• Revised and Updated 2025!

• Develops literacy, vocabulary, geography, politics!

• Introduces & explores key ideas in history!

• Explores the development of nations in early Europe!

• Explores the growth of Catholicism!

• Explores Islam's birth and practices!

• The crusades!  Castles!  Knights & Kings!

• Explores the period's art!

• Covers major people & events in the order they happened!

• Hands-on activities make history relevant to the student!

• Develops critical thinking skills!

• Develops study in a self-determined manner!

• Lesson plans are complete and ready to use!  Start now!

We're currently working our way through this program and loving it.  The children (aged 12 and 16) work independently on most of their subjects, but we chose to do this together to tie in with this year's Great Books studies. As we started with The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Mesopotamian start to this unit worked perfectly.

This program has been designed for independent study, but we've found it to be ideal for collaborative learning, encouraging interesting discussions. All the hard work has been done, but there is plenty of scope for shaping it to your family's needs. If necessary the children can work on their own too, so I love the freedom this gives us.  Highly recommended.  E. R., Professional Educator
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An intensive study of 1,000 years of human history. After the fall of Rome, we see a Europe lost in plagues and awash in religion. At the same time, in the Middle East, Islam is born in the writings of its prophet, Mohammad. This is a period of history that must be understood, to understand the modern world.

The fifth Step 4 (ages 11-adult) History course covers over 1,000 years of world history. From the expansion of the Catholic Church, to the explosion into history of Muhammad and the birth of Islam, from the mysteries of ancient Byzantium to the ancient civilizations of Africa and Asia, from the growth of new nations and powerful rulers in Europe and their battle with religious leaders for ultimate power, the student observes our modern world start to take shape.

Modern forms of government and law start to develop. Universities come into being for the first time in history. Plagues, feudalism, castles and crusades…the entire panoply of medieval life is explored by the student.

The course includes the use of many films and multi-media materials which further enhance the students study of this long and vital period, one of the most brutal and yet beautiful in the history of human civilization. (Some of these may be available on the Internet for free. You are required to locate them, they are not included.)

Your student will understand clearly upon completing this course many of the movements and pressures that made (and make) our "modern" world.

62 lesson plans, 6 tests and answer guides, 110-140 hours of study.

Subjects covered in this course include:

• Byzantium

• The Eastern Orthodox Church

• Byzantium becomes Constantinople

• Rome is split into two with two Emperors

• The decline of the eastern Roman Empire

• The Theme System

• The spread of Christianity

• The Crusades

• Russia and eastern Europe develop

• Mongol Hoards sweep through Russia

• The birth of Islam in Arabia, Muhammad

• About Islam, its beliefs and practices

• The Koran

• Islam rapidly expands through the Middle East and ingto Europe and Asia

• Pope Gregory

• Monasteries

• St. Patrick and Ireland

• The Venerable Bede, the Father of English History

• St. Benedict and the Benedictines

• St. Francis and the Franciscans

• The Franks establish the first European nation

• Charlemagne

• The Norsemen or "Vikings"

• Feudalism

• Catholicism in the Medieval Period

• Life for nobles, kings and commoners in the Medieval Period

• The Capetian Kings of France

• Henry II of England

• Thomas a Becket

• The Magna Carta

• Robin Hood

• William Wallace and Scotland

• Pope Innocent III

• St. Dominic and the Dominicans

• Saladin

• Guilds in Europe grow

• The Black Plague

• The Hundred Year's War

• Jews in Europe

• Joan D' Arc

• Henry Tudor becomes King of England

• John Wycliffe, the hint of Protestantism

• Jan Hus (John Huss)

• Education in the late Middle Ages

• Dante

• The Art of the Medieval Period

• Africa during the period

• India during the period

• China during the period

• Korea during the period

• Japan during the period

• The Mongols and their great Empire

• Genghis Khan

• Civilization in the Americas prior to discovery by Europe

• The Mayas

• The Toltecs

• The Aztecs

• North American Native American Tribes