The Early Middle Ages

Main Idea: Geography influenced where medieval Europeans settled and what they did.

Europe as a Queen

Munster, 1588

Europe’s Latitude v. US

Satellite View of Europe

3,800 square miles

R E G I O N S

Continents by Size (sq. km.) Asia Africa North America South America Antarctica

Europe

Oceania (incl. Australia) 44,579,000 30,065,000 24,256,000 17,819,000 13,209,000

9,938,000

7,687,000

Europe: A Peninsula of Peninsulas?

OR

A Peninsula of Asia?

Europe: An Asian Peninsula

?

Northern Peninsulas

Scandinavian Peninsula Jutland Peninsula

Southern Peninsulas

Iberian Peninsula Crimean Peninsula Italian Peninsula Balkan Peninsula

P e n i n s u l a s Jutland Pen.

Iberian Pen.

Italian Pen.

Balkan Pen.

Crimean Pen.

Anatolean Pen.

Peloponnesian Pen.

What’s the answer

??

B o d i e s Atlantic Ocean of W a t e r Strait of Gibraltar Bay of Biscay North Sea Baltic Sea Arctic Ocean Tyrrhenian Sea Mediterranean Sea Dardanelles Strait Aegean Sea Black Sea Caspian Sea

The Mediterranean Sea:

Mare Nostrum

Strait of Gibraltar & the

“Pillars of Hercules”

 2,400 miles long & 1,000 miles wide  “Crossroads of 3 Continents”

Caesarea on the Israeli coast

R i v e r s Thames R.

Tagus R.

Ebro R.

Po R.

The Danube River

The Danube River

Biking Along the Danube Where Buda & Pest Meet  Flows through the 12 countries of Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, and the Ukraine.

The Volga River

 The longest river in Europe --> 2,300 miles.

The Volga River

 The river is so polluted that the sturgeon catch has been decreased by 60%.

Why are most of the capitals of Europe on major rivers

??

Capitals on the Rivers

(1) London on the Thames Paris, right bank of the Seine Prague on the Vltava Budapest on the Danube

Capitals on the Rivers

(2) Moscow on the Moscow River Berlin on the Spree Rome on the Tiber Vienna on the Danube

What’s the answer

??

Answer: They are Europe’s lifeline!

a i n s M o u t & P e a k s Alps Mts.

Mt. Vesuvius ^ Mt. Olympus ^ Mt. Etna ^ Caucasus Mts.

Elevation

Urals Pyrennes Alps Carpathians Apennines Caucasus

The Alps

 Cover most of Switzerland, Austria, and parts of Italy and France.

Mt. Blanc in the Alps

 Highest mountain in the Alps: 15,771 feet

The Caucasus Mountains  The origin of the word Caucasian .

Transylvania in the Carpathian Mountains  Home of Vlad Tepeš , the Drakul (“Count Dracula”)

Ural Mountains: “The Great Divide”  Divides the European and Asian sections of Russia.

The Ural Mountains

P l a i n s

The BENELUX Countries * Belgium * Netherlands * Luxembourg

Holland’s Dikes

Amsterdam’s Canals

The Netherlands: The “Dagger” Pointing at the Heart of Britain!

P l a t e a u s Meseta

C o m p l e t e d M a p Atlantic Ocean Thames R.

Bay of Biscay Tagus R.

Iberian Pen.

Strait of Gibraltar Ebro R.

North Sea Jutland Pen.

Baltic Sea Arctic Ocean Alps Mts.

Po R.

Italian Pen.

Mt. Vesuvius ^ Sea Mt. Etna ^ Caspian Sea Crimean Pen.

Balkan Pen.

Dardanelles Strait Black Sea Anatolean Pen.

Aegean Sea Peloponnesian Pen.

10,000 BCE – Ice Age

Norwegian

Fjords

 Glaciers cut deep valleys in the ocean during the Ice Age.

Earthquake Zones

Reykjavik, Iceland: “The Youngest Oldest Country” 

Volcanoes



Hot Springs



Geysers

Mediterranean Islands

 Generally rugged & mountainous.

 Mediterranean Sea so polluted (will take 1000 years to clean up).

Cyprus Sardinia Malta

 An active volcano

Mt. Etna, Sicily

 Pompeii, 79 CE

Mt. Vesuvius, Italy

 Herculaneum, 79 CE  1944 eruption

Russia’s 10 Time Zones

Siberia --> Permafrost

 A former “

gulag

” Soviet prison camp.

 Average temperatures of January vary from 0 to -50 °C, and in July from 1 to 25 °C  150,000,000 population.

Lake Baikal, Siberia

 The oldest and deepest lake in the world.

 20% of the world’s total unfrozen water supply.

Trans-Siberian Railroad

 Completed in 1905.

Trans-Siberian Railroad



T

he main line runs 5,785 miles.

Europe’s Latitude v. US

Climate

Average Annual Precipitation

Europe’s Natural Regions

The North European Plain

The Northern European Plain --> An Invasion Route into Asia (& Vice Versa?)

Steppes : “Soviet” Breadbasket

The Steppes

 25% of the old Soviet Union’s food supply.

Major Regional Divisions of the Former U. S. S. R.

Chernozen Soil

Germany’s Black Forest

Germany’s Black Forest

Tundra: The Not-So-Barren Land Below the Arctic Circle

L a n d U s e

Agricultural Activity

R E S O U R C E S

Major Industrial Resources

Oil Export Routes in the Caucasus Area

Major Environmental Disasters & Pollution Problems

Acid Rain

World Population by Continents

Asia Africa

Europe

North America South America Oceania (incl. Australia) Antarctica 3,737,000,000 823,000,000

729,000,000

486,000,000 351,000,000 31,000,000 no permanent population

Population Density [People Per Square Mile]

Belgium

Japan India

United Kingdom Italy France

336.82

336.72

336.62

244.69

192.96

108.09

Mexico United States World

Norway

Canada

Russia

52.15

29.77

14.42

14.42

3.36

8.61

Population Distribution

Population Growth

Members of the Indo-European Language Family

Major Religious Groups in Europe

As a continent, Europe is a large peninsula is divided into many smaller peninsulas.

that Most of Europe lies within 300 miles of an ocean or sea and this encouraged trade and fishing.

The Rhine, Danube, Vistula, Volga, Seine, and Po rivers made it easy to travel into the interior of Europe and encouraged people to trade.

Seas and rivers provided safety and opportunities for trade.

Bodies of water also kept people separated and allowed them to develop their own distinct cultures .

Europe has many mountain ranges which made it difficult for one group to rule all of Europe and encouraged the development of independent kingdoms .

The Roman Empire united all the land surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.

The last Roman emperor fell from power in A.D. 476 and the unity was lost.

Western Europe was then divided into many kingdoms as Germanic invaders began conquering large areas of Europe.

The Germanic Kingdoms Main Idea: The Franks , Angles , and Saxons of Western Europe built new societies and defended them against Muslims , Magyars , and Vikings .

The kingdoms of western Europe developed different societies based on their locations Visogoths Other groups of Spain and the farther Ostrogoths from Rome of Italy were close to the center Germanic Kingdoms held on to more of of the old Roman their Empire so they Germanic adopted many Traditions.

Roman ways.

The Celts were pushed out of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons and went to the present day areas of Ireland , Scotland , and Wales .

Germanic Kingdoms

A Germanic people called the Franks settled the area that is now France.

After Clovis died, his sons divided his kingdom and began fighting over land allowing nobles to take over many royal duties .

Who were the Franks?

King Clovis of the Franks became a Catholic, won the support of the Romans, and influenced most Franks to become Catholic The most important nobles were chosen to become Mayor of the Palace whose role was to give out land , settle disputes wars

.

, and fight their own

The most powerful mayor, Charles Martel , wanted to unite all Frankish nobles under his rule and restore order in the lands of the western Roman Empire.

The pope , who was head of the Catholic Church, offered his support to Charles Martel The Catholic Church wanted all of Europe to be Catholic.

North Africa conquered Spain and Muslim forces. In A.D. 711, a Muslim army from invaded France .

In A.D. 732, Charles Martel led the Franks against the Muslims and defeated them at the Battle of Tours to stop the Muslim advance into Europe.

Christianity remained western Europe’s major religion.

When Charles Martel died, his son Pepin became Mayor of the Palace and with the support of the Catholic Church, he eventually became king of the Franks.

When the Lombards defeated them.

threatened the pope, Pepin Pepin donated the land he conquered to the pope and the pope ruled these lands as if he were a king. They became the Papal States .

Who was Charlemagne?

After Pepin died, his son Charles became king.

Charles also protected The pope from the Lombards.

Charles invaded eastern Germany and defeated the Saxons ordering them to convert to Christianity.

Later, he invaded Spain and fought the Muslims for control

By A.D. 800, Charles kingdom had grown into an empire and covered much of western and central Europe Charles conquests earned him the name of Charlemagne or Charles the Great.

On Christmas Day in A.D. 800, the pope crowned Charlemagne and declared him the New Holy Roman Emperor.

Charlemagne made Aachen the capital of his empire and to uphold laws, he set up the courts throughout the empire.

Nobles called counts ran the courts.

Charlemagne sent out inspectors called the lord’s messengers to make sure the courts were obeying orders.

Charlemagne believed in education and wanted his people to be educated.

He asked a scholar named Alcuin to start a school in one of the royal palaces to teach children of government officials.

His students studied religion, Latin, music, literature, and arithmetic.