KNOWLEDGE OF DIFFERENTE ASPECTS OF THE BUILDING OF EUROPE Territorial organization: to get to know the formation of the different countries of Europe during the thousand of the Middle Ages Cultural formation: to understand the reception and transfer of the inheritance of the Antiquity, with the work of some scholars who help to transfer the knowledge of the ancient authors; also is important to know the role of the educational institutions along the Middle Ages, monastic and cathedral schools, basis of the institute of higher education, the University, born in the XIII century Social and economic evolution: to comprehend the pass of rural societies to urban societies, and the economic repercussions of the process. GETTING SKILLS THROUGH Historical analysis of documents, maps and images Written and oral expositions of historical issues of the Middle Ages, some of them with great projection in the contemporary world. Debates on themes of Historiography Initiation on public uses of History, though some of the topics studied in class UNDERSTANDING OF ATTITUDES OF OTHER TIMES AND OTHER PLACES THROUGH Reflection on issues of present and past, and the dialogue past-present Consideration of different points of view derived from cultural and national values of the past Knowledge of the historical debates and research as aspects in permanent construction

1. The Middle Ages, spatial and temporal context. Periodization. Introduction to historical research. The sources for the study of the Middle Ages 2. Germans tribes in Western Europe. The building of new Kingdoms 3. The Eastern Roman Empire: First Emperors after the división of 395 a. D. The emperor Justinian and his territorial, religious and legislative policy 4. Church and culture in Western Europe. The foundations of primitive Christianity and its evolution in the early Middle Ages 5. Breaking the unity of the Mediterranean: Birth and expansion of Islam 6. Charlemagne and the formation of the Carolingian Empire: construction and deconstruction of an empire 7. The Byzantine Empire: from the iconoclasm to the schism of Photius. The formation of a Greek empire 8. The shift of power from France to Germany: the Roman-Germanic Empire 9. Other peoples of the European space. The settlement in the East of the Slavs, Bulgarians and Hungarians. Norman expansion out of Scandinavia, and the formation of the first Scandinavian kingdoms 10. Feudalism. Conceptions and characteristics. The ways of understanding feudalism. A model for debate: feudalism in the iberian peninsula 11. Fenesis of feudalism: the Roman "encomendatio" and the German "comitatus" 12. Classic feudalism: feudalism as a set of feudal-vasal institutions in the political framework from the 11th to the 13th centuries 13. Feudal society: the dependent peasantry in the framework of a rural economy 14. Medieval society and culture through the testimony of a man of that time: Abelardo. Monastic and cathedral schools 15. Medieval society: the three orders, the role of women and the function of marriage in the social order 16. The State and its medieval origins: Western monarchies, France and England, and the Holy Roman-Germanic Empire 17. The Church and the care for social order: Heresies and Inquisition 18. A commun enterprise: the crusades. The situation of the Arab world around the year 1000. Fear of the Byzantine empire to Turkish advances. The first three crusades, their participants, their successes and failures 19. Decline and death of the Abbasid caliphate and birth and rise of the Mongol empire 20. The urban rebirth. Causes and consequences of technological advances until the 11th century. Theories on causes of urban rebirth. The changes in the rural economy 21. The flowering of culture as a result of urban rebirth: from cathedral schools to the birth of the universities 22. The crisis of the Late Middle Ages. General approach to the crisis. Impact on the Church: The Schism of Avignon 23. The Black Death: a problem within the context of the late medieval crisis. The disease as part of the history of men. The ecological and environmental theses. The socio-economic theses 24. The plague and its demographic, economic and social consequences, its influence on behaviors and mentalities 25. The political landscape of the Late Middle Ages: the transition from the feudal monarchy to the authoritarian monarchy 26. Confrontations in Western Europe: the Hundred Years' War as part of the political context of the time. Joan of Arc 27. The political, social and cultural problems of Western Europe at the end of the Middle Ages. A new way       of looking at society: the denunciation of the misogynist society by Cristina de Pisan and other educated women of the       XV century      

The basic learning activities will be structure as follows: 1. THE CLASS. The most of the topics will be studied divided in two different parts: theory and practice. The theory: lecture of the professor on the topic of the program, followed by discussion of the students. The practice: analysis of texts, documents and the like 2. THE OFFICE HOURS. The students, individually or in group, will join the professor in the office hours to solve doubts on the topics explained in class, or to look for help in the practice, having the opportunity of practicing guided by the professor 3. FIELD TRIPS. Along the semester some visits to exhibits, museums, medieval part of the city of Madrid, will be organized 4. STUDENT WORK: readings of books and articles, analysis of documents, elaboration of historical maps, expositions in class