2ND CSE UNIT 2 FEUDAL SOCIETY SECOND INVASIONS

VIKINGS 
HUNGARIANS
SARACENS

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The New Invasions

During the ninth and tenth centuries the remnants of Charlemagne's empire

were also battered by new waves of invaders. Scandinavians attacked from the

north, Muslims from the south, and a new wave of Asiatic nomads, the Magyars,

conducted a series of destructive raids on central Europe and northern Italy.

Christian Europe had to fight for its life against these aggressive and

warlike newcomers, who did far more damage to life and property than the

Germanic invaders of the fifth century.

From bases in North Africa, Muslim adventurers in full command of the sea

plundered the coasts of Italy and France. In 827 they began the conquest of

Byzantine Sicily and southern Italy. From forts erected in southern France

they penetrated far inland to attack the caravans of merchants in the Alpine

passes. What trade still existed between Byzantium and western Europe, except

for that undertaken by Venice and one or two other Italian towns, was now

almost totally cut off, and the Mediterranean Sea became a virtual Muslim

lake.

The most widespread and destructive raids came from Scandinavia. During

the ninth and tenth centuries Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians - collectively

known as Vikings - began to move south from their remote forests and fiords.

The reason for this expansion is not clear, but some historians cite

overpopulation and a surplus of young men as causes. Other scholars view these

raiders as defeated war bands expelled from their homeland by the gradual

emergence of strong royal power. Still others see a clue in the fact that the

Vikings had developed seaworthy ships capable of carrying a hundred men and

powered by long oars or by sail when the wind was favorable. Viking sailors

also had developed expert sailing techniques; without benefit of the compass,

they were able to navigate by means of the stars at night and the sun during

the day.

The range of Viking expansion was impressive. The Vikings explored as far

as North America to the west, the Caspian Sea to the east, and the

Mediterranean to the south. Few areas seemed immune from their raids, which

filled civilized Europeans with a fear that was reflected in a new prayer in

the litany of the church: "From the fury of the Northmen, O Lord deliver us."

Three main routes of Viking expansion can be identified. The outer path,

which was followed principally by the Norwegians, swung westward to Ireland

and the coast of Scotland. Between 800 and 850 Ireland was ravaged severely.

Many monasteries, the centers of the flourishing Irish Celtic culture, were

destroyed. By 875 the Norwegians were beginning to occupy remote Iceland, and

it was here rather than in their homeland that the magnificent Norse sagas

were preserved, little affected by either classical or Christian influences.

During the tenth century the Icelandic Norsemen ventured on to Greenland and,

later, to North America.

Another route, the eastern line, was followed chiefly by the Swedes, who

went down the rivers of Russia as merchants and soldiers of fortune and, as

was described in chapter 7, founded the nucleus of a Russian state.

The Danes took the middle passage, raiding Britain and the shores of

Germany, France, and Spain. By the 870s they had occupied most of Britain

north of the Thames. Also in the middle of the ninth century their raids

increased upon the Continent, where their long boats sailed up the Rhine,

Scheldt, Seine, and Loire rivers. In particular the Danes devastated northwest

France, destroying dozens of abbeys and towns. Unable to fight off the Viking

attacks, the weak Carolingian king Charles the Simple arranged a treaty with

Rollo, a Norse chieftain, in 911. This agreement created a Viking buffer

state, later called Normandy, and recognized Rollo as duke and vassal of the

French king. Like Viking settlers elsewhere, these Northmen, or Normans, soon

adopted Christian civilization. By the eleventh century, Normandy was a

powerful duchy, and the Viking spirit of the Normans contributed in producing

the most vigorous crusaders, conquerors, and administrators in Europe.

Europe in 900

Europe's response to the invasions of the ninth and tenth centuries was

not uniform. By 900, the Viking occupation of England initiated a strong

national reaction, which soon led to the creation of a united British kingdom.

Similarly, Germany in 919 reacted to the Magyar threat by installing the first

of a new and able line of kings who went on to become the most powerful

European monarchs since Charlemagne.

The Viking attacks on France accelerated the trend toward political

fragmentation that began under the Merovingians but was temporarily halted by

the strong personal leadership provided by the Carolingians. When

Charlemange's weak successors were unable to cope with constant Viking

assaults, and the government could not hold together its vast territory

without either a bureaucracy or a dominating king, the result was that small

independent landowners surrendered both their lands and their personal

freedoms to the many counts, dukes, and other local lords in return for

protection and security. The decline of trade further strengthened the

position of the landed nobility, whose large estates, or manors, tended to

become economically self-sufficient. In addition, the nobility became

increasingly dependent on military service rendered by a professional force of

heavily armed mounted knights, many of whom still lived in the house of their

noble retainers in return for their military service.

In response to all these elements - the disintegration of central power,

the need for protection, the decrease in the number of freemen, the rise of a

largely independent landed aristocracy, and the increased reliance on the

mounted knight - patterns of society took shape.

FURTHER INFO: http://history-world.org/middle_ages.htm