Interregional Patterns of Culture
and Contact, 1200-1550
Chapter 14
The 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 Crisis
Rural 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 Crisis
Populations 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
The Black Death
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 Revival
Trading 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 Revival
Civic 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 Revival
Guild 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 Revival
Gothic 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 Renaissance
Renaissance
– “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 Renaissance
Universities
– 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 Renaissance
Literature
– ‘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 Renaissance
Humanists
– 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 Renaissance
Artistic 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 Transformation
Monarchs
– hereditary
– limited treasuries
– noble rights
Nobles
– landed
– advise and consent
Church
– independence
Cities
– independence
– economic influence
Military Transformation
Technology
– 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 Authority
France
– 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 War
Hundred 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 Monarchies
Centralization 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 Unification
Reconquista
– 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