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Economies at this time were based around substinace agriculture and a barter economy. This allowed kings/rulers to extract wealth from peasants. This increased their wealth and allowed them to be more powerful because of it.
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Basil I seized the throne in 867. This is important because he initiated a line of ruthless but competent leaders. These leaders would rule for 200 years. -
At this time only 1% of the population could read. However, most of these citizens were priests. This made the priests powerful because they could read and write which made them important. -
Pope Urban II summoned knights to protect Christians in and near the holy land. This is the beginning of the crusades. -
The First Crusade was greatly successful. Knights as well as commoners fought for a shared goal and gained a large amount of land for the empire. -
This crusade was not as successful as the first. In fact, they lost much of the land they conquered previously. -
Henry II created a system of royal sheriffs, circuit courts, and a grand jury system. The sheriffs allowed Henry to carry out his laws and make sure people were obeying. The courts allowed hearing cases of those who have committed crimes, and the Jury system allowed people to be trialed by their peers. This is important because these are all still used today -
Sometime during the 3rd crusade, a group of knights joined together to make The Teutonic Knights. They originally focused on defending the Holy Land but later switched to leading crusades against the pagan people. -
The fourth crusade was one of the most disastrous. This is because, on the way to Jerusalem, they stopped to intervene in the succession in Constantinople. They completely ignored their main goal and the only positive effects from this were the further weakening of Byzantium. -
The Turks were able to take a large portion of Byzantium. This increased their range of rules.