Grant Donovan

First Short Paper

Dr. Blum
HIST 102
The West
Charlemagne

1. Charlemagne, one of the most powerful figures in the Western

Empire, was born into the Franks in 742 AD. The first king of the
Franks, Clovis, adopted Christianity in 500 AD and began a
Frankish monarchy. In the Frankish monarchy, a hierarchy of
aristocrat and commoner was inherited from the Roman system.
Following the death of his father Pepin III, king of the Franks in
768 AD, Charlemagne took over the political system known to
the Franks. Along with the Franks, many other Germanic tribes
existed which operated under a democratic republican system.
Charlemagne's 'personality principle’, which he offered to
conquered Germanic tribes, allowed both the local laws of
community structure and loyalty to the Frankish monarchical
structure. Charlemagne would send an administrator called a
Vogt to each tribe to assist the tribes in seeing what laws were
Roman, and what could be the customary local law. Aristocracy
steadily arose in the separate tribes as the Vogts intermarried
with local families and allowed certain families to become more
prominent. Feudalism arose in the wake of the Personality
Principle. The main belief behind this political system is that we
live in structured communities and must rely on community
structure for success. The beliefs, values, and norms conveyed
through this monarchical system would lay the foundation for
following leaders. In summary, Charlemagne inherited the
monarchical system because of the decisions made by Clovis.
2. In the monarchical system, many ideas were presented and each
had an effect on Charlemagne himself. The two leading ideas in
this time were Roman Christianity and Roman law. On the
religious side of the matter, Charlemagne based much of his
expansionism on his father’s promise to Rome to protect
interests of the pope. Although religion provided an excuse,
acquiring land and broadening borders proved to be a much
stronger motivation to Charlemagne than any godly course.
Charlemagne also made law very important in the mind of the
German tribes with the personality principle. This stated that you
could govern yourself by your own German customary laws but
you also had to learn the laws of the Roman Empire.
3. Charlemagne came from the Merovingian Dynasty that was a
Frankish dynasty considered the first French royal house. It was
the first major political authority that rose out of the ashes of the
dying Roman Empire in Europe. The family was extremely
wealthy and at the pinnacle of society.
4. Many events in Charlemagne’s life led him Charlemagne was
fortunate to have the support of Pope Leo III. When he protected
Pope Leo III from his enemies in Rome, Charlemagne was
crowned the Roman Emperor. With being crowned emperor, it
established the important standard that only the pope could
award the imperial crown. Another key event in the life of
Charlemagne was the development of a new economic system.
The economic system arising from Charlemagne’s conquests was
Feudalism. In this type of system, areas of land were given to
devoted servants of the crown. Each landowner had full control
over the designated land in exchange for their loyalty and
guaranteed military service if called upon.
5. Charlemagne helped to create a unified political order.
Charlemagne believed in a hierarchy, which allowed the emperor
 to be in full control followed by ministers who could assist with
decision-making. Legislature was below the ministers in
Charlemagne’s hierarchy. Feudalism brought about the idea of
vassals and a manor economy. Both dealt with the shared
commitments to the monarch in exchange for land. Serfdom also
appeared under Charlemagne’s leadership.

Between 770 and 814 AD, the Mosloms invaded from the West
and were able to shut down the Mediterranean from trade for nearly
300 years. In 1029 AD, the Normans defeated the Mosloms in the
Mediterranean and opened up the Mediterranean for trade. Because of
things like the Law of the Free City, serfs began to leave the matters
and come down to Italy and become traders. The Law of the Free City
promised the serfs that if they could live a year and a day in one of the
new trading communities in Italy then they would no longer be serfs
and their families would be free. So this was an enticement for them to
make a dangerous journey down to Italy. There was a value that if you
were an aristocrat then you had to take care of your people even if
they were serfs. Capitalism, which had always been the main economic
way Westerners lived, was halted because of the lack of freedom in
travelling the Mediterranean. One of the key events in change over
time was the opening up of trade by the Normans.

Dante Alighieri

1. Dante Alighieri (1265-1321 AD) is born into a capitalist society

and Democratic Republican system, unlike the monarchical
system of Charlemagne.
2. As aristocracy developed after the death of Charlemagne until
the birth of Dante in the 1200’s, aristocrats really didn’t stress
the Roman law books. They made decisions based on their own
 values, beliefs, and needs. As time changed, Dante brought
about two new ideas, a different meaning of Law and Humanism.
Law was very important to the Italian cities. People were more
reliant on the courts and uniformed code of law and in some
ways the laws created a harsher society. The Italian Renaissance
from 1183-1500’s AD, featured the rebirth of learning. However,
it also served as the rebirth of capitalism and legal ideas. The
second idea brought about by Dante was Humanism. There is a
stress on individuality because of capitalism and republicanism.
In capitalism, you are in competition with other people and there
was more emphasis being put on how to become self-directed.
3. Dante and his family were Ghibellines (wealthy class), so a lot of
their values were that of aristocracy and individualism of the
republican and capitalist systems. However when the Ghibellines
and Guelphs (lower class) went to war, the Alighieri’s fought with
the Guelphs because his family really believed in the principle
that everyone can receive wealth and that it shouldn’t be
restricted to the families who had more property and who had
intermarried with aristocrats. This gave Dante the opportunity to
become a political person and really underscore his opportunity
to mature.
4. From 1176-1183 AD, the War of Lombard League featured the
Lombards defeating the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick
Barbarossa. With that defeat, the Lombard League was given the
freedom to organize their own cities politically. This allowed the
development of cities composed of traders whose parents were
serfs, which made the government unhappy.
5. Dante was able to change society by his contributions of great
texts, The New Life and Divine Comedy, regarding human
subjectivity and what it means to live an individually based life.
In his book “La Vita Nuova”, Dante talks about how people think
 during the day, their imagination and how it works, as well as
their dreams and what happens during them. Therefore, “La Vita
Nuova” is seen as the groundbreaking work in human
subjectivity. In the Divine Comedy, Dante shows an imaginative
and symbolic vision of the afterlife in a medieval world-view as it
had developed in the Western Church.
6. Dante had reasonably good character by fulfilling the intentions
of his parents. He was torn by the motivations of his own heart
after Beatrice died in 1290. It took a lot for him to hold himself
together following her death.

China
Hung Wu
1. Hung Wu (1328-1398) was the first Ming Emperor in China. At
the time of his birth, the Mongols are controlling China. The
Mongols, led by Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan, took over China
between 1220 and 1270. The political structure established by
the Mongols in China, which Hung Wu was born into, was that of
a democratic republican similar to the ancient Germans. The
Mongol tribes would elect leaders but that decision would come
from people who were equal within the Mongol tribe. In the
democratic republican system, if the leaders do not perform or
realize their promises then a new leader would be selected.
Economically, the Mongols were warrior capitalists. As the
Mongols would conquer territories, they would trade with people
who they passed through. It’s important to understand the
capitalist bias of how economics were pursued in China. When
Kublai Khan settles with his warriors in China, he changes the
political structure to one of monarchy. This allows him to be the
new emperor of China with the assistance of ministers who help
to advise him. Kublai Khan established the Yuan dynasty, which
 translates to the ‘original’ dynasty. The Yuan lasted from 1270-
1368, before being overthrown by Hung Wu and the Ming
dynasty. Hung Wu became emperor based on his outstanding
military service rather than family inheritance.
2. There were many ideas inherited by Hung Wu in China.
Beginning with the political idea of the extended family, we can
look at the words of Confucius. From the earliest times, the
Chinese were a people of Confucianism. In class the following
passage was read from The Great Learning: “The men of old
wanting to clarify and diffuse throughout the empire that light
which comes from looking straight into the heart and then
acting, first set up good government in their own states; wanting
good government in their states, they first established order in
their own families; wanting order in the home, they first
disciplined themselves; desiring self-discipline, they rectified
their own hearts; and wanting to rectify their hearts, they sought
precise verbal definitions of their inarticulate thoughts. The
passage offers a method for attaining harmony and order. One
must have "order within" before setting up an arranged society
and to have "order within," one must discover how the "process"
works in the phenomenal world. This type of idea shows that the
human family is the model for the entire state. In terms of
religion, the Chinese were very different from the West. The
Chinese did not have the creation myth that was found in the
West.
3. Hung Wu was born into a poor peasant family in a small Chinese
village. When he was 16, the Yellow River flooded and the
resulting plague killed his entire family except for one brother.
Hung Wu was uneducated as a child and after the plague he
decided to educate himself and join the insurgent forces against
the Mongols. Hung Wu’s hard work and determination allowed
 him to rise from a impoverished monk to the most powerful
warlord in China.
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Wan Li
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