Interregional Patterns of Culture and Contact, 1200-1550

Chapter 14The Latin West, 1200-1500

Objectives• Be able to analyze the causes and consequences of

Europe’s fourteenth-century demographic disaster.• Be able to describe and explain the significance in

world history of technological development and urbanization in the Latin West in the later Middle Ages.

• Understand the ways in which the intellectual developments of the later Middle Ages reflected Westerners’ views of themselves and their relationship to the past.

• Understand the ways in which the Hundred Years War and the emergence of the “new monarchies” laid the foundations for the modern European state system.

The Later Middle Ages• 1200 - 1500 CE• European Issues

– Muslim invasions– lack of European unity– Black Death– Hundred Years War

• European Progress– material prosperity– effects of war– ‘Latin West’ identity

• Christianity• competition• technology / learning

Rural Growth and CrisisRural Europe

– 9/10 rural– tough on peasants

• Serfdom– % of harvest & labor– motivation / inefficiency

• Women– inferior to men– “image of God is found in

man”• Farming transition

– warming climate– 3-field system & harness

Rural Growth and CrisisPopulations Issues

– equals China by 1300– Latin growth to east– exceeds farm production

• climate / war• 30-35 year life span

Black Death– 1347-1351 CE– death within days– 1/3 of Western

Europeans– recovery by 1500 CE

Black DeathThe Black Death

Rural Growth and Crisis

Social Result– laborer demand for

higher wages• bought land with wages

– peasant revolts– disappearance of

serfdom• shift from manor to

cities– rise in per capita

production• overall contraction

Rural Growth and Crisis‘Industrial Revolution’• borrowed technology

– watermills• cog in iron metallurgy• rise in mining

– windmills• building booms

– stone quarrying

Environment– damming of rivers– quarry pits and mines– river pollution– deforestation

Urban RevivalTrading Cities

– growth of trade and manufacturing after 1200

– N. Italy and Flanders• Venice and Genoa• Hanseatic League• Belguim

• Italian Trade– Constantinople - 1204

• Black Sea trade– Mongol expansion west

• far east trade• Marco Polo - 1271-1295

• European trading fairs– textile industry

Urban RevivalCivic Life

– social freedom• independent states

– adaptation to changing markets (autonomy)

– social mobility• residents claim freedom

– Jewish ‘homeland’• business skills• persecution

– Christian Church

• Guilds– trade specialists (union)– dominate civic life

Urban RevivalGuild Duties

– regulate business practices

– regulate prices– trained apprentices– women members

• Jewish discrimination

Merchant Bankers– money changing & loans– church and state

• tithes and war loans– Florence & Augsburg– Jewish money-lenders

Urban RevivalGothic Cathedrals

– 1140 CE– competition

• pointed arch• flying buttresses

– height and light– stained glass

Clock– time-keeping

• China water clock– 1st regular use in urban

life• tower• church steeple

The RenaissanceRenaissance

– “rebirth” in N. Italy– 12th century urban

renewal• universities• intellectual and artistic

• Scholarship– ancient Greek and Arabic

• S. Italy, Sicily, & Toledo– Jewish translation– monasteries

• Dominicans / Franciscans– modern universities

• degree granting

The RenaissanceUniversities

– 80 by 1500 CE• Oxford and Cambridge

– often formed by guilds• apprentice• master / doctor

– Latin• fluidity of movement

– specialty• medicine, law, theology• “queen of the sciences”

• scholasticism– synthesis of philosophy

with Biblical truth• Summa Theologica

The RenaissanceLiterature

– ‘The Divine Comedy’• Dante Alighieri

– ‘Canterbury Tales”• Geoffery Chaucer

• vernacular– local or regional language– larger audience

• humanists– literary movement

• philosophy and ethics– Greco-Roman classical

themes– reforming of secondary

education

The RenaissanceHumanists

– mastering of Greek and Latin

• Vatican Library• corrections of copyists

Printing– movable type– new ink– printing press

• Johann Gutenberg• Gutenberg Bible - 1454

– rise in literacy– access to ancient texts

The RenaissanceArtistic Influence• style

– replace stiff w/ natural– identifiable emotions

• technology– linseed oil

• subject– mythical tales– everyday life

• patronage– wealthy

• de’ Medici– prelates

• Rome as papacy

Political TransformationMonarchs

– hereditary– limited treasuries– noble rights

Nobles– landed– advise and consent

Church– independence

Cities– independence– economic influence

Military TransformationTechnology

– crossbow• metal-tipped arrows• professional position

– firearm

Papal / Monarch Politics– Pope Boniface

• papal bull of 1302– King Philip IV

• Avignon (1309)• loss of papal neutrality

– Great Schism • 1387-1405 CE• rival papal claimants

The Great Schism

Royal AuthorityFrance

– King Louis IX• royal courts; bypass

noble consent– King Philip IV

• creates 3rd estate: weaken nobles/church

England– King John ‘Softsword’

• Magna Carta - 1215– subject to law– nobleman rights– Church independence

• State boundaries

Hundred Years WarHundred Years War

– 1337-1453 CE– marriage alliances– French king and vassals

• Edward III• military influences

– French crossbowmen– English longbowmen– cannon fire

• Battle of Agincourt - 1415– Joan of Arc

• Battle of Orleans - 1429• 1453 truce

Hundred Years War

New MonarchiesCentralization of Power

– British Isles– French nobles

• knights ‘outgunned’• professional military

– nobles, merchants, church

‘National’ Boundaries– incorporation

Representative Institutions– England

• Parliament - 1500 CE– France

• Estates General

Iberian UnificationReconquista

– Iberia from Muslim rule• Toledo - 1085• Lisbon - 1147• Cordoba - Seville - 1249

– expanding Christianity• Marriage - 1469

– Isabella of Castile– Ferdinand of Aragon

• Granada - 1492• expulsion

– Jews and Muslims