Around the year 1000--

A momentous time for Western

Civilization

There was more planting and building

• A heavier plough was invented

• A better horse collar

• Windmills were developed to “harvest” the power of wind

• More bridges were built

The Rise of Towns

• Surplus agriculture products sold in markets

• Peasants started to leave the manor

• Centers established near rivers, old Roman ruins, or near the Lord’s castle.

Over time, towns wanted their freedom and rights

• Towns struggled to free themselves from the Lord’s taxes.

• They obtained charter of liberties from Kings

• They were loyal to the town rulers—but not the Lords in the countryside.

One of the most famous was the Hanseatic League

The League had its own flag and fought its own wars

It dominated trade into the 1300’s. Kings were jealous of its power.

Corporate Liberties

Each town had rights protected by its own

charter. Free towns were independent of the state.

Guilds

• Over time, peasants developed skills• They formed associations called

guilds• Guilds dominated trade for hundreds

of years.• They provided education of workers

through apprenticeships

Wine Merchants

Bricklayers

Overtime, Guilds became frozen

• They limited members to lessen competition

• They protected their members—therefore became “protectionist.”

• They fixed wages

Towns and Lords competed for peasant labor.

• Serfdom, or slavery, began to disappear by the 1100s, and ended by the 1500s. But it remained in Russia.

Kings continued to gain more power

• Parliaments began to form

• Parle means “to talk”

• Many countries had some form of medieval parliament.

• Spain had the Cortes, Diets were in Germany, and the Estates General were in France

The foundations for order and freedom were laid in the Middle

Ages