Middle Ages Vikings

The middle ages, a time of chaos and regression from civility. This time period is laced with crime and the ravaging of cities. The vikings, the great barbarians of the north. Just hearing their name would strike fear into the hearts of the people of the middle ages. The vikings sacked churches and monasteries all around medieval Europe slaughtering anyone who got in their way. People were terrified of this terror from the North. Their methods were barbaric, in one tactic they ripped the lungs of their victims out of their chest and watched them die. (Class Lesson Vikings) Although the Romans were violent, the vikings seem to have regressed from them and became complete savages. The middle ages were overrun with people like this. The Visigoths,
Previously, religious tolerance seemed to be increasing. In the middle ages it decreased exponentially. When at war, the king Charlemagne would make the people he captured turn to christianity or die (Class Lesson). Similarly four crusades were made by these people in order to retake the holy land that only led many negative effects. The crusade was called for by Pope Urban the Second who promised salvation for those that went. This going to be the beginning of the end for the Pope, after the crusades the papacy loses much of its prestige. The fourth crusade didn’t even have anything to do with the holy land. It ended when they sacked Constantinople, which was another Christian city, although not Roman Catholic. The Crusaders plundered Constantinople, raping women and destroying the city (The Crusades Handout). It’s very clear that these actions aren’t Christian but they did them in the name of God. This caused the extremely religious nature of the Middle Ages to lose its luster and the pope lost most most of his
The growth of burghs created large areas that were unclean and fire hazards. These burghs are one of the reasons that the black death spread so quickly, people were so close together and the sanitation conditions were terrible (Class Lesson). These burghs also created a system that left very little room for economic growth. This system created guilds which craftsmen had to join in order to operate their businesses (Guild Handout). Members of the guild had to keep their products at the same prices so there was no competition. When everybody’s selling the same wares it means that innovation is slow, people had no reason to create new and better things because they didn’t have any competition. It could be argued that this system creates economic stability but in the end it opposes