Latest Module Specifications
Current Academic Year 2025 - 2026
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Description This course covers one of the most exciting and action-packed periods of European history. Roughly the first three hundred years of our period witnessed unprecedented demographic and economic growth, the consequences of which were far-reaching. Towns and cities grew, trade both within European and beyond intensified, and literacy rates increased. Concurrently, royal and ecclesiastical bureaucracies expanded and governments became more centralized, universities emerged as centres of intellectual life, and forms of religious observance multiplied and diversified. The spread of a culture rooted in Christianity – sometimes through warfare – linked northern, eastern, southern, and western parts of the continent, leading some to conclude that this period witnessed ‘the making of Europe’. Then, in the fourteenth century, a series of crises – political, social, economic, and religious – brought abrupt and profound changes. The Black Death, coming on the heels of a major famine, wiped out perhaps a third of Europe’s population and turned economic markets upside-down. Divisions within the Church led to a catastrophic institutional schism, which eroded papal power. Simultaneously, where Christendom had been expanding, it now faced serious external threats from first the Mongols and later the Ottomans. Christian kingdoms also fought each other, impoverishing many parts of the continent and precipitating revolts. Many familiar aspects of our society today emerged during these centuries, from lawyers and bankers to the kingdoms from which modern European nation-states developed. And processes characteristic of the era – from demographic change and urban growth to increased contact with the world beyond Europe – likewise have echoes in our own time. Yet in other ways, the Middle Ages were very different from the present, and not only because of technological differences: Christianity was a defining cultural force and the Church a formidable trans-national institution, for example. This course will examine a range of themes related to the period across a wide geographical range, while case studies will allow for more focused analysis of specific regions, periods, themes, and events. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Learning Outcomes 1. Demonstrate foundational knowledge of broad patterns and key developments in European history between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. 2. Comprehend and analyse the underlying reasons for and consequences of political, religious, social, economic and cultural change. 3. Critically analyse primary sources from later medieval Europe by asking appropriate questions in relation to this period of European history. 4. Construct a well written argument based on a broad range of historical evidence. 5. Appreciate the diversity of medieval European culture and the contributions of different ethnic, social, and cultural groups to European history and identity. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml
Indicative Content and Learning Activities
| Commercial and Economic Expansion 1000-1300 Conquest, Colonisation, and Cultural Change 1000-1300 The Urban Revolution 1000-1300 New Pathways to God, 1000-1300 Renaissance, Reading, and Regulation, 1000-1300 Encounters within and Beyond Europe c.1300 Famine, Plague, and Recovery in the Fourteenth Century War, Statehood, and Civil Unrest, 1300-1500 Crises and Responses in the Church, 1300-1500 Diversity and Dynamism, 1300-1500
Indicative Reading List | Books:
Articles: None
Other Resources | None
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