Chapter 10

The Worlds European Christendom  500-1300

Another of Strayer's "third-wave civilizations" was The Byzantine Empire. As a result of a split between Christians due to diminishing influence by the Roman Empire, a smaller more localized society of Christians organized and replaced the centralized power of the "Emperor Pope" with Rome as the center of the universe.

They settled in the ancient Greek city of Byzantine, and made Constantinople it's capital, named after the Emperor Constantine. Their influence started roughly 330 and ended in 1453 C.E. It will be much later that the shift of political power and religious supremacy shifted back to Europeans.

The Byzantine Empire was much smaller and more easily manageable than the vast Roman Empire of the classical period, having lost much of her territory to the Arab/Islamic hegemony, like Syria/Palestine, Egypt and North Africa.

Some of the differences of their respective traditions included language and culture. For example: Latin was the official language in Rome, while Greek was used in the Byzantine. Another difference was in the veneration of icons. The Roman's used icons and Byzantines forbade the practice. Priest in the West shaved,  and beards flowed in the Byzantine; Roman priests remained celibate, while Orthodox clergy were allowed to marry and have a family.

The Byzantine Empire flourished and traded along the long-distance routes linking western Europe, Russia, Central Asia, China and the Islamic regions. Some of the products were jewelry, gold, linen, gemstones, and silver. Christianity and literacy also traveled along the trade routes gaining wide popularity. Eventually, the Russian Prince, Vladimir from the region of Kiev, chose the Orthodox Byzantine religion over Islamic traditions, as the official religion of Rus (Russia). This society was extremely sophisticated and attracted scientists, theologians, philosophers and other intellectuals to it's cities. It's art and architecture rival that of classical Rome.

Western Christian influence diminished with the holy Roman Empire around 500 C.E. During the post-classical period, former city states fragmented and a decentralized society emerged, one where each ruler was responsible for it's own protection, thus a warrior landowner gained power, wealth and stability managing his own regions. By 1100 C.E. most of Europe had embraced Christianity, coinciding climatically was a warming period  which allowed a stable and predictable growing season generating wealth for it's inhabitants.

This acceleration of Europe's influence continued the expansion of the European civilization as it's urban centers swelled with a population explosion. For example, the population in the early 1300's in London was 40,000; in Paris 80,000; in Venice by the end of the 1400's reached 150,000. To give this some perspective though, boasting the civilization centered in Constantinople, was a population of 400,000 in the year 1000 C.E. Even more impressive is in China, with the capital of the Song dynasty, Hanzhou, growing to a million people in the 13 TH. centuary

Christianity and European influence was growing gradually more slowly than the neighbors in the East. However, the Christian Crusaders from 1095 to 1291, sought to Colonize the unfaithful by a series of wars that were primarily battling the forces of Islam , but also with the Byzantine upstarts who broke from the Church some years earlier. Constantinople was sacked in 1204 by Christian Crusaders.

The European civilization was much less influential than some of the other civilizations of the third-wave, in comparison to the Byzantine, China, India and the Islamic world. We have just seen their smaller cities, weaker economies, and inferior technology. Unlike the giant of China, with it's invention of paper, printing,  and advancements in navigation and metallurgy too.

But Europeans could borrow technology and other things learned from trading. The city states that were the framework of the European Union of today, had it's genesis in Charlemagne's system of local rulers, thus enabling local customs to later become cultural identity's called France, Spain, England, Sweden, Prussia, The Netherlands and Poland.

The West came to develop a system of independence in some cities, towns, guilds and universities, as well as a functioning legal system.

Religious scholars like Thomas Aquinas, who was an Aristotle groupie, assured that christian doctrine would be presented as the natural order of the universe, in the teachings at the university and official church doctrine.

 By 1500, European political and cultural, power and influence began to catch up with the Islamic world and China, and the spread of Christianity was the vehicle and conduit for that change.