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Kies de Nederlandse taal
Course module: UCHUMHIS12
UCHUMHIS12
Medieval History: 400-1500
Course info
Course codeUCHUMHIS12
EC7.5
Course goals
After completing this course students will be able to:
- outline the main political, religious, economic, and cultural developments of the medieval period;
- understand the medieval roots of many of the institutions and ideas that shape our own world;
- apply basic skills in historical research and in oral and written communication.
Content
Content:
Conventionally speaking, the Middle Ages are considered to cover the centuries between the
years 400 and 1500. The concept of the Middle Ages refers, primarily, to a European
phenomenon, although regions in the Byzantine and Islamic world come into the story as well.
As common prejudice has it, the medieval period stands out most of all by a reversion to
barbarism in which human progress came to a grinding halt: people lost the ability to read and
write and even simple technologies like the fabrication of bricks were forgotten.
This course shows that there is no such thing as ‘the’ Middle Ages but rather four consecutive
periods: Late Antiquity, the Early Middle Ages, the High Middle Ages, and finally the Late
Middle Ages. All four periods were characterized by constant processes of change, by
outbursts of creativity and inventiveness—but also by war, invasions, and diseases that wiped
out large parts of the European population. Students will find that barbarians were not all that
barbarian, that those who entered a monastery were no sad cases of religious mania, that
medieval kings in their right minds did not order to have their rivals' heads chopped off on a
whim, and that medieval peasants and townspeople were perfectly capable of making rational
economic decisions.
 
Format
There are two classes each week, in which either segments of the handbook or recent articles
and primary sources are discussed. Students prepare an oral presentation (ca. 15 minutes) and
an essay (ca. 2,500 words) for this course.
Students are further tested in two exams, one in the middle of the course and one at the end.
The format is 'closed handbook, open reader', meaning that students are expected to recall the
contents of the handbook by heart. Each exam covers half of the total course material. They
both consist of four essay-questions, for which knowledge of the handbook is needed as well,
but also draws on the student's ability to handle both primary sources and secondary literature.
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Kies de Nederlandse taal