Davis Jolley

Mar 31st 2016

World Civ
Chapter 12
The Germans were a contributing factor to the development of the evolving European
civilization. In the 3rd century they had rapidly made their way into the lands of the Roman empire. In
the fifth the empire was dying and German kings began to rule and set up states (328). German and
Romans began to marry each other and this began to change society and form something new. They
had different views on things due to their feelings. One conflict was that family was an important thing
to them. Murder to the Romans was an offense to society as a whole. But to Germans it was personal.
This would cause blood fuels and a vengeance which would be a vicious cycle. Eventually they would
have to make an alternative system so the cycle and system would stop (329). They also had different
religious views Romans were christian while Germans were pagan (which would later form how we
celebrate certain holidays). This was not a bigger deal as it would have been years before but it did
show that they had different views.
Feudalism was probably a result from the dying Roman empire. It lasted till about the fall of
Rome in the Renaissance. This would be a result from the Germans first making their way into the
lands. Rome also began to become less populated and they had to move to country estates and the
economies get worse in the south and the west. Trade was almost impossible in the west (328-330).
Roman church around this time had their last staff of priest and bishops that rolled out the rules that
would lead to a Feudalism society.
A political fuel that lead to the fire of Feudalism is that there would be a disagreement to the
higher ups and the peasants. The life styles of peasants were very simple. They would have very little.
While kings, fief and vassals were powerful land owners the peasants would be starving and barely
surviving. Taxes were a problem too. People who were the lowest needed help paying their taxes and
would have to get help which would result in extreme labor exchange which would be very hard for the
people to do when their already tired and starving (335).
The Feudalism did end up solving trade. The only trade that had been doing well was the
Byzantine contacts with Italian and Jewish traders. Cities in Italy began to bring people who had the
skills to commercial activities. It ended up help forming Commercial Capitalism an economic system
that people invested in trade and goods in order to make profits. This also helped get outside goods to
because trade once again began to start going outside of Europe (337)