Chapter 14

The Latin West,1200 - 1500

AP World History

Peasants and Population• Most people of the Latin West were peasants bound by

serfdom that used inefficient agricultural practices.

• Women labored in fields and were subordinate to men.

• Europe’s population doubled between 1000 and 1445.

• Population growth was spurred by new agricultural technologies in northern Europe, including the three-field system.

Hierarchy of responsibilities in the Latin West.

Inverse relationship – as power increases amt of ppl decreases and vice-versa

Peasant cultivators labored long hours and more than half of the fruits of their labor went to the landowners, which led to a lack of

motivation to improve farming techniques.

Rural poverty was not simply the product of inefficient farming methods and social inequality. It also resulted from the rapid

growth population – it doubled from 1100 to 1345.

The Black Death and Social Change• The Black Death was brought from Kaffa to Italy

and southern France in 1346.

• Ravaged Europe for two years and returned periodically in the late 1300s and 1400s.

• As a result of plague, labor became more expensive in Western Europe and led to peasant uprisings and the end of serfdom.

• After the plague, rural living standards improved, the period of apprenticeship for artisans was reduced, and per capita income rose.

The Black Death resolved the problem of overpopulation by killing off at least 1/3 of western Europeans.

The south to north dispersion of the Black Death in the Latin West. By 1400 Europe’s population

regained the size it had had in 1200.

Mines and Mills• Between 1200 - 1500 Europeans invented and used a

variety of mechanical devices including water wheels and windmills.

• Industrial enterprises, including mining, ironworking, stone quarrying, and tanning, grew during this time.

– The results included both greater productivity and environmental damage including water pollution and deforestation.

Mills were powered by water or wind and were used to grind grain into flour, saw logs into lumber, crush olives, tan leather,

make paper, mold iron into tools, horseshoes, etc.

A. Trading Cities• Cities grew due to the increase in trade and

manufacturing.

• The rise of Venice was the result of the capture of Constantinople and the desire for Asian trade items as a result of the reopening of trade along the Silk Road (under Mongol empire)

• This increase in sea trade also brought profits to Genoa and to the cities of the Hanseatic League in the Baltic and the North Sea.

• Flanders prospered from its woolen textile industries, while many other towns benefited from their position on the major land route through France.

• Trade industries also began to develop in England and Florence and the use of windmills and water wheels helped develop the textile, paper, and other industries.

Routes and systems of trade in medieval Europe. Illustrates the major overland and port trading cities.

Venice was the major trading power in the Mediterranean. It was the first European city to open up trading relationships with the Islamic world.

- location?

Marco Polo was the first European to open up trade with China and spent years as an ambassador and governor of a Chinese

province for Khubilai Khan. He was gone from Venice for 24 years and few believed his stories about Asia’s wealth.

Flanders specialized in the European cloth and wool trade which was smoother than the coarse

homemade textiles from village looms.

Civic Life• European cities that were city-states were better able to

respond to the changing market conditions than Chinese or Islamic cities and European cities offered their citizens more freedom and social mobility. (why?)

• Europe's Jews lived in the cities and they were the subject of persecution and were blamed for disasters like the Black Death and were expelled from Spain due to the Inquisition.

• Guilds regulated the practice of and access to trades, but women were rarely allowed to join.

• The growth of commerce gave rise to bankers like the Medicis of Florence and the Fuggers of Augsburg who handled financial transactions for merchants, the church, and the kings and princes of Europe.

• Many bankers were Jews because the Church prohibited usury.

Cosimo the Elder was the head of the Medici family

in Florence. They were largest banking family in Italy

and were important patrons of the arts.

http://www.pbs.org/empires/medici/index.html

Jacob “the Rich” Fugger started out as a cloth merchant but turned his family’s wealth into the largest banking family in

Europe. (x10 greater lending capital than the Medicis)

Jewish persecution peaked in times of crisis such as the Black Death and the Spanish inquisition when they were blamed for

others misfortune.

C. Gothic Cathedrals• Gothic Cathedrals are the masterpieces of late

medieval architecture and craftsmanship.

• Features include the pointed Gothic arch, flying buttresses, high towers and spires, and large interiors lit by huge windows.

• The men who designed and built the Gothic cathedrals had no formal training in design and engineering; they learned through their mistakes.

The hallmark of Gothic architecture is the Gothic arch which replaced the older round

Roman arch.

Gothic Cathedrals had large interiors lit by huge windows supported by the

exterior (flying) buttresses.

Universities and Learning• After 1100, Western Europeans got access to

Greek and Arabic works on science, philosophy, and medicine.

» As a result of what historical event (“Most successful failure in history”)

• These manuscripts were translated and explicated by Jewish scholars and studied at Christian monasteries, which remained the primary centers of learning.

• After 1200 colleges and universities emerged as new centers of learning.

• Universities generally specialized in a particular branch of learning.

– University of Prague is the 2nd oldest university in Europe.

– Bologna was famous for its law faculty, others for medicine or theology.

• Theology was the most prominent discipline at the time because theologians sought to synthesize the rational philosophy of the time with the Christian faith of the Latin West in an intellectual movement known as scholasticism.

Humanists and Printers• Dante Alighieri (Divine Comedy) tells the story of

the author’s journey through the nine circles of Hell and seven terraces of Purgatory, followed by his entry into Paradise

• Geoffrey Chaucer (Canterbury Tales) is a rich portrayal of the lives of everyday people in late medieval England

• Dante influenced the intellectual movement of the humanists such as Petrarch and Boccaccio who were interested in the humanities and the classical literature of Greece and Rome

• Humanists wrote in the vernacular and Latin and worked to restore the original texts and Bible through exhaustive comparative analysis of the many various versions that had been produced over the centuries.

• Pope Nicholas V established the Vatican Library and the Dutch humanist Erasmus produced a critical edition of the New Testament

• In 1454 Johann Gutenberg perfected printing with his Gutenberg Bible which was the first book in the West printed from movable type.

– By 1500 more than 10 million works had been printed.

Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy was the first to combine Christian and Greco-Roman themes together, which foreshadowed the

literary fashions of the later Italian Renaissance.

Johannes Gutenberg invented mechanical movable type printing and started the printing revolution that played a key

role in the development of the Renaissance. It decreased the price of books greatly and led to an increase in literacy and the spread of knowledge.

The Gutenberg Bible was the first to be printed from movable type.

http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/Bibles/TheGutenbergBible/ExhibitObjects/GutenbergBible.aspx

Renaissance Artists• Style of art that concentrated on the depiction of

Greek and Roman gods, scenes from daily life, the successes and failures of humans, etc.

• Jan van Eyck developed oil paints.

• Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were two of the famous artists.

• Wealthy merchant patrons like the Medici's of Florence and the Church contributed to the development of Renaissance art.

Jan van Eyck was the first painter to use oil to create very life-like scenes.

Leonardo da Vinci was a master of many media – designer/inventor, artist, and sculptor.

Two of Leonardo da Vinci’s works of art – Mona Lisa and the Vitruvian Man. Did he have a secret code

Michalangelo’s David is a masterpiece completed in 1504 and the painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling is considered his

crowing achievement completed in 1512.

Monarchs, Nobles, and the Clergy• 13th century European states were ruled by weak

monarchs whose power was limited.

• The armor piercing crossbow, longbow, and firearms led to the demise of knights.

• Philip the Fair of France reduced the power of the church when he arrested the pope and had a new French one installed in Avignon.

• The Magna Carta limited the power of the English King.

• Monarchs and nobles often entered into marriage alliances and these led to wars and the establishment of territorial boundaries.

With an iron tipped arrow, the crossbow could pierce armor. In 1139 it was outlawed because it was considered too deadly to be used against Christians. The longbow could also pierce armor; but could be loaded and fired much more rapidly

Arquebus – could pierce armor at much farther range; but was even slower to load and fire than crossbow

Magna Carta (Great Charter) affirmed that monarchs were subject to established law. It is one of the foundations of

modern-day democracy.

Hundred Years War, 1337-1453• England against France when Edward III claimed

the French throne in 1337

• War was fought with new military technology. (pikes, cannon, crossbows, longbows, and to limited degree firearms) Knights were at a disadvantage against all of these

• Showed that heavy mounted knights were becoming antiquated; often recognized as the beginning of the end of the Feudal Period/MA

Land that was disputed during the Hundred Years War. (It grew out of the marriage alliance of Edward II of England and Isabella of France.)

King Henry V at the battle of Agincourt. The longbow allowed the outnumbered English to crush the French knights.

Joan of Arc, the heroine of France, rallied the French to defeat the English to end the Hundred Years War in 1429. Burned at

the stake in 1431 for being a “witch”.

New Monarchies in France and England• New monarchies that emerged out of the Hundred

Years War had stronger central governments, more stable national boundaries, and stronger representative institutions.

• The castle and knight had become outdated.

• Monarchs began to tax land, merchants, and the church.

• By the end of 15th century power had shifted from the church and nobility toward the monarchs, but monarchs in England and France still had to contend with Parliament and the Estates General

Parliament was a permanent fixture in the English government by 1500.

The French Estates General which was less effective than the English Parliament.

(This king never convened a mtg of the Estates General even though he ruled for over 70 yrs - ?)

Iberian Unification• The Reconquest (Reconquista) of Spain by Christians over

Muslims took several centuries.

• Portugal was established in 1249, but by 1415 they had captured the Moroccan port of Ceuta, which gave them access to the trans-Saharan trade.

• Castile and Aragon were united in 1469 and by 1492 they drove the Muslims out of their last Iberian stronghold (Granada). – completing the Reconquista

» What other significant event did they sponsor in 1492? (connection between the Reconquista and that decision?)

• Spain and Portugal then expelled all Jews and Muslims from their territory.

– How/why did this have a very detrimental effect on both countries?

Growth Comparisons• The empires of Islamic Africa and Asia developed through distant

trade networks in the Indian Ocean.

• The city-states and nations of Europe arose from trade throughout the Mediterranean and North Seas.

Cultural and Technological ComparisonsFrom 1200-1500, long distance trade fostered learning and cultural exchanges as well as trade in goods.

The Medieval Latin West had depended upon the East for its commercial well-being, then made use of the technology borrowed from the East to expand its own influences into new frontiers.