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1. What technological and strategic advantages made the Vikings effective raiders?



Your answer should include the following points:
  • Their boats – fast, could cross oceans, could be beached, operational flexibility.
  • They established bases from which to loot.
  • Traveled on stolen horses.

2. Why was the Carolingian empire at first unable to respond militarily or politically to the great raids?



Your answer should include the following points:
  • The divided empire did not posses the resources to mount a credible defense against the raiders. Cash was scarce.
  • Kings were not always inspiring leaders.
  • Decentralization of political power within the Carolingian Empire.
  • Sparsely settled peasant communities could not defend themselves.
  • By the time infantry mobilized and marched to point of contact, enemy was gone.
  • Attacks covered vast areas and were unpredictable.

3. Which areas of Europe escaped "feudalism," and why?



Your answer should include the following points:
  • Scandinavia, untroubled by raids or invasions, farmsteads located a distance from nearest village.
  • Anglo-Saxons able to function within limits of their traditional social order.
  • England divided into seven kingdoms, small size made decentralized mobile defense unnecessary.
  • Ireland resisted temptation to exchange land for military service until forced to do so in 12th and 13th centuries, later abandoned.
  • Wales, rugged and inaccessible upland areas remained free, they tempted neither raiders nor lords.

4. How did the quarrel between the kings of France and England arise out of the basic institutions of feudalism?



Your answer should include the following points:
  • Norman conquest of England put the Duke of Normandy (in France) in the position of King of England. Hence the new king of England, also a vassal to the king of France because of feudalism, was now more powerful than the king of France.
  • The feudal basis of dependence was at issue now that a vassal was more powerful than his lord.
  • Issue intensified with Henry II of England, an even more powerful reign.