Chapter One Study Guide
• Three Questions
◦ 1) How did the developing idea of sovereignty in the late twelfth century play a role in encouraging
European countries’ fighting to stop the Mongol Invasion in the thirteenth century?
◦ 2) Why did the papacy not receive resistance or subordination in retaliation to their corrupt practices
throughout their time in Avignon?
◦ 3) What were some of the economic changes on the consumer side that resulted from the widespread death
during the Black Plague?
• Five Words
◦ 1) Consecration - The action of declaring bread and wine to be or present the body and blood of Christ.
◦ 2) Vassal - A person in the Middle Ages who received protection and land from a lord in return for loyalty
and service.
◦ 3) Rapacious - Aggressively greedy or grasping.
◦ 4) Locus - A particular position or place where something occurs or is situated.
◦ 5) Curtail - Reduce in extent or quantity; impose a restriction on.
• Key Terms
◦ 1) Silk Road - Key route spanning across Eurasia used to move people and goods, enhanced by the
Mongols through increased safety, streamlining, and simplification.
◦ 2) Pax Mongolica - Period of peace between 1250-1350 during which Mongol ideologies created ideal
conditions for merchants and artists, coming with the cost of forcibly relocating communities of craftsmen,
and the bloody destruction of many flourishing Muslim cities.
◦ 3) Medieval Warm Period - Between 900-1300 during which climatic conditions were more favorable,
facilitating the agricultural revolution in Europe between 1000-1300.
◦ 4) Portolan charts - Charts created in order to map the location of ports, winds, routes, harbors, and
known dangers, which were created by sailors with the increase in sailing of unfamiliar waters.
◦ 5) Babylonian Captivity - Period of time between 1309 and 1378 during which the papacy remained in
Avignon due to Philip IV relocating it from Rome, and the papacy’s decision to remain, and operate in
Avignon despite being able to return. Name references the exile of the Jews to Babylon during sixth century
BC.
◦ 6) Sacraments - Rituals that marked significant moments in an individuals life, and the in the Church, that
were intended to show the grace of God, and were administered by priests. Piety during during medieval
times was heavily reliant on these, and the Eucharist was the most important to medieval Christians.
◦ 7) Sovereignty - Control over a defined area, the likes of which requires use of power in order to achieve,
and maintain sovereignty. It is a bloody, aggressive, zero-sum game, which encourages the subjugation of
neighboring states through any means necessary whether it be alliances, or wars, as well as promoting
territorial behavior in order to expand a county’s sovereignty through annexation. Fueled many conflicts
through this era.
◦ 8) Hundred Years’ War - A conflict between England and France, one of the most significant wars in the
history of Europe involving nearly all major European forces, lasting during 1337-1453. Sources of the
conflict include the English possession of Gascony in French territory, the true heir to the French
monarchy, the connections held between England and Flanders due to commerce when France was failing
to annex Flanders, and the French-Scottish alliance aimed at preventing the annexation of Scotland by
England.
◦ 9) Great Famine - Time following the Medieval Warm period during which global climate cooled, causing
extreme weather conditions, which led to decreased agricultural production that could not sustain the
bursting population of Europe, leading to 10-15% of northern Europe dying due to starvation and disease,
all the while the southern regions suffered economically, and politically from this crisis.
◦ 10) Black Death - Global plague pandemic of Yersinia pestis, originating in Central Asia at the beginning
of the thirteenth century, spreading to China and northern India via the Mongol conquests, then in 1346
• Three Questions
◦ 1) How did the developing idea of sovereignty in the late twelfth century play a role in encouraging
European countries’ fighting to stop the Mongol Invasion in the thirteenth century?
◦ 2) Why did the papacy not receive resistance or subordination in retaliation to their corrupt practices
throughout their time in Avignon?
◦ 3) What were some of the economic changes on the consumer side that resulted from the widespread death
during the Black Plague?
• Five Words
◦ 1) Consecration - The action of declaring bread and wine to be or present the body and blood of Christ.
◦ 2) Vassal - A person in the Middle Ages who received protection and land from a lord in return for loyalty
and service.
◦ 3) Rapacious - Aggressively greedy or grasping.
◦ 4) Locus - A particular position or place where something occurs or is situated.
◦ 5) Curtail - Reduce in extent or quantity; impose a restriction on.
• Key Terms
◦ 1) Silk Road - Key route spanning across Eurasia used to move people and goods, enhanced by the
Mongols through increased safety, streamlining, and simplification.
◦ 2) Pax Mongolica - Period of peace between 1250-1350 during which Mongol ideologies created ideal
conditions for merchants and artists, coming with the cost of forcibly relocating communities of craftsmen,
and the bloody destruction of many flourishing Muslim cities.
◦ 3) Medieval Warm Period - Between 900-1300 during which climatic conditions were more favorable,
facilitating the agricultural revolution in Europe between 1000-1300.
◦ 4) Portolan charts - Charts created in order to map the location of ports, winds, routes, harbors, and
known dangers, which were created by sailors with the increase in sailing of unfamiliar waters.
◦ 5) Babylonian Captivity - Period of time between 1309 and 1378 during which the papacy remained in
Avignon due to Philip IV relocating it from Rome, and the papacy’s decision to remain, and operate in
Avignon despite being able to return. Name references the exile of the Jews to Babylon during sixth century
BC.
◦ 6) Sacraments - Rituals that marked significant moments in an individuals life, and the in the Church, that
were intended to show the grace of God, and were administered by priests. Piety during during medieval
times was heavily reliant on these, and the Eucharist was the most important to medieval Christians.
◦ 7) Sovereignty - Control over a defined area, the likes of which requires use of power in order to achieve,
and maintain sovereignty. It is a bloody, aggressive, zero-sum game, which encourages the subjugation of
neighboring states through any means necessary whether it be alliances, or wars, as well as promoting
territorial behavior in order to expand a county’s sovereignty through annexation. Fueled many conflicts
through this era.
◦ 8) Hundred Years’ War - A conflict between England and France, one of the most significant wars in the
history of Europe involving nearly all major European forces, lasting during 1337-1453. Sources of the
conflict include the English possession of Gascony in French territory, the true heir to the French
monarchy, the connections held between England and Flanders due to commerce when France was failing
to annex Flanders, and the French-Scottish alliance aimed at preventing the annexation of Scotland by
England.
◦ 9) Great Famine - Time following the Medieval Warm period during which global climate cooled, causing
extreme weather conditions, which led to decreased agricultural production that could not sustain the
bursting population of Europe, leading to 10-15% of northern Europe dying due to starvation and disease,
all the while the southern regions suffered economically, and politically from this crisis.
◦ 10) Black Death - Global plague pandemic of Yersinia pestis, originating in Central Asia at the beginning
of the thirteenth century, spreading to China and northern India via the Mongol conquests, then in 1346
