You need to recognize the past enough to understand what we are studying. For example, you will not catch onto Lesson 1 unless you realize this is a different world. If you (or I) were sent back in time, the odds are you would be in a world:
· Where your birth determined your importance and safety in the world—and you could not change that status
· Where someone owns you and you get nothing for your labor except a chance to live another day
· Where you would believe in the god or the religion of your owner or your king
Right now, you do not have to memorize this beyond recognizing the order. You do have to read enough to begin:
· to introduce yourself to words used here
· to realize many people since about 1600 paid a great price for you (and me) to have a better chance today
|
Eras in Order |
Brief Definition |
Why You Want to Know About
This |
|
Roman
Republic |
- |
The
Merriam Webster Online Dictionary
defines a republic as “a government in which supreme power resides in a body
of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and
representatives responsible to them and governing according to law.” The
Romans had Senators—a familiar word—and a republic. As its public buildings
and terminology in the Constitution reveal, the U.S. was created as a
republic with its people electing representatives who wrote the laws. |
|
Roman
Empire |
Classical
is the adjective associated with Rome and also with Greece. |
Rome
had an empire and colonies (words you need to know) to the late 400s AD when
their empire collapsed. Empires relied on servitude (forms of forced labor
where the person is forced to work for no pay except survival for another
day). They
are fine (no guilt at all): ·
with slavery for those they conquered ·
with demanding tribute and slaves from those conquered ·
with war to take riches and raw materials ·
with colonies (peoples who were not Roman) governed by the
Romans to enrich the Romans ·
with government controlling religion (If the emperor thinks he
is a god, the monotheistic religions will have difficulty in accepting they
have to worship the emperor. Among the monotheist religions are Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam. Islam however develops after the Roman Empire is
gone.) |
|
Middle
Ages |
It
is associated with feudalism. Its adjective is medieval. |
Circa
500 AD to 1300 in the Italian city states and to 1500 in England and northern
Europe. They
are fine (no guilt at all): ·
with slavery (those in bondage as forced labor but could be
sold anywhere) ·
with serfdom (those who were landless and in bondage as forced
labor and bound to the land and listed like the cattle on the manor) ·
with levels of nobility who were bound to an upper noble as subjects or vassals (concepts you need to know) ·
with land ownership determining power because land meant
people had a place to grow food and have animals for food ·
with land being passed down to the 1st born male
only so that the estates remained large (They were not split among the sons.) ·
with the pope at Rome as the head of the Church Looking
ahead: Feudalism is attempted in the Americas by: ·
The Spanish (North, Central, and South America) ·
The French (in Canada and the Mississippi Valley) ·
The Dutch (in New Amsterdam) ·
The English (in Maryland, the Carolinas, and New York). Feudalism’s
laws about land ownership and having any power in decisions (voting) will be
applied in the new world in the late 1500s and early 1600s. ·
In the old world, land was scarce and people were surplus. ·
In the new world, land was surplus and labor was scarce. In
those early years, what that shift meant was more people had a chance. |
|
Renaissance |
It
is associated with rebirth of the classical world (Greek and Roman) and the
rise of nation-states and the rise of science. |
Circa
1300 in the Italian city states and to 1500 in England and northern Europe. The
rebirth of the classical world means the rebirth of values of the Roman
Empire. What you will have is new nation states (Spain and Portugal initially
and later England and France and the Netherlands) rising up and trying to
create their own empires. |
|
Protestant
Reformation |
It is an era of protests against the Roman Catholic Church. It begins with a few new forms of Christianity but results in many new forms. |
1500s
on with continued splintering by the Protestant faiths through today Nation
states (notice the term) will have not just a national language but a
national religion. They will go to war to suppress another nation’s religion
or keep their own religion. They
are fine (no guilt at all): ·
with slavery (those in bondage as forced labor but could be
sold anywhere) ·
with serfdom (those who were landless and in bondage as forced
labor and bound to the land and listed like the cattle on the manor) ·
with servants (those who were landless and officially free but
with limited chance of improving their condition—unless they went to the new
areas of the Americas) ·
with levels of nobility or with individuals being born into
the status of their fathers ·
with land ownership determining power because land meant
people had a place to grow food and have animals for food – with a few
exceptions with the Pilgrims and the Puritans in the new world. ·
with government controlling religion o
With Roman Catholics believing the head of the church is the
pope at Rome o
With Protestants believing the head of their religion is the
king himself (England) or the church group’s leader |
|
WCJC Department: |
History – Dr. Bibus |
|
Contact Information: |
281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu
|
|
Last Updated: |
2017 |
|
WCJC Home: |