Martin Luther was the leader of the Protestant Reformation Movement. Its chief gospels were the following.

• A person is not required to be priest in order to establish contact with God.
• It is faith that guides people to the right path and entry into Heaven that is salvation.

Martin Luther was the leader of the Protestant Reformation Movement. Its chief gospels were the following.

• A person is not required to be priest in order to establish contact with God.
• It is faith that guides people to the right path and entry into Heaven that is salvation.

Public baths were a striking feature of Roman urban life (when one Iranian ruler tried to introduce then into Iran, he encountered the wrath of the clergy there! Water was a sacred element and to use it for public bathing may have seemed a desecration to them), and urban populations also enjoyed a much higher level of entertainment.

For example, one calendar tells us that spectacular (shows) filled no less than 176 days of the year!

The Mesopotamian society was patriarchal in nature; hence, the father enjoyed special privileges. The rights of women though were protected. Boys were brought up in strict discipline and were sent to schools in order to study writing, reading and arithmetic. Girls were trained in dance and music.

Abbey’ is derived from the Syriac abba, meaning father. An abbey was governed by an abbot or an abbess.

• The ancient Roman empire which was spread across the three continents namely – Europe, Asia and Africa.
• To the North, the boundaries of the empire were formed by two great rivers – the Rhine and the Danube.

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Sources: There is a rich collection of sources to study Roman history, like – texts, documents and material remains. 

1. Archaeological : a) Amphitheater, b) Amphorae, c) Colosseum, d) Statues, e) Aqueducts

2. (Literary) Written : (A) Texts –  Histories written by Contemporary Historians (B) Documents

3. Aerial Photographs

Documentary sources include mainly inscriptions and papyri. Inscriptions were usually cuton stone, so a large number survive, in both Greek and Latin.

The ‘papyrus’ was a reed-like plant that grew along the banks of the Nile in Egypt and was processed to produce a writing material that was very widely used in everyday life.

Thousands of contracts, accounts, letters and official documents survive ‘on papyrus’ and have been published by scholars who are called ‘papyrologists.

Roman Slaves: Slavery was an institution deeply rooted in the ancient world, both in the Mediterranean and in the Near East, and not even Christianity when it emerged and triumphed as the state religion (in the fourth century) seriously challenged this institution. It does not follow that the bulk of the labour in the Roman economy was performed by slaves.

That may have been true of large parts of Itlay in the Republican period (under Augustus there were still 3 million slaves in a total Italian population of 7.5 million) but it was no longer true of the empire as a whole.

Slaves were an investment, and at least one Roman agricultural writer advised landowners against using them in contexts where too many might be required (for example, for harvests) or where their health could be damaged (for example, by malaria).

These considerations were not based on any sympathy for the slaves but on hard economic calculation. On the other hand, if the Roman upper classes were often brutal towards their slaves, ordinary people did sometimes show much more compassion.

French Serfs: Serfs cultivated plots of land, but these belonged to the lord. Much of the produce from this had to be given to the lord. They also had to work on the land which belonged exclusively to the lord. They received no wages and could not leave the estate without the lord’s permission.


The lord claimed a number of monopolies at the expense of his serfs. Serfs could use only their lord’s mill to grind their flour, his oven to bake their bread, and his winepresses to distil wine and beer.


The lord could decide whom a serf should marry, or might give his blessing to the serf’s choice but on payment of a fee.

Temples overtime developed huge structures, built in shape of step pyramids. But early temple were much like house. They were small shrines made of unbaked bricks except that had outer walls going in and out at regular intervals unlike ordinary building. Early temples were like a house because:
(i) The temple symbolize the community as a whole and was the nucleus around which the city developed.
(ii) It was here that the processing of produce- grain grinding, spinning, weaving was done as in household.
(iii) The rulers of early Mesopotamia's cities were priests.They lived and administered from there. Since temples were used for residential purposes they looked like houses.
(iv) The complex was not only a place of rituals and worship but contained warehouses, workshops and living quarters of artisans.

The classes were: 

1. Feudal Classes: The king stood at the top. He bestowed lands to a number of lords. These lords distributed lands to lesser lords called barons. The Dukes and Earls were king’s Vassals. They showed allegiance to the king.

In the time of war, the king could demand military help from his Vassals. The feudal lords kept soldiers. They levied taxes.

2. The peasants: The peasants formed the lowest class. Their number was largest in society. The peasants were divided into many classes -freeholders and villeins.

A new class sprang up. It was the middle class. Reasons for its development was the coming of new inventions and development of trade and industries.

Agricultural prosperity went hand in hand with political stability.

In many areas, especially in the Nile valley, the state supported : irrigation systems, the construction of dams and canals, and the digging of wells, all of which are crucial for harvests.

Many new crops such as cotton, oranges, bananas, and watermelons etc. were grown and even exported to Europe.

The three orders are three social categories: Christian priests, landowning nobles and peasants.The term ‘feudalism’ has been used by historians to describe the economic, legal, political and social relationships that existed in Europe in the medieval era.

The Three order

First Order

Priests (The Clergy)

– The Catholic Church

– Europe guided by bishops and clerics.

– Pope lived in Rome

– Women could not be become priests

– Monks – The church and Society

Second Order

Nobles

– Vassals of the king

– They enjoyed a privileged status

– Absolute control over property

– Could raise troops

– Even coin his own money

Third Order

– Peasants

– Free peasants and serfs

– Serfs cultivated plots of land, but these belonged to the lord.

the third century brought the first major signs of internal strain. From the 230s, the empire found itself fighting on several fronts simultaneously.

(ii) In Iran a new and more aggressive dynasty emerged in 225 (they called themselves the ‘Sasanians’) and within just 15 years were expanding rapidly in the direction of the Euphrates. In a famous rock inscription cut in three languages, Shapur I, the Iranian ruler, claimed he had annihilated a Roman army of 60,000 and even captured the eastern capital of Antioch.

(iii) Meanwhile, a whole series of Germanic tribes or rather tribal confederacies (most notably, the Alamanni, the Franks and the Goths) began to move against the Rhine and Danube frontiers, and the whole period from 233 to 280 saw repeated invasions of a whole line of provinces that stretched from the Black Sea to the Alps and southern Germany.

(iv) The Romans were forced to abandon much of the territory beyond the Danube, while the emperors of this period were constantly in the field against what the Romans called ‘barbarians’. The rapid succession of emperors in the third century (25 emperors in 47 years!) Is an obvious symptom of the strains faced by the empire in this period.

• Humanists reached out to people in a variety of ways. Though the curricula in universities continued to be dominated by law, medicine and theology, humanist subjects slowly began to be introduced in schools, not just in Italy but in other European countries as well.

Industrial Revolution means the transformation of industry and economy of a country with quick succession than normal slow rate.

It refers to the great change in the field of industries when the production of goods by hand in the houses were replaced with the help of machines in factories. The transformation of industry and the economy in Britain between the 1780s and the 1850s is called the 'first industrial revolution'.

The Crisis of the Third Century, also known as Military Anarchy or the Imperial Crisis (AD 235–284), was a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressures of invasion, civil war, plague, and economic depression. The crisis began with the assassination of Emperor Severus Alexander by his own troops in 235, initiating a 50-year period during which there were at least 26 claimants to the title of emperor, mostly prominent Roman army generals, who assumed imperial power over all or part of the Empire. The same number of men became accepted by the Roman Senate as emperor during this period and so became legitimate emperors.

Johann Gutenberg was a German goldsmith and inventor, credited with the inventing of the movable type printing in Europe.Gutenberg was the son of a merchant, and his childhood was spent on a large agricultural estate. From his childhood, he had seen wine and olive presses. By and by, he learnt the art of polishing stones, became a master goldsmith, and also acquired the expertise to create lead moulds used for making trinkets. (Trinket-A small item of jewellery that is cheap or of low quality). Using this knowledge, Gutenberg adapted the existing technology to design his innovation. The olive press became the base model for the printing press and moulds were used for casting the metal types for the letters of the alphabet. By 1448, Gutenberg perfected the system. In 1455, Gutenberg published his 42-lines Bible, commonly known as the Gutenberg Bible. About 180 copies were printed most on paper and some on vellum.

The emperor, the aristocracyand the army were the "three main players" in the political history of the empire. The success of individual emperors dependedon their control of the army, and when thearmies were divided, the result usually was civil war. Except for one notorious year , when four emperorsmounted the throne in quick succession, the first two centuries werefree from civil war.

Roman Empire

• The ancient Roman empire which was spread across the three continents namely – Europe, Asia and Africa.
• To the North, the boundaries of the empire were formed by two great rivers – the Rhine and the Danube.
• To the South, by the huge expanse of desert called the Sahara.
• To the East river Euphrates and to the West Atlantic Ocean.
• This vast stretch of territory was the Roman Empire. That is why Roman Empire is called an Empire across Three Continents.
• The Mediterranean Sea is called the heart of Rome’s empire.