Series Western Europe Widens its Horizons

Great empires developed in India and China as well as in the Mediterranean world. Although many of the beliefs and ways of life under these empires endured, in time most of the empires themselves tended to split apart. What happened in Europe after the Western Roman Empire broke up? At first, life was much more difficult than it had been in Roman times. Gradually, however, the people of Europe developed their own ways of making a living and governing themselves. They revived Greek and Roman ideas and borrowed others from the Arabs. In short, they combined new and old to build a European civilization which exists today. Describing life in Europe in the Middle Ages, after barbarian invasions wrecked the Roman Empire. Most people lived in small farming communities, cut-off from one another. Central governments were much weaker than the local governments of powerful noblemen. Western Europe was united only by the Roman Catholic Church, to which all Christians belonged. The growth of towns and trade in Europe, increasing population and wealth enabled Europeans to undertake the Crusades, a series of wars to reconquer the Holy Land. The resulting contacts with eastern European and Moslem civilizations sparked a revived interest in learning and the arts which spread over western Europe. How did kings in such countries as England and France increase their power? As central governments became stronger, people felt greater loyalty to kings than to local nobles. The growing power of kings led to conflicts with churchmen and a great split in the Roman Catholic Church left many kings stronger than ever. Finally, how did the Europeans use their new strength and knowledge to explore distant lands? Explorers found new routes to China and India and discovered the Americas. By the 1600’s, western Europe had widened its horizons to include many parts of the world.