473 monasteries and move their communities and 15:27.467 --> 15:28.727 relics further inland. 15:32.900 --> 15:37.430 The Vikings seem to jockey between emphasizing raids on 15:37.433 --> 15:41.473 the Frankish Empire and on England, but basically they're 15:41.467 --> 15:42.897 doing both. 15:42.900 --> 15:45.970 They start to spend the winter, what's called 15:45.967 --> 15:49.567 over-wintering in the late 830s, early 840s. 15:49.567 --> 15:52.227 And that's a sinister sign from the point of view of the 15:52.233 --> 15:55.803 English, Irish, and Franks, because that means that 15:55.800 --> 15:59.930 they're going from raiding to some form of settling. 15:59.933 --> 16:04.133 If they can spend the winter and not just the classic 16:04.133 --> 16:09.373 raiding season, why not just stay permanently? 16:09.367 --> 16:13.827 So they start coming up the rivers. 16:13.833 --> 16:18.003 They start plundering cities that are not 16:18.000 --> 16:21.400 sufficiently fortified. 16:21.400 --> 16:25.800 A monk in the 860s writes, "the number of ships grows 16:25.800 --> 16:31.370 every year..." The feeling of just this complete takeover. 16:31.367 --> 16:33.097 Now, that's the monastic point of view. 16:33.100 --> 16:35.970 The monasteries were ideal targets, because they are 16:35.967 --> 16:42.097 rich, isolated, and minimally fortified. 16:42.100 --> 16:46.570 But nevertheless, the Carolingians have no fleet to 16:46.567 --> 16:47.927 match the Viking ships. 16:47.933 --> 16:49.833 The way to stop the Vikings-- 16:49.833 --> 16:54.303 and it was only really implemented in 16:54.300 --> 16:55.830 the 870s and 880s. 16:55.833 --> 16:58.833 The way to stop the Vikings was with fortified bridges. 16:58.833 --> 17:02.273 If you built a bridge that the Vikings could not go past 17:02.267 --> 17:05.867 without fighting and fortified it sufficiently and had 17:05.867 --> 17:09.727 sufficient numbers of troops, you would stymie them. 17:09.733 --> 17:13.103 And this is eventually what happens. 17:13.100 --> 17:16.800 In the late ninth century, the Vikings are defeated at the 17:16.800 --> 17:24.300 gates of Paris in 888-- 17:24.300 --> 17:26.300 885, 886, rather. 17:26.300 --> 17:30.670 And they start accommodating with the European rulers. 17:30.667 --> 17:38.667 That is to say they are given lands to settle and then made 17:38.667 --> 17:40.127 to promise to stop raiding. 17:40.133 --> 17:43.403 And in effect, they start to settle down towards the end of 17:43.400 --> 17:47.370 the ninth century, beginning of the tenth century so that, 17:47.367 --> 17:53.267 for example, a treaty in 911 with the West Frankish ruler, 17:53.267 --> 17:57.167 the ruler we can start to call the King of France, allows 17:57.167 --> 18:02.127 them to settle in northwestern France in a territory that 18:02.133 --> 18:03.773 henceforth was called Normandy. 18:06.733 --> 18:08.403 Same in French. 18:08.400 --> 18:09.270 Normandie. 18:09.267 --> 18:13.327 The territory of the "Northmen" is what they're 18:13.333 --> 18:17.773 usually referred to in the sources rather than "Vikings." 18:17.767 --> 18:19.527 The territory of the Northmen. 18:19.533 --> 18:26.773 So Normandy in 911 was a province settled by Vikings 18:26.767 --> 18:31.167 nominally loyal to the King of France. 18:31.167 --> 18:36.567 The Vikings very quickly lose their language. 18:36.567 --> 18:39.267 By the time of the Duke of Normandy, William the 18:39.267 --> 18:47.527 Conqueror 150 or so years later, they are Norman. 18:47.533 --> 18:49.773 They speak French. 18:49.767 --> 18:52.097 They are more French than anything else, 18:52.100 --> 18:55.030 although a bit different. 18:55.033 --> 18:57.673 Their ships still look a bit like Viking ships. 18:57.667 --> 19:01.027 If you know the Bayeux Tapestry, which is this 19:01.033 --> 19:05.203 embroidery that shows the history of the Norman conquest 19:05.200 --> 19:09.370 of England, their ships look very much like our image of 19:09.367 --> 19:11.427 Viking ships. 19:11.433 --> 19:17.433 In England, the 860s are the zenith of their destruction. 19:17.433 --> 19:23.373 They actually in effect partition England between an 19:23.367 --> 19:24.997 eastern and a western part. 19:25.000 --> 19:30.570 The eastern part becomes a territory called the Dane law, 19:30.567 --> 19:32.927 the place where the Danes have settled. 19:35.933 --> 19:39.533 And their indirect effect on England is to force the 19:39.533 --> 19:42.933 Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to unify. 19:42.933 --> 19:46.433 So rather than the multiple kingdoms that we looked at at 19:46.433 --> 19:48.333 Bede's time-- 19:48.333 --> 19:51.133 Mercia, East Anglia, Northumbria-- 19:51.133 --> 19:56.733 we have the western kingdom formerly called Wessex, which 19:56.733 --> 20:06.103 under King Alfred in the 860s to 880s becomes really the 20:06.100 --> 20:10.700 sole Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England and gradually defeats 20:10.700 --> 20:14.870 the Vikings, eventually kicking them out of the 20:14.867 --> 20:19.867 British Isles altogether by about 930 or so. 20:19.867 --> 20:25.567 So the conquests in the Frankish and English realms 20:25.567 --> 20:31.467 are not permanent in the sense that there's minimal 20:31.467 --> 20:34.227 Scandinavian impact of a permanent 20:34.233 --> 20:36.933 sort on these places. 20:36.933 --> 20:41.503 There are not a lot of people speaking Old Norse in either 20:41.500 --> 20:43.000 place in 1100. 20:43.000 --> 20:46.930 But their impact is tremendous in terms of organizing these 20:46.933 --> 20:53.033 places, creating networks, founding cities like Dublin, 20:53.033 --> 20:57.403 reorganizing kingdoms like Ireland, creating Normandy, 20:57.400 --> 21:02.730 and really kind of throwing the puzzle on the floor and 21:02.733 --> 21:05.673 reforming it. 21:05.667 --> 21:07.427 In the East and in the Atlantic. 21:10.067 --> 21:14.597 Here you have to imagine or sort of visualize Scandinavia 21:14.600 --> 21:17.570 sitting on the top of Europe. 21:17.567 --> 21:24.097 The same effect that encourages airlines to use 21:24.100 --> 21:28.700 polar routes as a shorter way to cross the globe also allows 21:28.700 --> 21:32.330 the Scandinavians in effect to choose their targets. 21:32.333 --> 21:34.003 Some of this is logical. 21:34.000 --> 21:38.800 Norway is much easier, much closer to the British Isles 21:38.800 --> 21:39.770 than you might think. 21:39.767 --> 21:42.797 It sort of sits on top of them. 21:42.800 --> 21:49.600 And Sweden is much closer to the East via the North than 21:49.600 --> 21:50.170 one would think. 21:50.167 --> 21:53.797 But even Norway, for example, the modern kingdom of Norway, 21:53.800 --> 21:57.400 has a border with Russia. 21:57.400 --> 22:01.870 It goes so far north, and then it has this very little, 22:01.867 --> 22:06.897 narrow piece of land that is only about thirty miles from 22:06.900 --> 22:10.000 the important Russian port of Murmansk. 22:10.000 --> 22:14.900 And all of these places are relatively warm given how far 22:14.900 --> 22:17.830 north they are because of the Gulf Stream. 22:17.833 --> 22:26.273 So just as London is surprisingly warm considering 22:26.267 --> 22:31.297 that it's on the same latitude as Newfoundland, so these 22:31.300 --> 22:36.000 northern parts of Scandinavia are the equivalent of polar 22:36.000 --> 22:38.570 wastes of northern Canada. 22:38.567 --> 22:42.027 And yet they are-- 22:42.033 --> 22:43.503 they're cold enough. 22:43.500 --> 22:46.230 The problem with them is they're really dark. 22:46.233 --> 22:47.873 So they're dark for months at a time, but they're 22:47.867 --> 22:49.727 not all that cold. 22:49.733 --> 22:55.233 From this vantage point then, the East would be a tempting 22:55.233 --> 22:59.733 source of enterprise for Vikings, particularly but not 22:59.733 --> 23:02.903 exclusively from Scandinavia, especially 23:02.900 --> 23:05.670 in the tenth century. 23:05.667 --> 23:09.367 They would go via the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland 23:09.367 --> 23:13.227 down the Russian rivers like the Dnieper-- 23:13.233 --> 23:15.403 Dnieper with a D-- 23:15.400 --> 23:25.530 to the Black Sea and the Volga to the Caspian Sea. 23:29.533 --> 23:34.333 They used to these rivers as ways of reaching territories 23:34.333 --> 23:40.603 of Byzantine and of Caliphal influence. 23:40.600 --> 23:46.100 They traded, raided when possible. 23:49.567 --> 23:53.297 A lot of our descriptions of the Vikings by outsiders, our 23:53.300 --> 23:58.000 most accurate descriptions, are from Muslim travelers who 23:58.000 --> 24:02.330 describe who these people are, what their products are even 24:02.333 --> 24:06.003 though very little remains in this region to 24:06.000 --> 24:07.600 attest to the Vikings. 24:07.600 --> 24:11.900 The main evidence, as we said, are really coins taken back to 24:11.900 --> 24:13.730 Scandinavia. 24:13.733 --> 24:15.733 Their base-- 24:15.733 --> 24:18.833 that is the Viking base in this eastern area-- 24:18.833 --> 24:22.733 was what would become Kiev in modern Ukraine. 24:22.733 --> 24:27.373 And Kiev would be the first Russian Scandinavian kingdom 24:27.367 --> 24:30.297 ruled by a tsar. 24:30.300 --> 24:35.600 They had ambitions to take over Constantinople, a city 24:35.600 --> 24:39.730 they called in sort of Tolkien-esque fashion 24:39.733 --> 24:40.973 "Mickelgard"-- 24:44.900 --> 24:48.330 "Gard" meaning city, "mickel" meaning powerful. 24:48.333 --> 24:50.633 "Mickel" still in Middle English, in Chaucer's English, 24:50.633 --> 24:58.703 means "impressive," "powerful." 24:58.700 --> 25:01.070 Their attacks on Mickelgard didn't work. 25:01.067 --> 25:04.327 They attacked in 860 and 941, and we've seen that 25:04.333 --> 25:08.033 Constantinople was able to fight off more impressive 25:08.033 --> 25:09.803 enemies than this. 25:09.800 --> 25:13.530 They therefore were dealing with wealthy and established 25:13.533 --> 25:17.403 states, well-organized states, better organized than the 25:17.400 --> 25:20.130 Carolingian Empire or the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and so 25:20.133 --> 25:25.833 states that were capable of defeating them. 25:25.833 --> 25:32.773 They therefore came to these areas controlled by Baghdad 25:32.767 --> 25:38.897 and Constantinople more as traders than as raiders. 25:38.900 --> 25:41.970 What did they bring to trade with? 25:41.967 --> 25:46.197 They have certain classic products, things from the 25:46.200 --> 25:57.100 North Sea, like walrus ivory, very highly prized, amber from 25:57.100 --> 25:59.300 the Baltic Sea-- 25:59.300 --> 26:06.770 amber used in jewelry and medicine, a stone that's not 26:06.767 --> 26:09.827 really a stone, a thing that's much lighter than it looks 26:09.833 --> 26:13.873 like credited with various kinds of mysterious or at 26:13.867 --> 26:19.097 least medicinal properties throughout the formerly Roman 26:19.100 --> 26:21.070 and Islamic world. 26:21.067 --> 26:22.427 Arrows and swords. 26:22.433 --> 26:24.903 The West was very good at metalworking. 26:24.900 --> 26:29.430 Honey, hunting falcons, wax. 26:29.433 --> 26:32.873 But as I said, their two great commodities 26:32.867 --> 26:37.027 were slaves and furs. 26:37.033 --> 26:37.933 Slaves-- 26:37.933 --> 26:41.033 these societies of the Byzantine Empire and the 26:41.033 --> 26:44.103 Caliphate always wanted more slaves. 26:44.100 --> 26:49.070 They had plenty of unpleasant labor as well as domestic 26:49.067 --> 26:50.727 service shortages. 26:50.733 --> 26:57.403 And so many of these slaves were Slavs, that is Slavic 26:57.400 --> 27:02.130 populations rounded up by the Vikings and then sold in 27:02.133 --> 27:04.533 Constantinople or Baghdad. 27:04.533 --> 27:06.303 Furs. 27:06.300 --> 27:11.170 On the one hand, furs like sable, marten, mink that 27:11.167 --> 27:16.327 bounded in the eastern Baltic regions and in what's now 27:16.333 --> 27:20.903 northern Russia were tremendously prized in a world 27:20.900 --> 27:23.570 in which central heating was nonexistent. 27:23.567 --> 27:26.827 And although we may not think of modern Istanbul as 27:26.833 --> 27:30.303 particularly cold, it's quite cold and damp. 27:30.300 --> 27:35.100 One can certainly understand the practical desire for furs 27:35.100 --> 27:37.430 for well-off people in the Byzantine Empire. 27:37.433 --> 27:39.533 In the Caliphate, it may seem a little stranger. 27:39.533 --> 27:44.333 Baghdad is more noted for unbearable heat than cold. 27:44.333 --> 27:47.873 On the other hand, the Caliphate includes territories 27:47.867 --> 27:52.927 like Afghanistan, eastern Iran. 27:52.933 --> 27:57.433 And also, keep in mind, as is the case with Palm Beach and 27:57.433 --> 28:03.533 Miami Beach even as we speak now in late November, that for 28:03.533 --> 28:08.803 certain people, the prestige of the furs transcends any 28:08.800 --> 28:12.600 need for practical warmth. 28:12.600 --> 28:14.870 So these are the two great products. 28:19.000 --> 28:24.200 So they're plunderers and extortionists, but they're 28:24.200 --> 28:28.700 fairly creative plunderers and extortionists. 28:28.700 --> 28:33.870 They create a number of trading cities, not only Kiev 28:33.867 --> 28:41.167 further south, but the great city of Novgorod sort of 28:41.167 --> 28:47.197 between the Baltic and the more modern city of Moscow. 28:47.200 --> 28:51.070 These cities are fortified, leading one to assume that 28:51.067 --> 28:56.327 they weren't just free-trade zones, that other people 28:56.333 --> 28:59.173 raided them or that the Vikings expected other people 28:59.167 --> 29:01.967 to try to revenge themselves on their kind 29:01.967 --> 29:05.567 of raiding and trading. 29:05.567 --> 29:09.467 So anyway, as we've said before, trading and plundering 29:09.467 --> 29:12.167 are not necessarily totally distinct. 29:20.200 --> 29:28.930 So finally, the West. The Vikings begin to explore the 29:28.933 --> 29:36.573 Atlantic mostly from Norway and beginning after the 29:36.567 --> 29:39.527 maximum period of raiding of England starts to 29:39.533 --> 29:44.003 tail off in the 860s. 29:44.000 --> 29:48.470 These lands were uninhabited, Iceland, or minimally 29:48.467 --> 29:50.727 inhabited, Greenland. 29:54.033 --> 29:58.173 They were very attractive for hunting and for pasturing. 29:58.167 --> 30:03.697 Where the Vikings found a fair density of people, they tended 30:03.700 --> 30:04.930 not to stay. 30:04.933 --> 30:07.173 This is their problem with Newfoundland. 30:07.167 --> 30:11.027 They have a settlement in Newfoundland at a place whose 30:11.033 --> 30:17.373 modern name is somewhat confusing way called L'Anse 30:17.367 --> 30:18.597 aux Meadows. 30:20.733 --> 30:24.333 So you have a French and English compound. 30:24.333 --> 30:28.073 L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, one of a number 30:28.067 --> 30:32.127 of certainly the most best-known Viking sites. 30:32.133 --> 30:40.233 But there were Native Americans who drove them out, 30:40.233 --> 30:47.173 not necessarily because they were superior in armament, but 30:47.167 --> 30:50.327 it just wasn't really worth it to the Vikings to stay. 30:50.333 --> 30:51.973 So their staying in Newfoundland 30:51.967 --> 30:53.367 is relatively brief. 30:57.900 --> 31:01.430 In order to go from Norway to Iceland, it's about 800 miles, 31:01.433 --> 31:05.673 and it took anywhere between one week and one month. 31:05.667 --> 31:09.997 The island is not as cold as its name suggests. 31:10.000 --> 31:14.370 It has glaciers, but in the parts that don't have 31:14.367 --> 31:20.867 glaciers, it's not all that cold. 31:20.867 --> 31:22.827 Again, the Gulf Stream. 31:22.833 --> 31:25.633 Most of it is uninhabitable, but that's 31:25.633 --> 31:27.403 because of volcanic rock. 31:27.400 --> 31:29.530 I don't know how many of you have been to Iceland, but even 31:29.533 --> 31:34.033 the drive from the airport to Reykjavik is intimidating, 31:34.033 --> 31:36.833 because it goes through the stuff called "tufa". 31:36.833 --> 31:40.703 And there are no trees, and there's sort of no prospect of 31:40.700 --> 31:44.370 anything growing there. 31:44.367 --> 31:49.267 But on the other hand, there are plenty of nice coastal 31:49.267 --> 31:52.927 strips, mild climate, great pasture. 31:52.933 --> 31:54.733 There are almost no trees now. 31:54.733 --> 31:56.833 And there's a lot of debate about whether there were 31:56.833 --> 31:59.933 trees, whether they just cut them down, and they couldn't 31:59.933 --> 32:04.403 be re-cultivated. 32:04.400 --> 32:07.730 But in fact, this is a very hospitable place: rich 32:07.733 --> 32:11.003 pastures, sea mammals everywhere. 32:11.000 --> 32:15.800 Until Iceland completely lost its mind in the speculative 32:15.800 --> 32:20.700 atmosphere of the decade preceding 2008, their main 32:20.700 --> 32:23.430 industry was cod fishing. 32:23.433 --> 32:29.573 They then went into banking in a way that just staggers the 32:29.567 --> 32:35.667 mind and have gotten back into cod fishing, my 32:35.667 --> 32:38.967 understanding is. 32:38.967 --> 32:42.897 But they had lots and lots of other things. 32:42.900 --> 32:47.130 Lots of seals which they killed for fur, walrus skin 32:47.133 --> 32:52.433 used for cable for ropes for ships, walrus ivory, another 32:52.433 --> 32:55.803 little creature called an narwhal that has a tusk that 32:55.800 --> 32:56.530 looks like a-- 32:56.533 --> 32:59.673 well, it was taken for being a unicorn tusk. 32:59.667 --> 33:03.997 There's one in the Cloisters, for example, that some of you 33:04.000 --> 33:09.370 are going to see on the seventh of December. 33:09.367 --> 33:23.167 So the colonization of Iceland begins in 870, and by 930, the 33:23.167 --> 33:24.397 island is basically full. 33:28.100 --> 33:29.930 It's habitable land, again. 33:29.933 --> 33:32.273 A very, very small percentage of the land 33:32.267 --> 33:35.867 area was fully settled. 33:35.867 --> 33:38.897 We know a lot more about Iceland than any other part of 33:38.900 --> 33:44.070 Scandinavia because of the extraordinary quality and 33:44.067 --> 33:50.427 quantity of poetic stories, sagas in which honor, 33:50.433 --> 33:53.803 treasure, and love of mayhem dominate. 33:53.800 --> 33:57.400 These are very violent and until a certain point were 33:57.400 --> 34:01.770 taken to be realistic portrayals of life in Iceland 34:01.767 --> 34:07.267 just as if, say, 1950s and 1960s TV westerns were assumed 34:07.267 --> 34:10.727 to be a totally accurate portrayal of life everywhere 34:10.733 --> 34:15.203 in the United States in the nineteenth century. 34:15.200 --> 34:20.370 So these are, like Westerns, wonderful stories of male 34:20.367 --> 34:22.967 violence with a certain amount of exaggeration, but 34:22.967 --> 34:29.427 nevertheless the reflection of customs, ways of speaking, and 34:29.433 --> 34:30.673 social values. 34:32.700 --> 34:36.400 Towards the end of the tenth century, Greenland was 34:36.400 --> 34:40.970 explored under the leadership of Erik the Red, one of these 34:40.967 --> 34:44.727 renegades so difficult and violent that he was exiled 34:44.733 --> 34:48.333 from both Norway and Iceland. 34:48.333 --> 34:53.203 He is the one who seems to have dubbed this new territory 34:53.200 --> 35:00.070 Greenland, a pioneer of deceptive advertising, I think 35:00.067 --> 35:01.127 it's fair to say. 35:01.133 --> 35:06.133 Because warm as it may have been in the tenth century, 35:06.133 --> 35:12.903 this is like calling some housing development Warbling 35:12.900 --> 35:15.730 Acres when in fact you've just bulldozed all the trees in 35:15.733 --> 35:19.773 order to create the development. 35:19.767 --> 35:26.367 So the western coast of Greenland had rich pasture. 35:26.367 --> 35:32.927 The West is warmer than the East. Settlers came 35:32.933 --> 35:34.873 beginning in 986. 35:34.867 --> 35:39.467 There was even a bishopric established at a place called 35:39.467 --> 35:45.267 Gardar, another sort of Tolkien-esque name. 35:45.267 --> 35:46.767 We don't know very many bishops who 35:46.767 --> 35:48.167 actually went to Gardar. 35:48.167 --> 35:52.527 Most of them ruled from Denmark and sort of basically 35:52.533 --> 35:55.403 told their flock to get in touch with them if they needed 35:55.400 --> 36:00.970 them, gave them their office hours and had a phone that 36:00.967 --> 36:02.197 took messages. 36:02.200 --> 36:09.370 But this settlement did not last. Greenland was more or 36:09.367 --> 36:14.197 less abandoned by 1400 and then would later be, in modern 36:14.200 --> 36:18.930 times, resettled, but this time by Denmark. 36:18.933 --> 36:22.203 And then finally, Norwegians from Greenland settled what's 36:22.200 --> 36:24.870 now Labrador in Newfoundland, late tenth, 36:24.867 --> 36:26.027 early eleventh centuries. 36:26.033 --> 36:31.073 They even wrote a saga called the Vinland Saga. 36:31.067 --> 36:34.497 The Vinland Map that's in the Beinecke Library that purports 36:34.500 --> 36:41.500 to show both the Chinese Mongol Empire and the 36:41.500 --> 36:44.100 territories of Vinland in the New World is 36:44.100 --> 36:48.500 unfortunately a fake. 36:48.500 --> 36:51.630 But as I said, these archaeological finds in 36:51.633 --> 36:55.903 Markland, as the Vikings called Labrador, or Vinland, 36:55.900 --> 37:02.170 as they referred to Newfoundland, are real. 37:02.167 --> 37:05.067 They were settled about the year 1000 and 37:05.067 --> 37:09.597 abandoned in 1020. 37:09.600 --> 37:14.930 So here we are, 1020 or the year 1000. 37:14.933 --> 37:20.173 And I know that you will be asking what has been 37:20.167 --> 37:26.167 accomplished since we began with 284. 37:26.167 --> 37:28.997 And this is a fair question, because at first glance, it 37:29.000 --> 37:34.530 would seem as if we're still in a world of declining 37:34.533 --> 37:44.203 population, a rural society with very few urban centers, a 37:44.200 --> 37:50.530 society of relatively little literacy, relatively small 37:50.533 --> 37:58.933 amounts of commerce, lots of violence, lack of governmental 37:58.933 --> 38:02.833 order, militarized society, all developments that we have 38:02.833 --> 38:07.573 been tracing since the beginning. 38:07.567 --> 38:11.797 The optimistic take on this is that beginning with the 38:11.800 --> 38:14.830 material covered in the next course, there's a very rapid 38:14.833 --> 38:20.373 ascent from 1000 to about 1300, a tremendous growth of 38:20.367 --> 38:26.327 the European economy and a tremendous expansion of both 38:26.333 --> 38:30.133 population, artistic, political, and intellectual 38:30.133 --> 38:36.673 creativity that is the central period of the Middle Ages. 38:36.667 --> 38:40.397 The real mystery behind this, the sort of historical 38:40.400 --> 38:44.870 problem, is what explains the domination of Europe in the 38:44.867 --> 38:46.367 second millennium AD? 38:46.367 --> 38:49.597 The first millennium, most of which we've covered in this 38:49.600 --> 38:54.930 course, the dominant areas are the Mediterranean at the 38:54.933 --> 38:58.103 beginning, which includes Europe, but also includes 38:58.100 --> 39:00.170 North Africa, Egypt, the Middle 39:00.167 --> 39:03.027 East, and modern Turkey. 39:03.033 --> 39:08.803 And indeed, those latter regions would outpace Europe, 39:08.800 --> 39:10.800 properly speaking. 39:10.800 --> 39:14.730 The first millennium is something of a catastrophe for 39:14.733 --> 39:20.673 Europe, at least by measurable statistics of a per capita 39:20.667 --> 39:29.397 GNP, population, population density, urbanization, nature. 39:29.400 --> 39:31.270 What then explains the domination of 39:31.267 --> 39:34.897 Europe after 1000? 39:34.900 --> 39:37.370 In some ways, it's a slow process. 39:37.367 --> 39:41.427 The first European colonies don't really get established 39:41.433 --> 39:45.633 until the aftermath of Columbus' voyage in 1492. 39:45.633 --> 39:48.933 And then they get established incredibly rapidly and with 39:48.933 --> 39:50.533 surprisingly little effort, right? 39:50.533 --> 39:54.533 Mexico and Peru, these huge empires of the Aztecs, Mayans, 39:54.533 --> 39:58.703 and Incas fall to a few hundred Spanish troops. 39:58.700 --> 40:05.370 And the Spanish and Portuguese between 1492 and 1520 are all 40:05.367 --> 40:10.497 over the world, from Malacca in modern Malaysia to India to 40:10.500 --> 40:15.470 the Persian Gulf to Mexico and Peru. 40:18.700 --> 40:21.130 Well, we don't have to explain that. 40:21.133 --> 40:22.973 That's for another time. 40:22.967 --> 40:27.397 But suffice it to say that already in 1095, the European 40:27.400 --> 40:31.270 Christian population is capable of putting together an 40:31.267 --> 40:36.297 army to conquer Jerusalem from Islam, a seemingly impossible 40:36.300 --> 40:41.200 job, and certainly one that required more than logistics 40:41.200 --> 40:45.100 and resources but also a certain kind of if not 40:45.100 --> 40:48.400 fanaticism at least a real motivation, religious 40:48.400 --> 40:49.500 motivation. 40:49.500 --> 40:52.870 But nevertheless, it is a sign of a certain kind of European 40:52.867 --> 40:56.167 power that one would not have thought in the 40:56.167 --> 40:58.697 year 1000 was possible. 40:58.700 --> 41:04.700 In the year 1000, the smart money, the Brookings 41:04.700 --> 41:09.800 Institute, think tank, kind of RAND Corporation, Bain 41:09.800 --> 41:16.270 Consulting, all the smart people would have said, "Don't 41:16.267 --> 41:17.267 put any money into Europe. 41:17.267 --> 41:18.997 You've got to be kidding. 41:19.000 --> 41:23.530 The coming regions are the same as over the last couple 41:23.533 --> 41:24.673 hundred years. 41:24.667 --> 41:27.997 Maybe Byzantium, a cautious buy. 41:28.000 --> 41:30.330 Definitely the Islamic kingdoms, even if the 41:30.333 --> 41:33.473 Caliphate is having some problems, qua Caliphate, their 41:33.467 --> 41:35.867 successor states, Fatimid Egypt-- 41:35.867 --> 41:36.797 awesome, awesome. 41:36.800 --> 41:40.370 This is going to dominate for the next millennium. 41:40.367 --> 41:46.067 Our algorithms agree on this." 41:46.067 --> 41:50.527 And all sorts of promising signs in Eastern Europe with 41:50.533 --> 41:53.803 the creation of Russia to your more prescient younger, 41:53.800 --> 41:58.570 hot-shottier consultants would have identified that. 41:58.567 --> 42:07.127 But Germany, Italy, France, the British Isles certainly 42:07.133 --> 42:08.973 would have seemed discouraging. 42:08.967 --> 42:11.397 Yet there are some promising signs. 42:11.400 --> 42:15.130 As it turns out, the Vikings are the last invaders. 42:15.133 --> 42:20.973 The Vikings coincide with invasions from the Magyars. 42:23.700 --> 42:27.170 Magyars, that's what they call themselves to this day. 42:27.167 --> 42:29.297 They're known as the Hungarians to the outside 42:29.300 --> 42:32.070 world out of a confusion between them and the Huns. 42:32.067 --> 42:35.667 They actually have nothing to do with the Huns. 42:35.667 --> 42:39.227 But they were quite frightening land-based raiders 42:39.233 --> 42:40.773 of the tenth century. 42:40.767 --> 42:46.797 And there were also attacks by ships from Muslim North Africa 42:46.800 --> 42:48.600 against Europe, what the sources refer 42:48.600 --> 42:51.070 to as Saracen pirates. 42:51.067 --> 42:54.567 And they plunder Rome in 843, for example. 42:54.567 --> 42:58.597 So Europe is certainly in the tenth century faced with yet 42:58.600 --> 43:00.570 another wave of invasions. 43:00.567 --> 43:02.627 And I think I warned you at the beginning of this course 43:02.633 --> 43:06.973 that it was basically about invasions and heresies and 43:06.967 --> 43:09.727 that you'd do well if you just concentrated on those things. 43:09.733 --> 43:13.603 So we're heresy-free at the moment, but in the tenth 43:13.600 --> 43:15.800 century, we certainly have these invasions. 43:15.800 --> 43:18.470 As it happens, they're the last that Western Europe would 43:18.467 --> 43:19.927 experience. 43:19.933 --> 43:22.103 Not Eastern Europe, because Eastern Europe would be 43:22.100 --> 43:25.230 subject to the Mongols who would, for example, score a 43:25.233 --> 43:28.803 tremendous victory over the armies of Poland, armies of 43:28.800 --> 43:31.930 the Christian king of Hungary as well in 43:31.933 --> 43:34.373 the thirteenth century. 43:34.367 --> 43:38.127 But this seems to be the end of invasions, the beginning of 43:38.133 --> 43:42.633 a period of population increase, better nutrition, 43:42.633 --> 43:47.003 better harvests, perhaps explicable to more settled 43:47.000 --> 43:50.400 conditions, perhaps explainable by improved 43:50.400 --> 43:54.730 climate, perhaps just explainable by human 43:54.733 --> 43:56.733 determination and enterprise. 43:59.467 --> 44:03.397 The Christianization of Europe is one of the tremendous 44:03.400 --> 44:06.000 phenomena that characterizes our period. 44:06.000 --> 44:11.330 And while as a religious movement I have no investment 44:11.333 --> 44:13.803 in saying that Christianity is either an advantage or 44:13.800 --> 44:18.300 disadvantage, in terms of creating settled, organized 44:18.300 --> 44:23.170 polities, the Christianization of places like Scandinavia, 44:23.167 --> 44:26.197 Iceland, or Bohemia-- 44:26.200 --> 44:28.300 the modern Czech Republic more or less-- 44:28.300 --> 44:34.370 or Hungary or Russia, all of which take place in the tenth 44:34.367 --> 44:37.027 or early eleventh centuries, all of these 44:37.033 --> 44:43.033 Christianizations, conversions bring these polities into a 44:43.033 --> 44:49.303 kind of European cultural area, political alliances, 44:49.300 --> 44:51.000 trade networks. 44:51.000 --> 44:56.430 So Christianization is as much a sign of civilization or at 44:56.433 --> 44:59.973 least of a kind of economic development 44:59.967 --> 45:04.127 as a thing in itself. 45:07.400 --> 45:12.400 So between 200 and 1000, what are the big differences? 45:12.400 --> 45:13.000 Whether these are 45:13.000 --> 45:16.200 accomplishments or not is debatable. 45:16.200 --> 45:19.030 Certainly the population has declined. 45:19.033 --> 45:22.703 Over an 800-year period, the population of Europe is 45:22.700 --> 45:27.230 considerably less, not only in towns like Rome, which has 45:27.233 --> 45:32.033 gone from something on the order of over 500,000, perhaps 45:32.033 --> 45:38.033 as much as a million, to 30,000, maximum. 45:38.033 --> 45:42.003 It is a much less Mediterranean-centered world. 45:42.000 --> 45:44.430 The sort of geopolitics have changed. 45:44.433 --> 45:48.803 The Mediterranean has broken apart into Islamic, Byzantine, 45:48.800 --> 45:51.270 and Latin regions. 45:54.600 --> 45:56.770 It is Christian, most of it. 45:56.767 --> 46:02.997 Most of Europe apart from Spain is Christian. 46:03.000 --> 46:06.570 And this entails all sorts of cultural as well 46:06.567 --> 46:08.527 as religious changes. 46:08.533 --> 46:09.933 It is also less learned. 46:09.933 --> 46:15.373 And the learning that there is is a monopoly of the Church. 46:15.367 --> 46:22.097 There is less lay, or secular, learning than there was. 46:22.100 --> 46:25.130 There are some continuities, however. 46:25.133 --> 46:28.403 The dominant language of learning and administration 46:28.400 --> 46:34.500 remains in 1000, as it was in 200, Latin. 46:34.500 --> 46:40.470 Roman culture is still the ideal and still, in effect, 46:40.467 --> 46:43.697 the practice, even though it may be adapted 46:43.700 --> 46:46.030 to things like churches. 46:46.033 --> 46:50.173 But what has been called Romanesque or simply Roman 46:50.167 --> 46:53.527 architecture particularly that of the eleventh and early 46:53.533 --> 47:00.073 twelfth centuries will indeed be based on Roman principles. 47:00.067 --> 47:03.627 And as we saw with Charlemagne, the idea of Rome, 47:03.633 --> 47:08.473 the idea of the Empire is extremely durable. 47:08.467 --> 47:11.767 And although Charlemagne's empire is dissolved in the 47:11.767 --> 47:16.527 course of the late ninth century, it is at least 47:16.533 --> 47:22.003 partially revived in the tenth century under a new dynasty 47:22.000 --> 47:25.770 whose first ruler is Otto I, Otto the Great. 47:25.767 --> 47:32.497 In 962, he's crowned Roman emperor in Rome by the pope. 47:32.500 --> 47:38.470 His empire does not include the West. So it's not France. 47:38.467 --> 47:42.427 It's more Germany than anything else. 47:42.433 --> 47:46.833 But this empire would endure until Napoleon, until 1804. 47:46.833 --> 47:57.833 In other words for something on the order of 850 years. 47:57.833 --> 48:03.503 So to some extent, what we have accomplished is we have 48:03.500 --> 48:05.700 arrived at the point of the emergence of something that 48:05.700 --> 48:09.070 can be called Europe other than a geographical term, 48:09.067 --> 48:12.827 something that can be called Christendom, not using that in 48:12.833 --> 48:15.903 its triumphalist sense but simply as a kind of cultural 48:15.900 --> 48:20.530 description of a certain part of the world. 48:20.533 --> 48:23.073 And we've reached the point where we can start to talk 48:23.067 --> 48:27.497 about the West, this very funny term still used, 48:27.500 --> 48:32.100 particularly in popular geopolitical tracts like The 48:32.100 --> 48:36.470 West and the Rest, these kinds of statements of the West or 48:36.467 --> 48:39.197 the decline of the West. We're at the point of the rise of 48:39.200 --> 48:40.100 the West. 48:40.100 --> 48:45.070 And that's where I am going to leave you. 48:45.067 --> 48:47.827 Thanks for your participation in this course. 48:47.833 --> 48:50.233 Thanks for making this a wonderful semester for me. 48:50.233 --> 48:55.203 I hope a lot of fun for you as well. 48:55.200 --> 48:56.430 Thanks a lot.