Syllabi.
Finally it is suggested that before taking up the medieval period with the class the teacher make a careful study of every available analysis, e. g., the Syllabus of the New England History Teachers’ Association, or the Syllabus of the Regents of the State of New York (which contains the same outline), or the History Syllabus of the State of New Jersey (in press) or the numerous outlines of college lecture courses which have appeared in printed form from time to time as Richardson, “Syllabus of Continental European History,” and Shepherd, “Syllabus of the Epochs of History.”
EXPLANATION OF CHART: EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENT, 800 TO 962.
The vertical lines represent dates and important events; the horizontal lines, political divisions. Events of European importance as distinguished from those of purely local interest are indicated by lines intersecting the countries concerned.
In 800 there are two main divisions, England and the Empire. (Egbert and Charlemagne were contemporaries.) In 843, on account of the division of the Empire at Verdun, it becomes necessary to follow the fortunes of four units, England, Germany, France and the “Middle Kingdom,” sometimes called Lotharingia. The Middle Kingdom practically disappears by the Partition of Meersen (870). Soon after this event the empire of Charlemagne is temporarily reunited under Charles the Fat. At his deposition the two larger units, France and Germany, reappear with several smaller ones, the most important being Burgundy and Italy. In 962 the latter is absorbed in the new German empire of Otto the Great. Meanwhile England is working out its local problems, influenced as is the rest of Europe by the coming of the Northmen and the conditions attendant on the development of feudalism. Although Odo was elected king of France by the nobles as early as 887, the throne passed back and forth between his house and the Carolingians, so that Germany came under a permanent native dynasty much earlier than did France. As will be seen by the diagram, Germany and Italy, rather than France, are sacrificed to the ambition of the German rulers to restore and perpetuate the Roman empire in the West.
[English History in the Secondary School]
C. B. NEWTON, Editor.