Grade 7, Lesson Outline: Chapter 11, Lesson 2

Houghton Mifflin Social Studies
Lesson at a Glance Outline

Chapter 11, Lesson 2, The Byzantine Empire (pp. 289-294)

I. The Roman Empire in the East

A. Constantinople, the eastern capital of the Roman Empire, became a center of Christian faith.

B. When the Western Roman Empire fell, the Eastern Roman Empire continued to thrive. The Byzantine emperor headed both the government and the Christian religion in the East.

C. Constantinople became a center for world trade, growing rich and powerful.

D. Many Byzantines worked as farmers, craftspersons, traders, and government officials.

II. The Eastern Church

B. Although both were Christian, the eastern and western Christian churches differed in many ways, including the language used in services.

C. Arguments over church authority broke out between the pope and the Byzantine emperor.

D. In 1054, the Christian church split into two separate churches, the Roman Catholic church in the West and the Eastern Orthodox church in the East.

III. The Empire Under Attack

B. The Byzantine Empire reached its greatest size in the 500s, and then began to decline, losing lands in Egypt, the Middle East, and eventually Turkey.

C. In the late 1000s, the invasion of the Seljuk Turks forced the Byzantine Emperor to ask for military assistance from the West.

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