Studyfin
✨ Sign up free
Welcome! Today we will explore how major religious shifts and massive historical crises transformed medieval European society.
During the Middle Ages, the Christian Church split into two major branches. In 1054, differences in language, culture, and leadership led to the Great Schism, which created the Roman Catholic Church in the West and the Eastern Orthodox Church in the East.
The Roman Catholic Church used Latin and was led by the Pope in Rome. The Eastern Orthodox Church used Greek and was led by the Patriarch in Constantinople. This split deeply divided European society and culture along geographic lines.
Later, massive crises like the Crusades, the Black Death, and the Hundred Years' War weakened the medieval feudal system. These events reduced the power of lords and gave more economic independence to common peasants.
Explain how the Black Death contributed to the decline of the feudal system in Western Europe.
- Identify the core event: The Black Death was a devastating plague that killed nearly one-third of Europe's population in the 1300s.
- Analyze the immediate economic effect: With so many people dead, there was a sudden, severe shortage of peasant labor to work the land.
- Connect the effect to feudal power dynamics: Because workers were scarce, surviving peasants could demand higher wages and better treatment from their lords.
- Draw the final historical conclusion: Lords lost their absolute control over the peasants, which directly weakened the traditional feudal system.
