1 Name ________________ Nº___ Surname __________________________ S S O O C C I I A A L L S S C C I I E E N N C C E E UNIT 5. THE MIDDLE AGES II The Christian Kingdoms Exam Date: __________________
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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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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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