Europe in the Middle Ages (9-3)
Name: ________________________________________________________ Class: __________
At the time the Muslim Empire began expanding, the continent of Europe was divided into many
small kingdoms. The Roman Empire’s strong central government, which had once kept Europe
togerher, was gone. In its place were the independent governments of the smaller kingdoms.
These small kingdoms were ruled by groups of people the Romans called barbarians. Historians
call the years from about 500 to about 1500 in Europe the medieval period, or the Middle Ages.
1. What did the governments of the Middle Ages look like?
Read “Charlemagne Builds an Empire” pages 309-310
2. Charlemagne was from the country of _______________________ and belonged to a
tribe called the __________________.
3. What does Charlemagne mean?
4. Who is the pope?
5. What did Pope Leo III do to Charlemagne?
6. Describe in detail what the Fields of May are.
7. What did Charlemagne teach to his nobles?
Europe in the Middle Ages (9-3)
Read “Life in the Middle Ages” pages 311-312
8. The manor was a large block of land made up of ________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________.
9. Who were the serfs?
10. What did they do?
11. What is a tenant?
12. How and with what did the serfs pay the noble for letting them use his land?
13. What did the noble do for the serfs?
14. Nobles were also called vassals. What did they do for the king?
15. What is a contract?
16. Explain the feudal system.
Europe in the Middle Ages (9-3)
Read “The Church and the Crusades” pages 312-314
17. What is Christendom?
18. What did Pope Urban II call on Christians to do?
19. Why did Pope Urban II ask the Christians to do this?
20. What is a crusader and how did they get that name?
21. How many crusades were there?
22. In what ways did the crusades help the Europeans?
Europe in the Middle Ages (9-3)
Read “Disaster and Change” page 314
23. Describe what the conditions were like in the cities of the Middle Ages.
24. How was the bubonic plague (black death) spread?
25. How did the bubonic plague “help” poor farm workers?
Read “The Rise of Nation-States” pages 314-315
26. Describe in detail what a nation-state is.
27. Why did the English nobles come up with the Magna Carta, or Great Charter?
28. What did the king have to do after the Magna Carta went into effect?