This supplement is designed to give you some of the maps shown in class.

The division of Charlemagne's empire.

Regarding "privatization",  this map illustrates how Charlemagne treated his empire as private property, dividing his holding equally among his grandsons.  In this case he is following the procedures of Germanic law as outlined in the sourcebook.  Recall how Lombard law also divided the father's property among the sons.  There was then no sense of the empire as a public good the interests of which were better served by leaving the whole.  It is also evidence for "fragmentation" in that lords regularly followed the same procedures, creating thereby smaller units giving grounds for the heirs to contend for the whole by warfare. The divisions ultimately left France and Germany in a fragmented state (e.g., France).  It was only with considerable political dexterity and the adoption of primogeniture that France was unified under the crown.

Cities and Villages

As illustrated by the case of Vienna, old Roman cities lost a significant portion of the population in the early middle ages, being reduce, as here, to 1/20th of the earlier size (the white square in the middle of the Roman foundation).  It was not until the middle of the 12th Cent., that Vienna had a population comparable to the Roman one.  Compare this plan to the table illustrating population changes. 

As disorder was reduced, villages were abandoned and towns created.  With prosperity, the towns became cities.  This map shows the pattern in central Germany.  Note that about 75% of the 13th century villages had been abandoned by the early 15th century, at the same time a number of towns was created.

This transformation was partly by design, as illustrated by the policy the Zaehringer Counts (in SW Germany) who pursued a deliberate program of encouraging towns with markets but few fortifications.  This was possible only with the establishment of order.

Crusades, Trade and Learning

The Crusades, sometimes little more than the traditional warrior band with crosses on their chests, not only allowed violence to be exported, but also provided the opportunities for intensive trade to develop between northern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean.  Such trade also allowed for cultural exchanges exchanges the most important of which was the rediscovery of secular (primarily Greek philosophy and Roman law) learning.  Hence, in the high middle ages education tended to move from the monasteries to the increasingly more secular universities.