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What was a knight?

A knight was an armed and horse-mounted warrior who was also a landholder under a political and economic system called feudalism that was practiced during the Middle Ages (A.D. c. 450–c. 1500). A knight was a nobleman and often lord of his own manor (a large self-sufficient estate) who took up arms to fight for the feudal lord (the lord of a fief, a collection of several manors). During the Carolingian Age (eighth and ninth centuries), when a monarchy was established in Western Europe, a feudal lord often performed the duties of a knight in service to the king. In times of war, any man who pledged loyalty to his lord and took up arms on behalf of the lord would become a knight. Later, he might receive lands from the lord or king as repayment. During the Crusades (1096–1291; religious wars waged by Christians to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims) knights were not landowners—they were designated by...

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1. Early Ages
   1. When did history begin?
   2. When did humans first walk on the face of the Earth?
   3. Who were the Neanderthals?
   4. What was the prehistoric era?
   5. What was the Stone Age?
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   7. Why has iron been called the "democratic metal"?
2. Ancient Civilizations
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   4. What was the Myceneaen Age?
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   7. What government ruled Rome before the Roman Empire?
   8. What was the Pax Romana?
   9. How did the Roman Empire differ from the Holy Roman Empire?
   10. Who were the Celts and what happened to them?
3. Middle Ages And Renaissance
   1. Were the Dark Ages the same as the Middle Ages ?
   2. Who were the Huns?
   3. Who were the Visigoths and Ostrogoths?
   4. Who were the first warriors to fight on horseback?
   5. Who started the fall of the Roman Empire?
   6. Who were the Vandals?
   7. Who were the Franks?
   8. Who were the Gauls, and what happened to them?
   9. Who were the Lombards, Saxons, and Angles?
   10. Who were the Vikings?
   11. What is feudalism?
   12. What was a lord?
   13. What was a serf?
   14. What were vassals?
   15. What was a knight?
   16. Who were the samurai?
   17. What was a papal state?
   18. What was the role of the Roman Catholic Church during the Middle Ages?
   19. What was the Investiture Struggle?
   20. What were the three great kingdoms of western Africa?
   21. What was the Holy Roman Empire?
   22. What was the Renaissance, and where did it begin?
   23. Who were the great Renaissance artists, writers, and thinkers?
   24. What was the northern Renaissance?
   25. When did European colonialism begin?
4. The Modern Age
   1. What was the Enlightenment?
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   4. What was the impact of World War I?
   5. Was the cold war really a war?
   6. When did the cold war start?
   7. What led to the fall of communism in Eastern Europe?
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1. Industrial Revolution