Chapter 9 ID Assignment

AP European History
Instructions:
1. Read Chapter 9 (pp. 290-315)
2. Read the Overview and Section Summaries below. For every Highlighted Identification term below, answer
the following questions:
a. When? (Establish a time period) & Where? (Confirm a place for the ID term.) – 1 point
b. What? (Provide a complete, thoroughly detailed and specific description of what/who the ID term
is. Must be in complete sentences.) – 2 points
c. Why? (Explain why the ID term is important or significant. This is the most important part and
must be done in complete sentences) – 2 points
3. Each ID is worth 5 points and must follow the example outlined below and must be legibly hand written.

ID Term: The Treaty of Versailles

a. The Treaty of Versailles, sometimes generally referred to as the Peace of Paris was achieved from 1919-20 in
Post World War I Europe.
b. The Treaty of Versailles was the “Peace” settlement between the victorious Allied Powers and the defeated
Central Powers which set the terms for peace following the “Great War” (1914-1918). Through it, the victorious
powers (mainly France, Britain and the United States) mandated the terms by which Germany was to adhere to. It
obligated Germany to sign the “War Guilt” clause in which they took full responsibility for the damages of the
War. It also placed restrictions on the German military making it a purely defensive force while also setting money
reparations to be paid by Germany to the victorious Powers as recompense for the damages incurred during the
War. It was designed by the victorious powers and particularly France with the vengeful purpose of weakening the
new Germany Weimar Republic to the extent where it could not threaten European stability again.
c. The Treaty of Versailles would prove to be one of the most critical factors that would lead to widespread public
resentment in Germany in the years following the Great War and would ultimately create the political, social and
economic climate that was ripe for radical political movements such as Nazism and tyrannical dictators such as
Hitler, that would eventually lead Europe and the world into yet another “Great” war, World War II.

Chapter 9: The Late Middle Ages

Overview
Warfare, plague, and conflicts within the Catholic Church made the late Middle Ages a difficult period for nearly
everyone. The long and exhausting Hundred Years’ War between England and France had dramatic
consequences in both countries. In this last era before the age of gunpowder, the longbow became an effective
infantry weapon, forever changing the relationship between feudal knights and their once subservient peasantry.
Joan of Arc, a 19-year-old at the time of her execution in 1431, became a heroine to the French. All Europeans
had to contend with another scourge, the effects of which went a long way toward ending the Middle Ages: the
so-called "Black Death" started in the mid-fourteenth century and engulfed most of the cities of Europe. The
social and economic effects of the bubonic plague were felt well into the sixteenth century. The power of the
Roman Catholic Church declined from the height achieved under Pope Innocent III. The struggles over the
power of the papacy, particularly between Boniface VIII and King Philip "the Fair" of France, remain a classic
case of the clash between spiritual and secular authority. The papacy itself was directly challenged by the
establishment of "anti-Popes" at Avignon (France) and Pisa (Italy). The ensuing struggle between schismatic
Popes gave rise to "conciliarism" as a possible alternative to leadership by a single man. Popes and Church
councils struggled for supremacy well into the fifteenth century. Throughout these upheavals, royal authority
was generally strengthened in western Europe. Further to the east, in Russia, the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries were a period of conquest by the Mongols from Asia. The establishment of the Kievan and then the
Muscovite states mark the beginning of a political and religious identity for the Russian people.

The Black Death

Between 1348 and the early 15th century, close to 40% of the population of western Europe was killed by the
Black Death. People had no idea what the bubonic plague was, how it was transmitted, or how to treat
someone who suffered from it. The fear inspired by the disease itself, and by the responses to it – including
fanatical public flagellation – influenced European attitudes and religious beliefs for centuries. The sharp
reduction in population changed fundamental social, economic, and political patterns. Increased demand and
reduced supply of luxury goods brought more power and wealth to cities and to skilled artisans; the landed
nobility was further marginalized, as demand for food diminished. Much of what historians know about the
details of the Black Death are derived from Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron.
The Hundred Years’ War
The so-called Hundred Years' War between England and France actually lasted for more than a century,
from 1337 to 1453, though there were long intervals of peace during this period. The direct cause of the war was
controversy over the succession to the French throne – a question that involved England because of feudal
relationships going back to the Norman conquest – though issues of national identity, as well as political and
cultural competition, lay just below the surface. Despite a smaller population, less wealth, and fighting on enemy
soil, England got the better of France in most of the significant early battles. England began the conflict as a
more cohesive state than France. The Treaty of Troyes would prove to be a major blow to French national
hopes as it paved the way for the English monarchy to extend its dominion across the English Channel and into
France. Eventually, however, the French began to see past regional rivalries, and Joan of Arc inspired an
emergent national pride.

Ecclesiastical Breakdown & Revival

Through the 13th century, popes had worked to centralize church power; for a while, the church became more
effective in wielding political and economic power, but it lost spiritual credibility. As nation-states – particularly
England and France – gained cohesiveness, kings started to challenge papal authority. The political struggle
between Pope Boniface VIII and the French king Philip the Fair highlighted this common stuggle. Throughout
most of the 14th century, the Avignon Papacy was based in Avignon, France, rather than Rome; during the
Great Schism, between 1378 and 1417, the pope at Avignon was one of two – or, briefly, three – popes who
had been elected by competing groups of cardinals. This fragmentation, coupled with the criticisms of the
Lollards in England and the Hussites in Bohemia, were symptomatic of significant challenges to the church.
Conciliarism proposed that the pope was just a tiny part of a church that should rightfully be dominated by the
faithful as a group. The Council of Basel in the early 15th century provided a model of lay rights and
responsibilities within church or national organizations.

Medieval Russia
Kiev was the most important city in Russia around the turn of the millennium, so Prince Vladimir of Kiev's
selection of Greek Orthodoxy as the state religion had ramifications that endure to the present. Starting in the
11th century, Kiev lost its preeminence and Russians split into three geographic and cultural groupings: the
Great, White and Little Russians. In 1223, Ghengis Khan led a Mongol (or Tatar) army into Russia;
eventually, Russian cities made up the Golden Horde within the Mongol Empire. Mongol rule ended in 1480,
by which time Moscow was the dominant city within Russia. In contrast to western Europe, where the nobility,
the clergy, and the peasantry constituted distinct and easily identifiable groups in most societies, in Russia the
main division was between freemen and slaves.