FIRST EDITION Becoming Civilized? A History of the Western World to 1600 BY GRAHAM WRIGHTSON SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY Bassim Hamadeh, CEO and Publisher Kassie Graves, Director of Acquisitions Jamie Giganti, Senior Managing Editor Miguel Macias, Senior Graphic Designer Amy Stone, Acquisitions Editor Sean Adams, Project Editor Alisa Muñoz, Licensing Coordinator Christian Berk, Associate Production Editor Copyright © 2018 by Cognella, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including pho- tocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information retrieval system without the written permission of Cognella, Inc. For inquiries regarding permissions, translations, foreign rights, audio rights, and any other forms of reproduction, please contact the Cognella Licensing Department at [email protected]. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifica- tion and explanation without intent to infringe. Cover image copyright© Louis de Caullery, “Caullery Pape Clément VIII Rome,” https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Caullery_Pape_Cl%C3%A9ment_VIII_Rome.jpg. Copyright in the Public Domain. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-5165-1470-0 (pbk) / 978-1-5165-1471-7 (br) CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ............................................................. V CHAPTER 1 EARLY CIVILIZATION ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1 CHAPTER 2 THE IRON AGE C� 1200–500 ���������������������������������������������������������������������49 CHAPTER 3 CLASSICAL GREECE, 500–400 BCE ���������������������������������������������������������91 CHAPTER 4 THE HELLENISTIC WORLD—400–146 ������������������������������������������������127 CHAPTER 5 FROM KINGDOM TO REPUBLIC 700–46 ���������������������������������������������153 CHAPTER 6 PAX ROMANA? ROME 46 BCE TO 192 CE ��������������������������������������������195 CHAPTER 7 ROME AND ITS SUCCESSORS—193–600 CE ��������������������������������������237 CHAPTER 8 ISLAM AND EUROPE 600–850 ����������������������������������������������������������������277 CHAPTER 9 EUROPE 850–1066 �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������299 CHAPTER 10 THE ERA OF THE CRUSADES—1066 TO 1205������������������� 329 CHAPTER 11 1206–1382—THE MAGNA CARTA, THE MONGOLS, AND THE BLACK DEATH IN EUROPE �������������������������������� 371 CHAPTER 12 1327–1453—THE HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR AND THE RENAISSANCE �������������������������������������������������������������������������� 399 CHAPTER 13 RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS, EXPLORATION AND THE OTTOMANS 1300–1566 ���������������������������������������������������������� 427 CHAPTER 14 EUROPE’S RELIGIOUS WARS 1453–1600 ���������������������������� 457 CONCLUSIONS ������������������������������������������������������������������������ 487 Introduction hat does the term Western Civilization, the name of the course for which this W textbook is intended, mean to you? What is Civilization? What aspects are required for a society to be a civilization or for the people of a country to be classed as civilized? If there are civilizations, are there un-civilizations, and can you live in a civiliza- tion and be uncivilized and vice-versa? If so, what makes someone uncivilized? The terms civilization and civilized are loaded with inherent bias towards today’s cul- ture. Though related these two terms are different. Civilization refers generally to groups of people or cultures and the way that they live. Civilized is more closely connected to characteristics of behaviour within the established norms of a culture or society. However, because the two terms are connected, oftentimes being civilized suggests that you have the latest technology, live in the most comfortable surroundings, and share current ideas of politics or social etiquette and that if you do not then you are barbaric. Yet the term barbarian comes from the Greek word for people speaking a language other than Greek “barbaros,” so technically all non-Greeks are barbarians. In order to avoid bias and other inherent forms of prejudice, as a good historian should always strive to do, it is perhaps better to avoid talking of being civilized or of civilizations despite the title of this textbook and that ongoing theme. Every ancient society of people, even the hunter-gatherers of pre-history, could be classed as a civilization just with different amounts of technology. Likewise all peoples throughout history had different concepts of what it meant to be civilized and the under- standing of the term varied depending on spatial and temporal concerns. So is there a better term to describe different peoples of the past and present that is less biased against the early peoples of human history, or towards even today’s societies that do not have electricity or modern comforts? V CULTURE VS. CIVILIZATION As historians we should avoid viewing the past through the lens of biases, perspectives or prejudices and the term civilized is itself a loaded phrase. Perhaps a better lens for examining different peoples and states in his- tory is culture. All societies whether nomadic, agrarian, pastoral, economic or anything else have their own culture and everything associated with it. Some of these cultures we may class as uncivilized but their influence on and importance in history is still just as great as more ‘civilized’ cultures. It is cultures that can be influenced by other societies that in turn affects the concept of civilization. Contact between cultures is the crucial fulcrum of future developments. But different cultures have their own view of what being ‘civilized’ means. Nonetheless, this textbook aims to trace the history of the Western world through the lens of primary sources that reveal what each society or culture thought to be necessary to display civilized behaviour or to live a civilized way of life. It will trace through these documents how those views of being civilized changed through time and cultures while still maintaining some common elements and themes. There will be a little more focus given to the Greeks and Romans, since still today their societies are viewed as the most civilized of the ancient world. Also the contrast in the west between the height of Roman culture and its decline and fall that led to its replacement by the relatively (uncivilized and) uncultured Germanic tribes serves as a prime avenue for examining what it means to be civilized to us today. The title of the book perhaps implies that the modern western society is more civilized than earlier and that the history discussed here will trace that path. Rather the textbook seeks to demonstrate that every culture is civilized in its own way while being uncivilized in others, including our own today. The primary sources in this book were chosen specifically to examine the concept of being civilized in many eras and cultures ending with one document that argues that the native inhabitants of South America were more civilized in many ways than the European invaders despite the obvious differences in technology and learning. This is something I hope will resonate, that it is not advancements in living conditions and technology that define being civilized but mutually beneficial behaviour in a shared culture and community. Before we get into the history it is important to briefly discuss how history is reconstructed through pri- mary sources and the use of these sources in this book. PRIMARY SOURCES & HISTORY Historical information is gathered from the primary sources. These are accounts written at or near the time of the events taking place. Primary sources are the basic building blocks of history. A primary source is any artifact produced by people who lived in the past. These are usually texts, such as newspapers, diaries, letters, and government documents, but can also be sculptures, art, architecture, pottery, language, and graffiti and much more. Most primary sources are not what we would view as history. They can be originally intended as philoso- phy, poetry, biography, plays, geography, entertainment or something else, but anything that contains some vi BECOMING CIVILIZED? level of historical information can be a primary source. There are also gaps in the sources, especially in early history, thus limiting our knowledge of the past. Few events or details are 100% certain or factual (as a result even textbooks are often untrue). Ancient History requires a greater level of critical interpretation of primary sources of all kinds (written, archaeological, artistic) because there is only a limited amount of surviving evidence. There are so few sources it is important to find confirmation from other information. However, that is not always possible! Like ancient history, primary sources are the bedrock of our understanding of medieval history also. Generally there are more sources available but they are still often problematic. In this period, events can be proven (mostly) but the details are often obscure. For almost all periods of history, from ancient to modern, we only know about the things, places or people for which evidence survives. This evidence usually concerns solely the upper classes and politics, and warfare but the minutiae of everyday life for the everyday man, woman and child are much more obscure and often impossible