Europe--The Cultural Backwater

II. Europe--The Cultural Backwater

A. Producing the surplus--through the Dark Ages, it became apparent to Europeans, despite their lack of education and knowledge of the wider world, that the adoption of any technique that would make it easier to fill their bellies would make their lives easier.


1. Wheeled, iron-tipped plow--first appeared in Eastern Europe, and within 300 years was in wide use across the rest of Europe.

2. New grazing methods--allowing cattle to graze on fields after the harvest was completed permitted their dung to be used as fertilizer.

3. Raised productivity--the introduction of this new piece of technology and the new grazing technique permitted the average peasant family to raise their crop yield by 50%, while also increasing the supply of meat, dairy produce, hides, and wool.


B. Resident landlords

1. Feudal lords--the lack of urban development in most of Europe meant that most “lords of the manor,” although lacking in culture and education in comparison to their counterparts elsewhere (many were, in fact, illiterate), were close to the land from which they gained a living, and were more cognizant that they had to pay some attention to the well-being of the peasants on their estates.

2. Exploitation--lords still exploited the labor of peasants, but their closeness to them on estates led them to readily adopt and develop--and, perhaps most importantly, pay for--the technology that boosted productivity



C. Abandonment of Slavery

1. Shift to serfdom--serf were still “bound” to the land that they worked on (and required by law to live and work there), but they were only required to turn over a portion of what they produced to the lord of the manner--rather than the chattel property of the lord.

a. Slavery was not completely abandoned, of course. It continued in existence, but was limited to the enslavement of “outsiders”; it was limited to personal service for the rich, and to plantation cultivation after the rise of serfdom, however.

2. Production of the surplus--doubling of the production for each peasant family transformed European life. This surplus meant that the manorial lord (who received a portion of the surplus from each peasant family living on the estate) had a surplus that he could turn into a variety of goods--weapons, armor, furniture, wine, and especially spices.


a. Spice trade was extremely lucrative. In Europe, the spice trade was controlled by Italian merchant families, especially Venetians--like the Polos. Muslim merchants controlled the trade from Asia to the Middle East, however (which was part of the reason Marco Polo undertook his expedition).

b. The attractiveness of the spice trade is ultimately what drove European Exploration--attempting to find a sea route to the Spice Islands to cut out the Muslim traders.

3. Towns and cities--began to develop as a result of the increased trade spurred by the production of the surplus. This development also attracted artisans to begin manufacturing technology and luxury goods, as well as merchants--and both groups gave shelter to labor (like serfs who managed to escape from manors), building walls and developing an armed militia to defend themselves.

D. Development of European Civilization

1. Urbanization--kings used the developing towns and cities as a counterweight against the lords by granting the cities internal self-government and restricting the lords’ influence upon the cities system of laws and justice.

2. Intellectual life--was transformed completely. Accounting needs spurred the study of mathematics. Written laws developed so the legal decisions were not left to the whims of the lords. The importance of literacy grew; many people learned to read and write in the local vernacular language, which freed scholarship from the restraints of the monestary. Scholars quickly developed an interest in the ancient Greek and Roman world, and traveled to those places containing that scholorship.

a. The development of the European universities began at this time.

b. Advances occurred not only in abstract knowledge, but in technological innovations, as well. Europeans regained technological knowledge from Greece and Rome via Muslim centers of learning that had been lost to them previously, as well as knowledge the Muslims had gained from Asia.

c. Development of literature (Dante)

E. Crisis of the 14th Century

1. End of Economic Growth--and technological advancement, as the lords built ever-more opulent castles, chateaus, etc., sucking up more and more of the surplus, climatic changes (the beginning of the “Little Ice Age”) coupled with the lack of investment in infrastructure and technology decreasing the amount of the surplus eventually meant that the surplus disappeared--and that the ruling class was therefore appropriating the subsistence.



2. Black Death--epidemic disease that was introduced from Asia via trade (fleas on rats), combined with population densities in towns and cities (which provided lots of hosts) created hothouse conditions for the bublonic plague, which wiped out perhaps one-third of Europe’s population.

3. Religious fanaticism--these societal crises led to a growing religious fanaticism in Europe throughout this period.

a. Christian crusades--reforming popes attempted to intervene between feuding lords, and make the Church the final arbiter of disputes--and begins to demand greater religious orthodoxy, and limit local practices that had continued (the development of semi-deities like saints).

b. Christian crusaders--much of the energy that local ruling elites had formerly spent on fighting each other directed toward “liberating” Jersalem from the Muslim “infidels” (who to that point had not interred with Christian pilgrims); the riches available in Jerusalem was also attractive.



c. The Pillage of Constantinople--by the time of the 4th Crusade, the focus was upon punishing non-Roman Catholics, rather than on “liberating” Jersalem. Catholic forces sacked Constantinople, even though the city was a Christian island in an increasingly Muslim sea. Jews were also targeted for much abuse.



F. Growth of Religious Intolerance

1. Growing Stratification of Society--Lords and other ruling elites attempted to create a greater differentiation between themselves and other members of society.

2. Economic Malaise--created great stress on the lower orders of society; the powerlessness of the lower orders led them to seek scapegoats (usually outsiders like Jews, the occassional priest)

3. Church officials become more vigorous in enforcing religious orthodoxy (to Joan’s demise); eventually this leads to the establishment of the Inquisition to root out “heresy.”

4. Christianity and European Identity--Christianity became, for Europeans, a means of developing an identity beyond one's kin or village; eventually, this develops into a national identity (first in Portugal and Spain), that spreads around Europe.



G. Class Struggles and Millenarial Movements

1. Growing pressure on peasants--lords, to maintain their lifestyles, began extracting more surplus from peasants, but the aforementioned climatic changes meant that there was no surplus to extract.

2. Hundred Year’s War--fought between two families claiming the French throne, but involving England as well (as well as Joan of Arc); but who financed this battle? (See immediately above).


3. Peasant revolts

a. Flanders 1325
b. Seine Valley in northern France 1358
c. The “Peasants’ Revolt” in England 1381
d. These peasant revolts were often aided and abetted by the urban poor, but the target for discontent were often priests and Jews; Jews especially lacked the ability to protect themselves, and therefore made easy targets.



H. Market Feudalism

1. Crisis of European Feudalism--recovery was quicker, in large part because of the precipitous decline in population (through famine, Black Death, war)

2. Food output declined--but not as much as the population did, so productivity did not experience as steep a decline as it could have, and enough surplus could be created to keep the ruling elite left in the luxury goods the desired.

3. To fill the demand for goods--urban merchants began to encourage less prosperous peasants to take up the production of goods in the countryside, away from the control of urban crafts guilds, developing the “putting out” system of production.

4. The Land Rent system--lords, on the other hand, begin granting long-term leases to prosperous peasants, and allowing them to hire less prosperous, land-less peasants to work the land--and relying upon the rent they charged to keep them in the lifestyle to which they had grown accustomed.

a. The development of this land rent system acted differently in different areas, loosening the system of serfdom in much of Western Europe, while strengthening its hold in much of Eastern Europe.