First Period: 8:30am to 9:13am
Second Period: 9:16am to 9:59am
Third Period: 10:12am to 10:55pm
High Medieval Europe & Islam Readings & Checkpoints
Over the course of the unit, we will be going through different sections of the textbook in class. Whenever we did a section of the readings, the questions will be due the same day and there will be a reading checkpoint made available the next day to start the class period (unless there were other instructions). The Google Forms online correspond to a specific topic/lesson in the textbook.
The Crusades
In March 1096, farmers in northern France paused in their plowing to listen to a distant roar. It was the sound of a vast crowd of people singing hymns and calling others to join them. The farmers watched the approaching mob of peasants, some 20,000 strong, led by a man dressed as a hermit. The farmers immediately knew who he was. For months, Peter the Hermit had been calling on all Christians to join his fight to free Jerusalem. His preaching had inspired thousands to follow him. Like so many others before them, the farmers left their fields and became part of Peter the Hermit’s army.
The Crusades, a series of military campaigns to establish Christian control over the Holy Land, had begun. Over the next few centuries, wave after wave of peasants, soldiers, and kings would travel from Europe to the Middle East in pursuit of this goal. Their campaigns would reshape both Europe and the Middle East.
The Reconquista
By the early 700s, Muslims ruled most of the Iberian Peninsula, the peninsula where present-day Spain and Portugal are located. Under Muslim rule, a culture of great diversity developed there. Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities exchanged knowledge and customs. But the political situation on the peninsula was unstable. Christian kingdoms waged a long campaign against the Muslims. In 1492, Spain’s multicultural society was finally swept away.