The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change 950 – 1350 by Robert Bartlett (PDF)

Description

A wave of internal conquest, settlement and economic growth took place in Europe during the High Middle Ages, which transformed it from a world of small separate communities into a network of powerful kingdoms with distinctive cultures. In this vivid and provocative book Robert Bartlett vividly shows how Europe was itself a product of colonization, as much as it was later a colonizer, and what this did to shape the continent and the world today.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This wonderful book is about the end of the Dark Ages, when trends were aligned in such a way that Europe finally began to overcome the long decline and chaos that followed the Roman Empire’s disintegration. During this period (950 to 1350 CE), the vast migrations and fluidity of the early middles ages ended decisively, allowing stable states, a reformed and largely unified western church, and oases of stability to flower into what would become modern Europe. It was a time of economic boom and technological advancement, the end of centuries of external threat, and expansion outwards, not only into the holy land but to central and northern Europe. The book is the perfect followup to the more impressionistic Forge of Christendom, which evokes many of these issues but neither describes nor analyses them in the depth that I found here.In 950 CE, Europe was a shrunken region under siege from non-christian invaders (Arabs, Vikings, Hungarians, and certain Slavs, i.e. from all directions). As the Millennium approached, many in western Christendom believed that the apocalypse was imminent. While there had been a succession of relatively effective Emperors from the time of Charlemagne, their dynasties had proven unstable, rarely lasting more than 3 generations before disintegrating into power struggles. Then suddenly, the external threats either stalled (the Arabs) or were absorbed by conversion into Christendom.The relative calm that resulted enabled actors to undertake a series of fundamental measures that completely transformed the political and economic landscape. On the one hand, aristocrats adopted a new style of defensive fortification, the stone castle. This new technology of warfare consolidated their power base, allowing them to invest their resources into economic development – clearing land, forcing their serfs and peasants to pay taxes and stay within their territories for long-term servitude – rather than merely warfare. On the other hand, the Roman church initiated a series of reforms, in particular the clearer definition of orthodoxy, opening the way to persecutions for heresy and crushing the enormous diversity that had grown up during the extraordinary experimentation of the dark ages. Indeed, Christianity became a far more politicized ideology, a unifying glue (with administrative structures and educational institutions in place) that spawned that gigantic colonial venture called the Crusades in the Holy Land as well as east and north within Europe. While these developments narrowed diversity and did not promote political freedoms, they added focus to the work and missions of European rulers. Europe in this time became far more uniform as a territorial entity in its economy, institutional forms, political-religious ideologies, and urban plans. Even the names of rulers lost their local flavors, becoming those of the accepted saints as defined by Rome.This was a golden age for aristocrats (the landowners, knights, and upper clergy), who intermingled, spoke common languages, and moved into geographical areas designated to them by emperors; they exploited new policy instruments to buttress their power. In exchange for service to the Emperor or King, many commoners became aristocrats at this time. In addition to the church’s support, they established scholastic universities, systems of uniform law based on the legal legacy of Rome, and the foundation of cities and networks in which new economic activities could be undertaken. As the economy flourished and populations exploded in size and dynamism, Europe truly established an identity for itself. Much of the basic urban contours that they established at that time exist today.Bartlett covers this for the most part from the optic of “colonialism” – the movement of populations to new, often unoccupied areas for development. It was more or less the end of the migrations that established the essential outlines of the ethno-linguistic groups that exist today. This is, of course, only one dimension of the process: there was also an intellectual movement (scholasticism) that is largely uncovered, the economy is only occasionally mentioned, and other related developments (e.g. the Gothic era, another way to define the entire period) are neglected. The reader will need to explore those elsewhere. Also, it is so analytic that there is very little narrative, which makes it read a bit dry at times.This book is so full of ideas that it was very hard for me to put it all together in this review. I do not feel I have successfully covered either the nuance or even the substance, which means I must read it again. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in the West and/or the middle ages. It is fundamental reading and has forever changed my perception of the period.

⭐Very through analysis of this era! Love the use of other texts like The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia and Gerald of Wales a Topography of Ireland! Truly informational. My only criticism would be that it is painfully dry. Though I don’t know what you’d expect from this type of book.

⭐Tour de force history of the high middle ages showing how the Frankish aristocracy spread throughout and beyond the ‘European’ world and brought certain aspects of Latin/Carolingian civilization with them. Focuses on the internal colonization of Europe and the development of these technologies of domination in the creation of mini Europes (on a model of cellular replication) in Iberia, the Slav Lands, Wales, Outremer, etc. before Europeans began to colonize the rest of the world. In a sense a technological history, not just of castles and crossbows but also of charters and coins.

⭐Not quite an intro-intro into European history, but good enough after a basic introduction like high school/wikipedia/good website videos.

⭐A great reading for anyone interested in understanding how the dynamics of power, war, religion and capital came to form Europe. The books is especially interesting inasmuch as it provides a clear perspective that the making of Europe did not result only from the movements within Europe, but also from the continent’s reactions about being surrounded by Islam. A great insight that helps explaining part of what is going on in the world today.

⭐Academic in tone, rather than an enjoyable read, but full of valuable insights.

⭐quality is not that great

⭐Absolutely essential reading for anyone looking to understand medieval Europe. It details wonderfully the expansion of what is often just called “medieval culture” from France as it came to dominate all of Europe.

⭐The author impressively employs an encyclopaedic knowledge of case histories to describe how Latin Christendom doubled in size between 950 and 1350, the High Middle Ages, to replicate itself beyond the boundaries of Hamburg, Pisa and Barcelona. Rather than focus on enmities and competition between the different components of Christian Europe, he identifies the common threads that unified them in method and purpose. There occurred a dynastic diffusion and diaspora of Western European Carolingian aristocrats, primarily from France or Frankish territories and often represented by younger sons and middle-level warrior knights in search of land they could not get access to at home. Encouraged through religious fervour, they took to crusading against surrounding territories hitherto variously ruled by Celts, Slavs, Pagans and Muslims. The book begins by the tracking of bishoprics over the period in order to subjectively measure the expansion of assimilated territories. It then examines the mechanisms by which this growth took place as new fiefdoms ranging from a few square miles to much more were established in outlying regions in all directions. The underlying unifying of the Christian cause came from the influence of Rome (oddly, far from the geographical epicentre of this movement) on monarchies around Europe, directly as well as through local religious hierarchies and monastic orders such as the Benedictines, Dominicans, Franciscans, and notably the Cistercians. The distinction between warriors and religious men became blurred. After the initial onslaught through modern military techniques that included heavy cavalry, crossbowmen and siege equipment, knights raised funds to consolidate their new territories by building wooden and eventually stone castles and accompanying towns. England, for example, gained one castle every ten miles. The highly effective but fearsome crossbowmen were generally detested, so their number was encouraged through tax exemptions. Knights were variously polyglot, energetic, courageous, violent, ambitious, revengeful, and greedy. They developed a culture of conquest over inheritance and even granted each other future spoils of conquest. Once in place in their newly acquired territories they started to develop procedures and laws to better manage their domains and improve productivity. The use of mattocks to tame the land gradually enabled the use of ploughs. However, the new colonised regions were often characterised by a lack of manpower, and as new towns were captured, inhabitants were enticed, usually voluntarily through offers of free rent or hereditary rights, to go and settle newly acquired lands elsewhere. Mansi, acres, yugida, carucates, unci and various other terms represented the plots of varying sizes that were allocated to the new settlers who often took up cerealisation and contributed to supplying seigneurial mills. There also occurred an explosion of urbanisation characterised by plurism; towns, became ‘linguistic islands’, centres of foreign immigrants. They were chartered and denizens awarded economic privileges and liberties. Individuals of different backgrounds remained subjected to and tried by their laws of origin, whether German, Jewish, Muslim or other. Along the frontiers, especially Genoans and Venetians took to trading into foreign territories. Towards the end of the period, under the pressures in part created by recession and growing discrimination, drives towards uniformity started to occur. Linguistic nationalism, such as the decline of Arabic in Spain and southern Italy, started to take hold, and the book ends describing the homogenisation of first names, coinage, education and social order.

⭐Scholarly book well written. Original thinking with lots of evidence. A very interesting read. A little bit repetitive though.

⭐An enjoyable and informal piece of scholarship about how European society evolved during the High Middle Ages. Recommended book by Oxford and Cambridge on reading lists. Good for those preparing for a History Degree, particularly those who are interested yet want to know more about this period. Some prior knowledge of European Middle Ages is advised.

⭐Very detailed, thorough and extremely well-written, but a work that’s so in-depth you feel you need to study and digest it to wholly appreciate it.Not for everyone I suspect if you are really only interested in gleaming key points of this era. This is a graceful and gradual explanation of a process that itself proceeded in a similar way!

⭐Awesome

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