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Name ________________ Nº___

Surname __________________________

SSOOCCIIAALL SSCCIIEENNCCEE

UNIT 5. THE MIDDLE AGES II

The Christian Kingdoms

Exam Date: __________________

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UNIT 5. THE MIDDLE AGES II The Christian Kingdoms

In this unit we are going to learn about:

1. The Middle Ages…

2. The Christian Kingdoms and The Reconquest

3. The end of the Reconquest and Al-Andalus

4. Life in the Christian Kingdoms • Society in the Christian Kingdoms: the Feudal system • Medieval cities • Culture and Art

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1. THE MIDDLE AGES

Ancient times The Middle Ages Modern Period The Fall of the Discovery of America

Roman Empire (476 AD) (1492)

The Middle Ages began in 476 AD (5th century) with the Fall of the Roman Empire and

ended in 1492 AD with the Discovery of America. It was a very long historical period that

lasted almost 1000 years.

The Visigoths, one of the Germanic tribes that came from northern Europe, invaded

Hispania in 415 and established a kingdom on the Peninsula.

In 711, the Muslims conquered the Visigoth kingdom and founded Al-Andalus. The

Christian kingdoms joined together to expel the Muslims and expand their territory. This

is known as the Reconquest. It finished at the end of the Middle Ages, when the Catholic

Monarchs conquered the Kingdom of Granada.

During this period, cities grew and castles and monasteries were built. There were two

main artistic styles: Romanesque and Gothic.

2. THE CHRISTIAN KINGDOMS AND THE RECONQUEST When in 711 AD the Muslims invaded the Visigoth Kingdom, they conquered much of the

Iberian Peninsula. However, the Christians that lived in the mountainous regions in the

north put up great resistance to the Muslim conquest and organised themselves in

kingdoms and counties. They fought against the Muslims for over seven centuries. This

period is known as the Reconquest or the Reconquista.

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In Cantabria these Christians had their own leader, a Visigoth nobleman called Don

Pelayo, and they created the Kingdom of Asturias. Later, other kingdoms emerged from

it: first the Kingdom of León, and then, the Kingdom of Castilla separated from the

kingdom of León. In the Pyrenees, the Christians created the Kingdom of Navarra, which

was ruled by French families, the Catalan counties and the Kingdom of Aragón.

Between the 8th and the 15th centuries, the Christian kingdoms expanded to the south. In

722 AD, Don Pelayo, the ruler of the Kingdom of Asturias, defeated the Muslim army at

the Battle of Covadonga. This victory marked the beginning of the Reconquista.

At the beginning of the 11th century, Al-Andalus was divided

into several Taifa Kingdoms and the caliphate disappeared.

The Taifas confronted each other and the Christian kingdoms

took advantage of this situation and extended their territory to

the south. To reunify Al-Andalus and slow the Christian

advance, the Almoavids, and then the Almohads came to the

peninsula from Africa.

As the Christian kings conquered the Muslim territories, their

own borders evolved. At the beginning of the 12th century, the

Christians unified the Catalan counties and the Kingdom of

Aragón to form the Crown of Aragón. A little later, the

Kingdom of Portugal became independent from the Kingdom

of León. Later, in 1230, the Kingdoms of León and Castilla

joined to create the Crown of Castilla.

When King Fernando II de Aragón and Queen Isabel I de Castilla married in 1469, they

united their two kingdoms and made one large and powerful Christian kingdom.

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3. THE END OF THE RECONQUEST AND AL-ANDALUS In the 13th century (1212), the unified armies of the Christian kings defeated the Muslim

armies in the Battle of Navas de Tolosa. Al-Andalus was reduced to the territory of the

Nasrid Kingdom of Granada. This territory included the areas known today as Málaga,

Almería, Granada and part of Cádiz. The Nasrid Kingdom was known for its beautiful

buildings and great culture. Despite this, the Nasrid Kingdom was very weak, as a result

of conflicts within the kingdom.

In 1492, the Catholic monarchs, Isabel de Castilla and

Fernando de Aragón, conquered the last remaining Muslim

kingdom, the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada. The Muslims

were eventually ordered to leave Spain.

As the Reconquista was coming to an end, Christians began to

force Jews and Muslims to convert. Most Muslims in Spain

converted to Christianity and adopted Christian customs, (they

became known as Mudéjars or Moriscos). They lived in separate

communities, called morerías, and workers as farmers or

craftsmen. Jews lives in separate quarters, called juderías. They worked as doctors and

bankers or even served as advisors to the Christian leaders.

In the 15th century, the Catholic Monarchs, with the goal of achieving religious unity in

Spain, took more extreme measures against Jews and Muslims. The most significant of

these measures was the creation of the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition

(usually shortened to “the Inquisition”) in 1478. During the Inquisition, “heretics”, (people

whose beliefs were different from those of Christians), were persecuted and Jews and

Moriscos were ordered to convert to Christianity, or be expelled from Spain.

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EL CID

Rodrigo Diaz, El Cid, was one of the military

leaders of the Reconquista. The oldest epic

poem in the Spanish language Cantar de

mio Cid is based on the life of this hero.

The Reconquista was a complex process that involved not only fighting, but also the

repopulation of areas previously occupied by the Muslims.

4. LIFE IN THE CHRISTIAN KINGDOMS

At the beginning of the Middle Ages, society was mostly rural, that is, most of the

population were peasants who lived in small villages. Later on, the population of the

Christian kingdoms grew and cities developed. In the Christian kingdoms, a new social

and economic system developed, called feudalism. It was a hierarchical system in which

the king was the most powerful person and the serfs were the slaves to other social

groups.

1. SOCIETY IN THE CHRISTIAN KINGDOMS

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Society was organised into two social groups: privileged and unprivileged:

•The privileged, who were the noblemen, knights and the clergy, did not pay

taxes.

•The king was the person with he most power and everyone had to obey him. He

ruled the country and everything and everyone belonged to him.

•The noblemen or feudal lords were the king's vassals -his loyal followers. They

lived in castles, owned lots of land, called feuds, and were very rich. A feudal lord

lived on his lands with his knights, his free men and his serfs. When someone

attacked a lord’s lands, the peasants and serfs went to the castle for protection.

Their main activities during peace time were hunting, entertaining and

participating in tournaments.

•The knights were the lord’s vassals. They defended his lands in exchange for food

and a parcel of land.

•The clergy were the monks, who lived in the monasteries, and nuns, who lived in

convents.The monasteries were centres of learning where monks, who could read

and write, copied books by hand. The priests and bishops looked after the

churches.

PRIVILEGED

•The unprivileged, who were the peasants, craftsmen and merchants, had to pay

taxes.

•The peasants formed the largest group. They lived in villages near castles. The

majority of them were the lord's serfs who worked in the fields or in the lord´s

castle; If the noble decided to sell some land, he also sold the serfs who worked

on that land. Only some of them were free men who owned small fields and

worked the lord's fields and received part of the harvest.

•The craftsmen and merchants lived and worked in the cities.

UNPRIVILEGED

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Medieval cities became important in

the 12th century. They were fortified

cities surrounded by walls. City gates

closed at night to defend the people

from possible attacks. Townspeople

and travellers had to enter and leave

the city through these fortified gates.

Each city was organised into districts. The streets were narrow and the houses were made

of wood and very close together, which meant fire was a great danger. Cities had a main

square where important buildings such as the cathedral and the town hall were. The

market and fairs took place in the main square as well; merchants sold their products

there.

The main inhabitants of the cities were merchants and craftsmen, such as bakers,

carpenters, dyers and weavers. Craftsmen from the same craft (type of work) formed

associations called guilds. The guilds became very powerful in the city. Each guild

controlled the quality and price of its products. Craftsmen from the same guild usually

had their workshops in the same street. Street names from this period still exist in many

cities: Bakers Street, Carpenters Street, etc. In some cities trade fairs were held once or

twice a year.

Diseases spread very quickly because people lived in crowded conditions and there was

no running water in the houses and no sewage system.

2. MEDIEVAL CITIES

A. castle B. walls C. palace D. marketplace E. cathedral F. city wall G. church

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Spanish medieval art is varied due to the influence of the different civilizations that lived

in the Iberian Peninsula during the period. Great buildings were constructed in two styles:

first Romanesque (Románico) and later, Gothic (Gótico).

ROMANESQUE ARQUITECTURE

At the beginning of the Middle Ages, between the 10th and 12th centuries, churches,

monasteries and cathedrals were constructed in

Romanesque style. Romanesque buildings were not very

tall and they had very thick walls, with few small

windows. Consequently, they were dark inside. The door

and windows had round arches. Walls were decorated

with frescoes of religious life.

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

In the 13th and 14th centuries, architects built cathedrals

and palaces in Gothic style. Gothic buildings were tall

with thinner walls, and pointed towers. They had large

doors and the windows had pointed arches. The

windows were often decorated with stained glass, which

made the interior bright and colourful. They were slender

and more luminous than Romanesque buildings. Castles were among the buildings

constructed at this time. They were used to protect people from invasions.

3. CULTURE AND ART

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MUDEJAR ARCHITECTURE

The Mudejar style also developed in the late Middle Ages. The

word Mudejar refers to a style that mixes elements from the

Muslim and the Christian traditions. Unlike Romanesque and

Gothic, which can be found all over Europe, the Mudejar style

can only be found in the Iberian Peninsula. It was made in

territories that had been part of Al-Andalus but were now part of the new Christian

Kingdoms.

This style takes elements from Christian art, like round and pointed arches, and mixes

them with the tradition from Al-Andalus (geometric shapes, horseshoe arches…).

Beautiful new palaces, town halls and other public buildings

were also built. Beautiful cathedrals were built in many cities

such as Burgos, Toledo and León. Universities were founded in the main cities, for example, in

Palencia and Salamanca.

Alfonso X el Sabio, son of Fernando III gave a great push to

scientific, historic and legal literature in Castilian language.

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UNIT VOCABULARY 1. ____________ - _______________

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REFERENCES

§ Social Science. Primary 5 Anaya English- ANAYA, 2014

§ Social Science. Primary 5 (Activity Book) Anaya English- ANAYA, 2014

§ Social Science 5 Primary Student’s book. edebé, 2015.

§ Social Science 5 Primary Activity Book. edebé, 2015

§ Science 5 Primary, sm, 2009

§ Science The world around us 5 Primary Education. Anaya English, 2013.

§ Science The world around us 6 Primary Education. Anaya English, 2013

§ Natural and Social Science Primary 5 Pupil’s book Macmillan, 2012.

§ Social Science Primary 5 ByME (Comunidad de Madrid) Macmillan & Edelvives, 2015

§ Social and Natural Sciences 5 Look and Think Oxford Education, 2010

§ Top Science 5 Primary. Ed Santillana/ Richmond, 2011

§ Top Science 6 Primary. Ed Santillana/ Richmond, 2011

§ Science “My World” Primary 6, Edelvives, 2013.

WEBS

§ http://easyscienceforkids.com/all-about-population-growth/

§ https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/population/276507

§ https://wiki.kidzsearchhttps://www.populationeducation.org/content/world-population-

video.com/wiki/Population

§ https://opinionfront.com/different-types-of-population-pyramids-explained

§ https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/zkg82hv/revision/5

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