Below are student responses to the test questions.They have not been altered.

CHARTERIZE THE PEOPLE WHO PRACTICE ‘TRANSHUMANCE’

Transhumance, or the practice of moving livestock between geographic locations seasonally, has historically shaped the cultures of many alpine regions, particularly that of the Alps. Inhabitants of these regions, which correspond to modern-day countries like Switzerland, are defined by a localized way of life, as mountains provide little opportunity for exchange, whether culture or mercantile. Since these cultures are so isolated and fiercely self-sufficient, the traditions which are necessary for their way of life (such as bringing livestock down from alpine pastures for the winter) take on significant roles as parts of cultural identity. As a result of being thus physically and culturally unique, people in these regions can be fiercely independent, even when eventually subscribing to more nationalist constructs like the Swiss Confederacy of the 14th century.

Transhumance is the practice of moving livestock between pastures due to the changing of seasons. This is most usually associated with alpine people because these people constantly moved cattle down from the summer mountain pastures to the valley where the livestock was culled for winter. Alpine culture has been shaped drastically by transhumance. In many parts of modern Bavaria, Austria, and Switzerland, festivals around the return of the herd are still practiced. In addition, alpine cuisine traditionally features sausages and cheese as these were the methods to preserve, over winter, the meat and milk sourced from the cattle. Furthermore, the art of yodeling developed as a method to communicate over the large distances separating alpine pastures. Alpine people were generally characterized by their distrust of outsiders due to their geographic isolation. This led to these people being well armed, conservative, and very attached to tradition.

 Transhumance was the practice of moving livestock according to a seasonal cycle, moving them to the lowlands in the winter, when the highlands were covered in snow, and back up to the highlands in the summer. The people associated with them were Alpine peoples. Livestock such as cattle and sheep were a necessity because growing much of anything in the Alps was quite hard. As a result, they took great care to make sure their livestock were well cared for, because they were their primary food source (milk, cheese, sometimes meat). Transhumance was often a community event, where the whole town would come together to move livestock up or down, depending on the season, and celebrate right after, revealing that these people were communal. However, due to the rough and treacherous terrain of the Alps, these communities tended to be isolated from one another. Their best method of communication, for example, was not to travel from town to town, but to yodel, letting the Alps carry the sound to the town. The modern country that best fits this description of communal yet isolated is Switzerland. Since gaining their independence in the Ruttischwur (1307), they have been very hard to integrate into and/or invade, but their citizens are communal, and all focused on the goal of maintaining their independence.

WHAT IS A HISTORICAL FACT ACCORDING TO E.H. CARR ?

It is important to distinguish between facts and historical facts. As Carr states, we as a society attach a certain value to “historical facts” like Caesar crossing the Rubicon or Washington the Delaware while what you or I did a few months ago may be a fact but is not of particular historical significance. So, most importantly, Carr tells us that facts are not history, and we must not fetishize them. Facts can be manipulated, whether it be by omission or by selecting certain ones by the historian compiling them. Going back to the case about the Rubicon, or as Carr mentions, the Battle of Hastings, facts are not simple cases of accuracy like a year of a battle, but facts are rather called upon by historians in a specific context to make a case, and in that context, they become historical facts.

A historical fact is something that is true (i.e. something that happened) that also played a role in shaping an event historians consider worth studying, and helps historians explain the events they research. E.H. Carr maligns the view that history is simply an aggregation of all the events that happened in the past. He distinguishes facts and historical facts by their relevance, indicating that true facts are not always historical. Though one could argue that we cannot really know for sure whether facts about the past are true, Carr dismisses this view as pedantic. Historical facts must have some significance with regards to events historians consider significant, or else they are meaningless. Therefore, a historical fact is one that a historian uses to craft his argument, his narrative, about the history he wants to recount.

CHARACTERIZE THE PERIOD 310-600

 A. In 310 AD Constantine saw a vision of the Rho-Chi in a dream ahead of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. After winning the battle, he and his empire adopted this sign and the religion that it symbolized. In the period from 310—600, Christianity spread over Roman territory like a consuming fire (even after Rome itself was sacked in 410) that left a new Western European culture in its wake. Perhaps the most important reason for its influence was the standardization of Western Christian beliefs which created, in turn, a cultural linkage from France to Swabia. By 380 Christianity was not only the primary but the only legal religion in the empire. Its spread and theology rest largely on developments in this time period after the church fathers affirmed its foundational beliefs, such as the trinity and the divinity of Christ, at the council of Nicaea in 325. St. Augustine’s writings, the Confessions and the City of God, further refined Christian theology by establishing the inherent corruption of man as opposed to the eternal perfection of God. The Roman Catholic church, one of the “two swords” that clashed for much of the rest of Western European history, disseminated this new orthodoxy. Christianity was a cultural force in addition to an ideological one. In the 6th century, the first monasteries appeared, following St. Benedict’s rule of ora et labora (prayer and labor). These monasteries became the foundation for cities such as Munich and performed social in addition to spiritual services, functioning as orphanages, hospitals, and inns. Near the end of this time period, in 590, Pope Gregory the Great sent missionaries to convert the Anglo-Saxon pagans which brought what would become one of the most influential European regions under Christian influence. (Rhee2020)

CHARACTERIZE THE PERIOD 720-1250

B]   The creation of the Papal States and the rise of Feudalism fundamentally transformed Western Europe during the time period 720-1250. Around 758, Rome had been ruled by the Lombards, a group of pagans, so the pope left Italy and asked Pepin of the Franks for help. When he and his son Charlemagne took over the Lombards, they gave the land back to the bishop of Rome, creating the Papal States. Before this point, the Christian Church’s power had all been in the Church, or the eternal, by means of excommunication and controlling the narrative of Christianity. This land gave the Church a means to generate money, giving them temporal power and legitimizing them as a dominant European power. As a result, the Papacy crowned Charlemagne Kaiser of the Holy Roman Empire, and in doing so, aligned themselves, and Roman Catholicism, with the West. As a result, by 1250 Roman Catholicism was the premier religion in Western Europe. The rise of feudalism in 1000 brought political stability to Europe. Because it was a land based system, people started to settle, and towns were formed around them. Monasteries were particularly important in this process as well; many European towns today were formed around monasteries because they has a stable source of income from brewing. Because people started to settle, trade flourished and society became monetary; the land generated money, the money allowed the aristocracy to train as knights, and knights allowed them to control their land.