Medieval and Early Modern History
This domain runs from the post-Roman centuries to about 1750 and tests change over time: how lordship, church authority, plague and overseas expansion reordered society, and how states accumulated sovereignty.
Core rules and concepts
- Distinguish feudalism from manorialism. Feudalism is a bundle of personal obligations and land tenure; manorialism is the agrarian organisation of lordship. Examiners penalise their use as synonyms.
- Jurisdiction conflicts: the Investiture Controversy (Canossa 1077; Concordat of Worms 1122) established a durable church–lay boundary; Magna Carta (1215) made taxation conditioned on counsel.
- Demography as agency: the Black Death (1347–1351) raised real wages and landlord reaction varied - commutation of labour services in the West, reinforced serfdom in Eastern Europe.
- Global integration: after 1492 the Columbian Exchange moved pathogens, crops and American silver into Asian and European economies.
- Confessional sovereignty: 1517 → Peace of Augsburg 1555 (cuius regio, eius religio) → Westphalia 1648, which recognised territorial sovereignty without settling belief.
Worked example
Prompt: did the Black Death strengthen or weaken serfdom? Refuse a single answer. Specify region and mechanism: labour scarcity gave peasants bargaining power; where landlords could organise coercion and markets were distant, they reimposed restrictions. Test with evidence - wage series, statutes of labourers, leases - and note that outcomes diverge by 1500.
Traps
'Dark Ages' teleology that reads the period only as a prelude to modernity. Treating the Reformation as a sudden rupture rather than a slow dispute over jurisdiction that became political. Overstating Westphalia as full modern sovereignty. Assuming 1648 ended religious war.