Plus One History Chapter Wise Questions and Answers Chapter 6 Changing Traditions

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Kerala Plus One History Chapter Wise Questions and Answers Chapter 6 Changing Traditions

Question 1.
It was Marc Bloch who wrote the best historical book on Feudalism. Based on this statement, write about the contributions of Marc Bloch.
Answer:
Marc Bloch (1886-1944) was one of the people who believed that there are more important things in history than political events, international relations and the lives of great persons. Marc Bloch stressed the importance of geography in the making of human history. He also pointed out the importance of understanding the attitude and behaviour of social groups. His most important book is “Feudal Society”. It especially studies French society between 900 and 1300 AD. This deals with extensively with the social hierarchies, social relations, ownership and management of land and the popular culture of those days.

Question 2.
The region called Gaul later became France. On the basis of this statement, write about the early history of France.
Answer:
The early history of France-:
481 : Clovis-becomes the king of Franks.
486 : Clovis and the Franks attack north Gaul.
496 : Clovis and the Franks become Christians.
714 : Charles Martel becomes the’ Mayor of the Palace.
751 : Martel’s son Pepin overthrows the Frankish ruler and becomes the king, founding a new dynasty. Through conquests, he doubles the territory of his country.
768 : After Pepin, his son Charlemagne becomes the king.
800 : Pope Leo ill gives Charlemagne the title “Holy Roman Emperor”.
840 : From 840, there were attacks by the Vikings of Norway.

Question 3.
Priests were the first order. What were the other orders?
Answer:
The three orders were Priestly Class, Nobles, and Farmers.

Question 4.
Not everyone could become a priest. Examine the validity of this statement.
Answer:
Not everyone could become a priest. Serfs, physically or mentally handicapped people and women were denied priesthood. Men who became priests could not get married. Bishops were lords in the sphere of religion. They were, like the nobles, owners of huge, estates. They stayed in palatial bungalows.

Question 5.
The Catholic Church and Feudalism shared many things. Do you agree with this viewpoint? Critically examine the.relations between the Church and Feudalism.
Answer:
The Church was the richest institution in Europe. From the farmers, the Church collected tithes. One-tenth of the yearly income was taken as tithes. The Church also received a lot of contributions from the rich lords or nobles. Many of the feudal rituals and conventions were also practiced in the Church. For example, the practice of praying to stand on knees, with bent heads and folded hands was borrowed from feudalism. In the feudal system, a knight declared his loyalty to his Lord in this manner. Similarly, the word ‘Lord’ denoting God is also borrowed from feudalism. Thus we can see there was much in common between the Church and Feudalism.

Question 6.
Abbeys were different from churches. Explain how abbeys were different from churches in their structures.
Answer:
Devout Christians established abbeys that were different from churches. The monks who lived in the abbeys were not like the priests who lived among the people of cities and villages. The monies lived secluded lives. They stayed in small communities of religious people. The places where they stayed were called abbeys or monasteries. Monasteries were usually away from crowded centres. The persons who stayed in the abbeys were monks and their head was called Abbot.

There were many monasteries. But two of them became very famous. One was in Subiaco, Italy which was founded in 529 by St. Benedict. The other is the Cluny Abbey in Burgundy which was founded in 910.

The monks pledge to stay in the abbeys for the rest of their lives and spend their time in prayers, studies, farming, and other physical work. Women also could take religious vows and become Nuns. Nuns stayed in Convents. The nuns also could not marry.

Question 7.
The Abbeys have given great contributions to social and cultural spheres. Explain.
Answer:
The early abbeys were small communities with some 10 or 20 monks in each. But later they grew in size and some abbeys had hundreds of members. They . had big buildings and large estates. They also built schools, colleges, and hospitals around the abbeys. These abbeys have given great contributions in the spheres of Art and Knowledge. Abbot Hildegard was a gifted musician. The monks played a big role in the common collective prayers of the Congregations. They had kept copies of manuscripts of great books. This helped the growth of knowledge.

Question 8.
Writers have pointed out some drawbacks of the abbeys. Explain with examples.
Answer:
By the 14^th century, the abbeys started showing signs of unhealthy things. Some of them lost their values and forgot their goals. Then the writers started severely criticising and even mocking the monasteries. Langland’s ‘Pierce Plowman’ and Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” mock at the luxurious lives of some monks.

Question 9.
The Catholic Society welcomed the Holy Days. Why? Describe the reasons based on the relations between the Church and society.
Answer:
Christians started celebrating the 25th of December as the birthday of Christ (Christmas) and his resurrection after death as Easter. For the hardworking peasants, these were days free from work and they heartily welcomed them. Although these days were dedicated to prayers, people used most of the time for entertainment and feasting.

Question 10.
The economic base of feudalism is manorial estates. What are manorial estates? Explain their special features.
Answer:
A noble (lord) has his own manorial house. He was the one who controlled the villages around him. Some nobles controlled hundreds of villages. Peasants lived in villages. In a small manorial estate, there would be 12 families. But in big manorial estates, there could be 50 or 60 families. The manorial estate had all the things necessary for daily life. From the farms they got grain. Carpenters and ironsmiths repaired and maintained the farming implements and also arms. There were masons to repair the mansion of the lord. Women wove clothes. Children worked in the vineries of the lord. There the lords used to go for hunting. In the grasslands of the estate the .herds and flocks grazed. There was a church in the estate and also a fort for defence.

Question 11.
The social importance of the nobles came from their control over the land. Based on this statement explain the meaning of vassalage.
Answer:
It was their control over the land that placed the lords in the central point. This control resulted from vassalage. In the feudal system, the entire land belonged to the king”. The king distributed the land among the nobles. Thus the nobles became huge landlords. They became the vassals of the king. The nobles gave their land; to the peasants for cultivation. Thus the nobles became lords or masters and the peasants became dependents or serfs.

Question 12.
A manor was not fully self-sufficient. Do you agree with this view? Justify your answer.
Answer:
It is true that a manor was not fully self-sufficient, It needed salt, grinding stone and metallic pots from outside. Similarly, the nobles got their luxury items like musical instruments, home appliances and ornaments from outside.

Question 13
Knights were warriors and related to the nobles. Find out how knighthood originated and the knights kept up their relations with the nobles.
Answer:
From the 9^th century onwards, there used to be regional wars in Europe. The peasant soldiers were not competent enough to win these battles. There was a need for a good cavalry. This need resulted in the formation of a new group of people known as knights. The knights were soldiers or warriors. They were related to the nobles. The noble gave the knight an area of land called fief and the knight pledged to protect it. Fief Gould be transferred hereditarily. A fief could be anything between 1000 to 2000 acres. It had a house in which the knight and family could live, a church, a watermill, and a vinery. The land was used by the knight and he promised to fight for the noble. To maintain their physical fitness the knights engaged in different kinds of training and sports. A knight could serve more than one noble. But his real loyalty was to his particular noble who had given him his fief.

Question 14.
Farmers were of two kinds. Explain.
Answer:
Farmers were of two kinds. One was independent farmers and the other was serfs, who were not independent farmers.

Question 15.
Feudalism developed in England from the 11^th century. Based on this statement describe how feudalism grew in England.
Answer:
Feudalism developed in England from the 11^th century. The Angles and Saxons from Central Europe had started living in England in the 6^th century. The name England is a distortion of ‘Arigleland’.

In the 11^th century William, the Duke of Normandy crossed the English Channel with an army and defeated the Saxon king. From then onwards, England and France became bitter enemies. They often fought with each other for lands and trade. William, I made a map of the country and distributed it among the 180 Norman Nobles who had migrated to England with him. These Nobles became the king’s most important vassals. They had to give the king military service. They also had the obligation to give a fixed number of knights to the king. Soon the nobles started giving part of their land to the knights.

In return, the knights had to give similar services to, The lords as the lords were giving to the king. But the nobles could not use the knights for their private wars, as it was prohibited in England. Anglo-Saxon farmers became the serfs of the landowners. This is how feudalism grew in England.

Question 16.
Prepare a seminar paper showing the factors that affected the social and economic relations during the feudal age.
Answer:
During the feudal era, there were many processes that completely changed the prevailing social and economic relations. The factors that caused these changes were mainly the Environment, use of land and new agricultural technology.

From the 5^th century to the 10^th century, most parts of Europe were covered by dense forests. Naturally, these were very little agricultural land. Dissatisfied farmers ran away into the forests to escape from persecutions by their angry lords or knights. At this time Europe had a very cold climate. Extended winter periods adversely affected agriculture and crops. Production was drastically reduced.

But from the 11^th century, there were changes in the environment. The climate became warmer and the average warmth increased. This change in the climate was suitable for agriculture. Since there wasn’t much snow and ice, the farmers could plough and cultivate the land for longer periods.

Environmental historians show that in many parts of Europe forests receded. This helped in increasing agriculture. In the beginning, the agricultural technology was very primitive. They had only wooden ploughshares, pulled by bullocks. By using this plough, only the upper parts of the land could be ploughed. So they could not make use of the fertility of the deeper soil. Naturally, agriculture needed a lot ‘ of efforts. The lands were deepened by using hands. This was done once in four years and it needed a lot of physical efforts.

The biggest change in the economic sphere was the use of money. From the 11th century, money was used for transactions. Because of this personal relationship that was the basis of feudalism began to weaken. Nobles started demanding their taxes and shares in the form of money and not services.

Question 17
Describe the concept called the ‘The 4^th Order’ and prepare a note about the new cities and the city people.
Answer:
By the 11th century, the cities began to grow again. The reason for this was the surplus agricultural production. As the farmers began to produce enough grain to sustain the people in the cities, the cities began to grow. The farmers who had surpluses needed centres where they could sell their surplus, and where they could buy their work tools and clothes. This caused the growth of small markets and centres for selling things. Slowly they began to show the features of cities. There was a. square area, a church inside, roads along which there were shops and homes of merchants and an office where the administrators of the area met. Some cities grew around forts, estates of bishops . and big churches.

The majority of the city people were independent farmers or escaped serfs. These serfs did most of the unskilled jobs. There were different kinds of shops, big and small, and traders in the city. Gradually the cities needed specialized people like bankers and solicitors. In big cities, the population could be as many as 30,000. These cities were called the 4^th order.

Question 18.
From the 12^th century onwards, Cathedrals were built in France. Explain.
Answer:
Big churches are called Cathedrals. Although the owners of these cathedrals were monasteries, many people took part in their construction. They helped the construction by giving money, labour or material. The Cathedrals were built with stones. It took years to complete the work. As the construction was in progress, the areas around it were occupied by more and more people who came to live there. Some of , the cathedrals became pilgrimage centres. Around them, townships came up.

Question 19.
In the 14^th century, Europe faced a big crisis. Based on this statement discuss the reasons for this crisis.
Answer:
At the beginning of the 14^th century, the economic growth of Europe was reduced drastically. There were three reasons for that.
a) Change in the climate.
b) Lack of trade.
c) Plague.
By the end of the 13^th century, there were significant changes in the climate of Northern Europe. The warm climate disappeared and instead of cold climate came. This climatic change adversely affected cultivation. It was difficult to cultivate in higher areas. Storms and disturbances in the sea affected shipping and trade. This reduced the income to the people and the government. The government was not getting enough taxes both from the peasants as well as traders.

Then there was the plague or Black Death. It killed a lot of people and brought the economy to a standstill. It took a long time for Europe to overcome this sorry state of affairs.

Question 20.
Find out the reasons for the rise of despotic rulers and contrast them with traditional monarchies.
Answer:
The new despotic oilers were different from traditional kings. In the feudal system, the king was on top. But now things changed. King became the centre of society. The king needed the support of those who had power and authority. The king got this support through patronage. Many gave the king money to get this patronage. Thus money became very important. Merchants who were not nobles and bankers etc. could get into the royal court by giving money to the king. The king used this money to pay his soldiers. Thus the king allowed anti-feudal elements to get into the administrative system.