Western World

Transition to Modern World and Rise of the West

600 - 1450

The Great Western Schism was a manifestation of changing relations between the Latin Church and the monarchies of Western Europe.

Explain what brought about the schism and how it represented nationalistic urges.

• King Philip of France asserted his superiority over the church in his domains and subsequently engineered the election of a French pope.

• The succession of French popes residing at Avignon, while concurrently rivals claimed the papacy in Rome, created the schism.

• The crisis broke the pope’s ability to resist the power of the new monarchies and led to new arrangements. Within their realms French and English monarchs controlled all high ecclesiastical appointments, along with their wealth.

Military technology and tactics changed considerably by the later Middle Ages. What are these changes and what was their effect on nation building?

• The use of cavalry and armored knights became less central to warfare as improved bows, arrows, and firearms were devised.

• Metal-tipped arrows shot from crossbows penetrated knights’ armor.

• The English longbow could shoot both farther and more rapidly than the crossbow.

• Firearms improved on Chinese designs. • Cannon terrorized cavalry and were effective against

walled cities. • No longer could noble vassals withstand royal sieges. • Hand-held firearms completed the transformation from

armored knights to effective infantry.• However, a new financing system was necessary for

the monarchy to pay for standing armies.

What is humanism? What technological innovation encouraged the spread of humanist texts in Renaissance Europe?

• humanism refers to an interest in the humanities– in other words, the disciplines of history, poetry, and ethics.

• Humanist writers such as Petrarch and Boccaccio were well known for encouraging the rebirth of classical study.

• Humanists were influential in reviving secondary education and revising curriculum to include classical tests.

• The influence of humanism was enhanced because of new printing technology.

• Printing originated in China, but Western Europeans improved it significantly and used printing for many purposes.

• Johannes Gutenberg is credited with making at least three major contributions—in the mechanical printing press, uniform cast-metal letters for movable type, and a suitable ink.

• The subsequent explosion of printing encouraged both the spread of literacy and the standardization of languages and was a great boon to European intellectual development.

One of the most significant events in Europe in the later Middle Ages was the rise of the new monarchies. What three closely related

transformations led to this rise?

• The three transformations were:• (1) monarchs’ successes in struggles with their vassals• (2) the development of military technology• (3) the closer relationship of monarchs with both the

commercial elites and the church. • The rate and ways of these transformations, however,

differed from state to state. – Italy, for instance, did not unite under one powerful monarch. – Britain and France struggled through the Hundred Years War. – Britain’s monarch reluctantly accepted the Magna Carta. – France had less control of the noble vassals, and Spain was finally

united after driving out the remaining Muslims.

What were some of the technological advances and innovations in medieval Europe that some historians refer to as an “industrial

revolution?” What were the environmental consequences?

• There was a type of an “industrial revolution” which is a bit overstated; however, there was the growth of a number of new machines to make products and perform useful tasks.

• One indicator of an industrial transformation was the profusion of mills powered by both wind and water.

• Waterpower made possible the rapid expansion of iron making, including trip hammers, stamping mills, and bellows to shape and pour iron for a variety of new uses.

• Mills also processed other products such as paper, in addition to crushing olives, tanning leather, grinding grains, and sawing logs. Students should remark on the consequences of industrial growth as well.

• The European landscape was changed significantly by this growth. • The flow of rivers was changed by dams and canals, quarry pits and mines

scarred the countryside, and dumping in the streams created polluted environments.

• Deforestation for building and fuel was a common problem as well. In response to these environmental problems, the first anti-pollution law was passed in England in 1388.

What is the Black Death? Why do historians describe this epidemic as having a positive impact on Europe in the long term?

• The Black Death is one of the more intriguing stories of the later Middle Ages. Students should know that this terrible plague spread out of Asia through Mongol invasion as well as trade contacts.

• The population explosion of the thirteenth century was reversed with the enormous death rates in plague-stricken areas.

• Europeans did not have the medical knowledge to prevent or even understand the spread of the disease.

– It is now believed that the Black Death was a combination of two diseases, the bubonic plague and anthrax.

– Anthrax is a disease that can spread from cattle and sheep and the bubonic plague was a bacterial disease carried by fleas that infest rats.

• The devastation of these epidemics left deep emotional and psychological scars on the Latins. – People believed that the epidemics were punishment for sins and chose to become religiously devoted. – Others turned to pleasure to deflect the misery and fear of the plague.

• The long-term effects were that the surviving population could demand higher wages. When the nobility attempted to freeze wages at lower levels there were widespread revolts through the West in protest.

– These economic changes brought on social changes as serfs either ran away or bought their freedom; therefore serfdom practically disappeared in Western Europe.

• In addition, the animal population was not affected by the plague; therefore the supply of meat was maintained while the population declined providing a better diet.

• Although the Black Death was a epidemiological disaster it has a long-term result of economic recovery as the lives of the masses improves and the decline of serfdom.

There was a revival of the cities in later medieval Europe. How was urban growth linked to the revival of trade and manufacturing? How are

the clock and the cathedral good symbols of this revival?• Despite the fact that European cities were smaller than their Byzantine and Islamic

counterparts, they were nevertheless experiencing commercial, cultural, and administrative changes.

• The Latin West’s “urban revival,” evident through the appearance of churches, guild halls, and residences, is due to the renewed commercial contacts with the East.

• The resurgence of textile and paper manufacturing combined with the growth of political unity in Europe to open new markets and trade routes.

• This led to a growing middle, or merchant, class, and to larger and more numerous trading centers, such as Florence, Genoa, and Venice.

• The clock is a potent symbol of this process because it represents both the European absorption with Eastern technology as well as civic wealth.

– The clock, developed originally in Song China, became an important symbol of European prosperity and fascination with technology.

– Clocks first appeared in Europe around 1300 and became a part of the urban landscape through their inclusion of towers and church steeples.

• The cathedral is an equally important way of seeing urban growth in “concrete” terms.

– The Gothic cathedrals of Latin cities were architectural wonders with distinctive features such as the pointed Gothic arch, flying buttresses, and stained glass windows.

– These magnificent spaces were the centerpieces of Latin cities and were an important symbol of their prosperity, ingenuity, and religious devotion.

Describe the changes in civic life associated with urban growth in later medieval Europe. What was the position of the Jews in the Latin West?

• The European cities differed from their Islamic and Chinese counterparts in many ways.

• Although the Latin cities lacked public baths and water supply systems that existed in the Islamic world, they did offer a greater degree of social mobility because they remained free from authority of local nobles.

• Social mobility grew from the desire to adjust to market forces and resist imperial authority.

• Despite the opportunities for some in the cities, poverty was the experience for the majority of urban dwellers.

• Cities experienced increasing cultural and religious diversity. – For instance, they drew small but significant numbers of Jews, who were connected to the

growing fields of business and money lending. – Despite the protection Jews received they were also subjected to violence and persecution

as the document suggests. • Guilds regulated business practices and the labor of the working classes while also

excluding Jews and reinforcing the divisions of male and female work. • In addition, a new class of merchant bankers emerged through their specialization in

money changing and investing. – An example of the growth of this class is the Medici family of Florence who parlayed their

banking success into political influence. • Agricultural and commercial surpluses spurred technological, artistic, and

architectural growth.

How is European success linked to its contacts with Byzantine and Muslim neighbors?

• The revival of Latin cities and intellectual life came in large part through contact with these two great civilizations.

• The Byzantine and Muslim empires remained more advanced in many ways than the Latin West; however, the Latin West revived its civilization in large part through trade, the Crusades, and even through the remains of Muslim control of Spain.

• The importance of the Silk Road and other sea-based trade routes from the East cannot be overstated in bringing technology, commerce, products, and even epidemics to the Latin West.

• This Eastern-based commerce revived the urban economies of the Latin West. The Black Death, brought into Europe from China, also in the long run provided economic recovery and the decline of feudalism. In addition, the intellectual contributions of these empires were important to the growth of the Renaissance.

• Islamic science, medicine, astronomy, and botany as well as the preservation of classical texts were the foundation of the era’s intellectual revival.

The later Middle Ages was a period of great intellectual and artistic achievement marked by what is often called the Renaissance. What is the Renaissance and what were some of its most important and lasting cultural

and artistic achievements?• The Renaissance is not a break with the Medieval world but a culmination of

centuries of cultural and intellectual enrichment. • As the Latin cities grew, the pace of intellectual life quickened. Students

should remark that the Byzantine and Muslim worlds were responsible for transmitting new knowledge to Europe through the preservation of Greek and Roman texts of antiquity and the knowledge they had developed themselves.

• The works of Plato and Aristotle as well as Arabic works were influential. In addition, the growth of European universities, which may have been modeled on the Muslim madrasa, became institutions of advanced teaching and research.

• Some of the period’s major intellectual developments were Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and the paintings of Jan van Eyck, Leonardo DaVinci, Michelangelo, Giotto and more….much more

• The financial support of wealthy merchants like the Medicis was instrumental in the cultivation of these artists.

• These achievements exemplify the intellectual growth of the time and have had a lasting influence on Western culture as well as the rest of the world.

What role did the natural environment play in the survival of people who lived in rural poverty between 1200 and 1500?

• Nine out of ten people lived in rural areas and that this majority of people were subjected to famine as well as epidemics such as the Black Death.

• The rural worked hard in the fields with the fruits of their labor going to the noble landowner.

• From 1110 to 1300 the European population more than doubled in part due to environmental changes such as increases in average temperature.

• This explosion in the population led to the use of the three-field system as well as the opening of new agricultural settlements; however it also led to the reality that most Europeans would experience extreme hunger at least once in their lives.

• This was a world of social inequality, where serfs worked and the nobility and the Church owned the land.

• There were inefficient farming practices, widening class differences, and burgeoning population as the root factors creating rural poverty.