This document contains review questions about Western Europe from 500-1400 AD covering political, economic, cultural, and social changes and continuities after the fall of the Roman Empire. It also discusses the Byzantine Empire and compares it to Western Europe and the Islamic empires during the same time period. Key figures and events mentioned include Charlemagne, the Crusades, Thomas Aquinas, and Justinian. The document asks questions to test understanding of the time period and differences between groups like serfs, peasants, clergy and laypeople.

1. Western Europe 500-1400
mini-test
Review

2. Western Europe from 500 to 1000
What were the political changes after the fall of the Roman
Empire?
What were the political continuities after the fall of the
Roman Empire?
What were the economic changes after the fall of the Roman
Empire?
What were the cultural changes?
What were the cultural continuities?
What were the social structure changes?
What were the social structure continuities?

3. Western Europe from 1000-1500
What were changes in how humans interacted
with the environment?
What were the political continuities from 500 to
1000?
What were the political changes?
What were the economic changes?
What were changes in women’s status?

4. Western Europe
 What is the difference between a serf and a
slave?
 What is the difference between a serf and a
peasant?
 What were the causes and results of the
Crusades (1000 – 1400)?
• What is the name for the loose confederation of
kingdoms ruled by a figurehead emperor?

5. Western Europe
• Who was Charlemagne? Why is he important?
• What is the difference between clergy and
laypeople?
• What is the difference between a nun and a
Bishop?
• What is a guild?
• Who is Thomas Aquinas and why is he
important?

6. Western Europe before 1000
• What were unifying factors?
• What were similarities between Western
Europe 500s – 1000 and China after the Han
dynasty?
• What made Western Europe after the fall of
the Roman Empire different than China after
the fall of the Han Dynasty?

7. Byzantine Empire
• How was it different than Western Europe at the
same time?
– In political structure
– in commerce and trade
• What was a continuity between Roman Empire
and the Byzantine Empire?
• Which regions of the world did Byzantium
influence?
• Which groups attacked the Byzantine Empire and
weakened it in this period?
• What learning did the Byzantine Empire preserve?

8. Byzantine Empire
• What were the differences between
Orthodox Christianity and Roman Catholic
Christianity?
• How was Byzantium like Tang and Song China
politically?
• How was Byzantium like Islamic civilization
under the Umayyads and Abbasids?

9. Byzantine Empire
• Who was Justinian and why was he
important?

10. COMPARE
• Analyze the similarities and differences in
the culture of the Byzantine Empire and the
Islamic Empire under the Umayyads and
Abbasids in the 8th to 12th centuries.