Chapter 10: The World of European Christendom

The chapter on christendom has three main points: the West, the Byzantine Empire, and the crusades.

When referring to the West, Strayer describes it as the recently fallen Roman Empire and its evolution since the collapse. The West tried to clench its grasps around the crumbling empire, but the outward pressure was too great. As a result of its collapse, the West was very poor and "rural" compared to the wealthy Byzantines because the former Roman Empire was pillaged by germanic peoples and the Huns. The West lost its centralized rule, population declined by about 25 percent, and the germanic kingdoms rose to power. Through all of the hardships, the Catholic Church created stability, it modeled its hierarchy after the Roman Empire, and converted much of Europe's non-Christians (pagans). By 1100, approximately all of Europe was Christian and would lead to conflicts with the Muslims in the crusades.

The Byzantine Empire rose to prominence since the destruction of the Western Roman Empire through a strong military, leaders, and defenses. The Emperor Constantine became the first Christian emperor and set the precedent for the rest of christendom. The city, Byzantium was named in honor of Constantine and was called Constantinople. It was a built on the strait between the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea. Also, Constantinople became the wealthiest and largest city in Europe because it had largely avoided the invasions from the Huns. Emperor Constantine was both the head of the church and emperor, acting as a role of caesar.

The Crusades or "holy wars" were authorized by the pope, giving participants an offered indulgence in return for swearing an oath to defend their faith. With the crusades came considerable cruelties, which included the slaughtering of many Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem in 1099. When thinking of crusades, most people make the assumption that the crusades were situated in modern day Israel. However, the Moors and Berbers had controlled the Iberian Peninsula. The pope called numerous crusades to reclaim the Iberian Peninsula.Overall, the crusades were not influential and did not have a lasting effect in the Middle East because the Muslims had reclaimed their "holy places" of worship.