Key Concepts of Medieval History and Society

Urban and Social Structures

• Bourgeoisie: People who lived in cities and usually worked as merchants. They receive this name because the primitive walled settlements inhabited by merchants near castles and bridges were called "boroughs" or "burgs."
• Guilds: Associations of craftsmen with the same trade.
• Fairs: Trade meetings for merchants under the protection of kings and nobles.
• Hanseatic League: Trade association formed by cities next to the Baltic Sea.
• Marco Polo: A famous merchant from Venice who reached China in the 13th century and described his journeys in his Book of the Marvels of the World.

Political and Religious Institutions

• Papacy: It comprised all the territories under the political authority of the Pope (also known as the "Papal States").
• Fueros: Specific privileges cities were granted by the king.
• Theocracy: System of government in which religious power is imposed over civil power.
• Holy Roman Empire: Empire founded in 962 in Central Europe whose emperors claimed to be the defenders of Christianity and the Pope.
• Diet: Assembly of German nobles and bishops that elected emperors in the Holy Roman Empire.
• Schism: The division inside a religion into two groups that have a different interpretation of it.

Conflicts and Historical Events

• Hundred Years' War: A war between England and France.
• Black Death: A highly contagious disease that spread in Western Europe from 1348 and killed almost a third of its population.

Iberian Peninsula History

• Taifa: Each one of the kingdoms that appeared in 1031 after the disintegration of the Caliphate of Cordoba.
• Parias: Taxes in gold coins that Muslim territories paid to the Christians.
• Dowry: Money and property that a woman's family gives to her husband when they get married.
• Almoravids: Muslims who established an empire in North Africa and settled in Spain in the 11th century to help the taifa kings.
• Almohads: Muslims who entered the Iberian Peninsula in the second half of the 12th century and managed to unite the Andalusian territory in 1172.
• Nasrid Dynasty: Dynasty that ruled the Kingdom of Granada from 1250 to 1492.
• Mesta: Guild in Castilla that controlled the cañadas or traditional routes for livestock. It managed mainly the migrating flocks of Merino sheep.
• Llotjas: Courts composed of merchants that regulated maritime trade in the Crown of Aragón.
• Almogavars: Warriors who fought for the Crown of Aragón to defend its commercial interests.