Summary
Highlights
From 1200 to 1450, Europe was shaped by Christianity. In the East, the Byzantine Empire maintained Eastern Orthodox Christianity as a unifying force, but by 1200, it faced significant losses to Islamic powers. The Byzantine Empire officially ended in 1453 with the Ottoman Empire's conquest of Constantinople. However, Eastern Orthodoxy was adopted and preserved by the Kievan Rus, who incorporated Byzantine architectural styles, alphabet, and state organization.
In Western Europe, despite political fragmentation after the fall of the Roman Empire, Roman Catholic Christianity provided a common structure through its hierarchy of popes, bishops, and cardinals. The Church also instigated events like the Crusades, which, despite military setbacks, connected Europeans to larger trade networks. While Christianity dominated, Islam thrived in the Iberian Peninsula, and Jewish communities, although often marginalized, played a role in trade across Europe.
Unlike other regions with large empires during this period, Europe was characterized by political decentralization and fragmentation. Western Europe's social, political, and economic order was primarily organized around feudalism. This system involved allegiances between powerful lords and monarchs, with land exchanged for loyalty. Manorialism, a related system, bound peasants (serfs) to the land, working in exchange for protection from their lords, though they were largely akin to slaves.
Around 1200, Europe's political structures began to shift as monarchs gained power and centralized their states. They introduced large militaries and bureaucracies, shifting power away from the European nobility. This increasing centralization led to competition and wars of conquest among powerful monarchs, as they vied for influence and territory.