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A History of the Modern World, 9/e

R R Palmer, Yale University
Joel Colton, Duke University
Lloyd Kramer, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

The Rise of Europe

Learning Objectives

Chapter 1 teaches students about:

The origins of global modern civilization and the historical trends of modernity, in which Europe has played a central role.

Greek culture, which laid the foundations for later developments in political science and philosophy, and the spread of that culture around the Mediterranean world.

The Roman aptitudes for law, government, administration, and military organization, which allowed them to control a far-flung empire.

The emergence and spread of Christianity, and the new sense of human life promoted by the Christians.

Christian dualism, which allowed for the separation of spiritual and political power.

The decline of the Roman Empire, and its fragmentation into the Byzantine Empire and Latin Christendom.

The dynamism of the third part of the Mediterranean, the Arabic world.

The influence of Germanic culture and the invading barbarians' adoption of Roman culture.

The rise of new Christian religious institutions and the growing influence of the papacy.

The achievements of Charlemagne, which including a revival of learning and the reunification of the west for the first time since the Romans.

The appearance, by about 1000, of a recognizably European civilization.

The technological innovations in agriculture and the accompanying expansion of population that took place in the early Middle Ages.

The emergence of feudalism.

The growth of towns and commerce, and how towns represented a challenge to the feudal order.

The efforts of monarchs to consolidate their rule, and how parliaments checked monarchical power.

The causes for reforming the church in the high Middle Ages.

The founding of universities and the interests of medieval scholars in theology.

The crusades as one of the earliest movements of western expansion.

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