Growth after 1000
Europe entered the High Middle Age with better climate and more stability. Population rose from 35 million in 1000 to 80 million in 1340.
Farming became more productive with the
heavy wheeled plow, horse collar, iron horseshoes, and three-field system.
Mills and simple machines (e.g., gears) spread
Long-distance trade with Byzantium and Islam
Towns expanded and work specialized; guilds organized many jobs.
After 1350 the Black Death caused labor shortages, so that peasants had lower rents and higher wages.
Borrowing of the Europe
The ideas that Europeans adopted from abroad
- China/Central Asia: horse collar, paper, gunpowder, wheelbarrow
- India: stirrup, spinning wheel
- The Islamic: algebra, medical knowledge, optics
- Byzantium: Aristotle
Early urban growth opened jobs for women, but by the 15th century chances declined;
Women’s guilds fell and male control tightened. Convents had offered learning and status, yet independence shrank.
A new ideal male role emerged which is the market provider.
Around Crusades
From 1095 Europeans started Crusades, sworn as holy wars with indulgences and material protections
Growing capacity in organization, finance, and transport, but also brutality (Jerusalem 1099 slaughter)
Middle East were short-lived (the last state fell in 1291)
Long-term in Europe/the Med: Spain, Sicily, and Baltic were drawn into Latin Christendom
Byzantium weakened (sack of Constantinople 1204).
Demand for luxury goods rose
Europeans learned sugar-plantation methods later used in the Americas.
Knowledge flowed west )Greek texts and Muslim scholarship), but divisions deepened: Orthodox vs. Catholic split
Anti-Jewish violence increased
The crusading idea (“God wills it”) later colored European empire building
Renaissance
A growing legal system let towns, guilds, and new universities enjoy the autonomy.
Clerics promoted reason to study nature
Translations from Greek and Arabic into Latin spread science
Aristotle dominated curricula
Thomas Aquinas integrated him into Christian thought.
Scientific Revolution and secularization. In Italian cities (1350–1500), elites “returned to the sources”
Patrons supported Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael
art became more naturalistic (human body, religious themes, portraits, and mythology)
Artists admired Islamic refinement
Renaissance culture was more commercial
Individualism lead to a more capitalist economy
1450
Viking
Used technology of their longships and
knowledge of coastal regions and rivers to
raid and pillage.
Traded into Eastern Europe
Cultural contact slowly changed Viking
society
• Agricultural settlement
• Christianity
Charlemagne
First post-Rome European empire
Revived learning and education
Centralized administration
Unified Christian Europe
Empire was split after his death among his
lesser-skilled sons
Family Dinastic struggle
Hundred Years War
Effects:
End of English possessions on the continent
Rise of English and French “Nationalism” and
political reform
One of the 14th century crises that weakened faith
in the church.
Decline of Feudalism
Creation of first standing armies in Europe
Connection to significant development after that
Black Death
Tremendous Change
• Killed 1/3 of Europe’s population
• Reversed Urbanization trends
• Economic stagnation followed
by growth in the 15th – 16th centuries
Technology and Innovation
(Economics)
Horse collar and Three field rotation led to increased agricultural production after the Black Death.
Urban Revival
• End of invasions and safe and reliable transportation
• Rise of commerce and warmer temperatures
• Rising population and greater availability of labor
Guilds – groups of craftsman that controlled access to their craft and prices.