{"id":11,"date":"2012-09-05T11:20:44","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T15:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/template\/?page_id=11"},"modified":"2026-04-13T18:06:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T22:06:50","slug":"high-middle-ages","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/fcurta\/courses\/high-middle-ages\/","title":{"rendered":"High Middle Ages"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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High Middle Ages<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

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Time and Location<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

M W F 11:45-12:35
Flint 111<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Description<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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The High Middle Ages was a period of fundamental transformations. A world of peasant communities, with a small elite of aristocrats dominating and feeding itself from the labors of the peasantry, Europe after AD 1000 underwent exceptionally intense changes. Economic growth, territorial expansion, and dynamic cultural and social change, all marked the vitality of European society between 1000 and 1400. For four hundred years, before the slump and crisis of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, population grew, the cultivated area expanded, urbanization and commercialization restructured economic and social life. Through incorporated towns, universities, central representative bodies, and the international orders of the Roman Catholic Church, Europe of the High Middle Ages first began to define itself in expansionary terms. For the first time, the High Middle Ages witnessed what Robert Bartlett called “the making of Europe.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this course we will examine the various aspects of this transformation. We will initially follow a topical, rather than chronological order. We will then move along chronological and geographical lines, as we will tackle the issue of state centralization. Our focus will be on Western Europe, but we will also look at some of the neighboring areas, such as Eastern Europe and Central Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Textbooks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n