Resurgence of Europe

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Resurgence of Europe

Between 1000 and 1300, Europe's population and

economy grew significantly. One aspect of this

growth was the rise of capitalism. Capitalism is an

economic system based on private ownership and

the investment of resources, such as money, for

profit. The resources needed to produce goods and

services for profit are known as factors of

production.

LAND LABOR

CAPITAL Hence the term

CAPITALISM. (MONEY)

They include land, labor, and capital (money). No

longer were governments the sole owners of great

wealth. Many merchants had become wealthy

through trade. These merchants continued to invest

in trade. They also used their profits' to invest in

other enterprises. As a result, businesses across

Europe grew and flourished. The feudal order was

giving way to a new economic and social order.

Advances in Agriculture Europe's economic

changes would have been impossible without an

increased food supply. A warmer climate, which

lasted from about 800 to 1200, allowed farmers to

cultivate lands in regions once too cold to grow

crops. Farmers also developed new methods to take

advantage of more available land. One new method

was the use of horses rather than oxen to plow

fields. A team of horses could plow three times as

much land in a day as a team of oxen. Before

farmers could use horses, however, they needed a

better harness. Sometime before 900, farmers in

Europe began using a harness that fitted across the

horse's chest, enabling it to pull a plow. As a result,

horses gradually replaced oxen for plowing and for

pulling wagons.

Another new method, which occurred sometime

around 800, was the organization of farmland into

three fields instead of two. Two of the fields were

planted and the other lay fallow (resting) for a year.

Under this new three-field system, farmers could

grow crops on two-thirds of their land each year, not

just on half of it. As a result, food production

increased.

Well-fed people, especially children, could better

resist disease and live longer, and as a result the

European population grew dramatically.

Medieval Guilds Another important factor in

Europe's economic change was the development of

Field 2

Wheat

Field 3

Fallow- No Planting

Field 1

Corn

the guild. A guild was an organization of individuals

in the same business or occupation working to

improve the economic and social conditions of its

members. The first guilds were merchant guilds.

Merchants banded together to control the number of

goods being traded and to keep prices up. They

also provided security in trading and reduced

losses. About the same time, skilled artisans, such

as wheelwrights, glassmakers, winemakers, tailors,

and druggists, began craft guilds. In most crafts,

both husband and wife worked at the family trade. In

a few crafts, especially for cloth making, women

formed the majority. The guilds set standards for

quality of work, wages, and working conditions.

By the 1000s, people were manufacturing

goods by hand for local and long-distance trade.

More and better products were now available to

buyers. Because of the wealth they generated,

guilds became powerful political and economic

forces.

The Commercial Revolution Just as agriculture

was expanding and craftsmanship changing, so

were trade and finance. Increased availability of

trade goods and new ways of doing business

changed life in Europe. Taken together, this

expansion of trade and business is called the

Commercial Revolution.

Most trade took place in towns. Peasants from

nearby manors traveled to town on fair days, hauling

items to trade. Great fairs were held several times a

year, usually during religious festivals, when many

people would be in town. People visited the stalls

set up by merchants from all parts of Europe. Cloth

was the most common trade item. Other items

included bacon, salt, honey, cheese, wine, leather,

dyes, knives, and ropes. These markets met all the

needs of daily life for a small community. No longer

was everything produced on the manor.

More foreign goods became available. Trade

routes spread across Europe from Flanders to Italy.

Italian merchant ships traveled the Mediterranean to

ports such as Constantinople. They also traveled to

Muslim ports along the North African coast. Trade

routes were opened to Asia, in part by the

Crusades.

As traders moved from fair to fair, they needed

large amounts of cash or credit and ways to

exchange many types of currencies. Enterprising

merchants created bills of exchange that

established exchange rates between different

coinage systems. They also used letters of credit

that eliminated the need to carry large amounts of

cash and made trading easier. Trading firms and

associations formed to offer these services to their

groups. Since the Church forbade Christians from

lending money at interest, a sin called usury, money

lending and banking became the occupation of

many of Europe’s Jews. Over time, the Church

relaxed its rule on usury and Christians entered the

banking business. Banking became an important

business, especially In Italy.

The Growth of Cities

One of the changes brought about by the

Commercial Revolution was where people lived.

Scholars estimate that between 1000 and 1150,

western Europe’s population rose from around 30

million to about 42 million. Towns grew and

flourished. Compared to great cities like

Constantinople, European towns were

unsophisticated and tiny. Europe’s largest city,

Paris, probably had no more than 60,000 people by

the year 1200. A typical medieval town had only

about 1,500 to 2,500 people. Even so, towns

became a powerful force for change in Europe.

By the later Middle Ages, trade was the very

lifeblood of the new towns, which sprung up at ports

and crossroads, on hilltops, and along rivers. As

trade grew, towns all over Europe swelled with

people, drawn by the excitement and bustle. But

there were some drawbacks to living in a medieval

town. Streets were narrow. With no sewers, most

people dumped household and human waste into

the street in front of the house. Most people never

bathed, and their houses lacked fresh air, light, and

clean water. Because houses were built of wood

with thatched roofs, they were a constant fire

hazard.

The Growing Power of the Merchant Class

The merchants and craftspeople of medieval

towns did not fit into the traditional medieval social

order of noble, clergy, and peasant. At first, towns

came under the authority of feudal lords, who used

their authority to levy fees, taxes, and rents. As

trade expanded, the burghers, or merchant-class

town dwellers resented this interference in their

trade and commerce. They organized themselves

and demanded privileges. These included freedom

from certain kinds of tolls and the right to govern the

town. At times they fought against their landlords

and won these rights by force.

Italian City-States and the Hanseatic League

European trade was controlled by the Italians in

the south and the Germans in the north. Overseas

trade, spurred by the Crusades, had led to the

growth of large city-states in northern Italy. A

wealthy merchant class developed in each Italian

city-state. These merchants dominated politics.

Unlike nobles, merchants did not inherit social rank.

To succeed in business, they used their wits. As a

result, many merchants believed they deserved

power and wealth because of their individual merit.

The German trading towns were organized into

the Hanseatic League. The purpose of the league

was to protect the trading interests of the member

towns. Like the Italian city-states of Venice, Pisa,

Naples, and Genoa, the major Hanseatic League

towns such as Lubeck, Hamburg, Bremen, and

Bruges were accessible by water. This allowed them

to grow into major centers for sea trade.

Expansion of Portuguese Spice Trade

The Italians and the Muslims controlled Asian trade.

Muslims sold Asian goods to Italian merchants, who

controlled trade across the land routes of the-

Mediterranean region. The Italian merchants resold

the items at increased prices to merchants

throughout Europe. By the 1400s, European

merchants- as well as the new monarchs of

England, Spain, Portugal, and France- sought to

bypass the Italian merchants. This meant finding a

sea route directly to Asia. A sea route would allow

Europeans to reach such world trade centers as

Mogadishu in East Africa, Calicut in India, and

Nanjing in China.

During the 1200s, it would have been nearly

impossible for a European sea captain to cross

3,000 miles of ocean and return again. European

ships could not sail against the wind. Then, in the

1400s, shipbuilders designed a new, sturdier vessel,

the caravel. Triangular sails adopted from the Arabs

allowed it to sail effectively against the wind.

Europeans also improved their navigational

techniques. To better determine their location at

sea, sailors used the astrolabe, which the Muslims

had perfected, and the magnetic compass, a

Chinese invention.

Portugal Goes Round the Tip of Africa Portugal

was the leader in applying these new technologies.

Located on the Atlantic Ocean at the southwest

corner of Europe, Portugal was the first European

country to establish trading outposts along the west

coast of Africa. The Portuguese believed that to

reach Asia by sea, they would have to sail around

the southern tip of Africa. In 1488, the Portuguese

explorer Bartolomeu Dias ventured far down the

coast of Africa until he and his crew reached the tip.

As they arrived, a huge storm rose and battered the

fleet for days. When the storm ended, Dias realized

his ships had been blown around the tip to the other

side. Dias explored the southeast coast of Africa

and then considered sailing to India. However, his

crew was exhausted and food supplies were low. As

a result, the captain returned home.

Portugal Reaches Asia With the tip of Africa finally

rounded, the Portuguese continued pushing east. In

1497, Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama began

exploring the east African coast. In 1498, he

reached the port of Calicut, on the southwestern

coast of India. Da Gama and his crew were amazed

by the spices, rare silks, and precious gems that

filled Calicut's shops. They filled their ships with

such spices as pepper and cinnamon and returned

to Portugal in 1499. Their cargo was worth 60 times

the cost of the voyage. Da Gama's remarkable

voyage of 27,000 miles had given Portugal a direct

sea route to India.

In the years following da Gama's voyage,

Portugal built a bustling trading empire throughout

the Indian Ocean. As the Portuguese moved into the

region, they took control of the spice trade from

Muslim merchants. In 1510, the Portuguese

captured Goa, a port city on India's west coast.

They made it the capital of their trading empire.

They then sailed farther east to Indonesia, also

known as the East Indies. In 1511, a Portuguese

fleet attacked the city of Malacca on the west coast

of the Malay Peninsula and seized control of the

Strait of Malacca. In doing so, they gained control of

the Moluccas-islands so rich in spices that they

became known as the Spice Islands.

The Plague

Trade routes carried more than goods. They also

carried the deadly disease known as the Bubonic

Plague or Black

Death. It got the name from the purplish or blackish

spots it produced on the skin. During the 1300s an

epidemic struck parts of Asia, North Africa, and

Europe. Approximately one-third of the population of

Europe died.

The plague began in Asia and traveled the

trade routes. In 1347, a fleet of Genoese merchant

ships arrived in Sicily carrying plague. The disease

swept through Italy. From there it followed trade

routes to Spain, France, Germany, England, and

other parts of Europe and North Africa.

The bubonic plague took about four years to

reach almost every corner of Europe. Some

communities escaped unharmed, but in others,

approximately two-thirds to three-quarters of those

who caught the disease died. Before the bubonic

plague ran its course, it killed almost 25 million

Europeans and many more millions in Asia and North

Africa.

The plague returned every few years, though it

never struck as severely as in the first outbreak.

However, the perodic attacks further reduced the

population. The economic and social effects were

enormous. The prestige of the Church suffered when

prayer failed to end the plague and priests abandoned

their duties. Because there were fewer laborers,

survivors could demand higher wages. The old

manorial system began to crumble as serfs left the

manor in search of higher wages. Nobles fiercely

resisted demands for higher wages, causing peasant

revolts in England, France, Italy, and Belgium. Trade

declined, and prices rose. All over Europe, Jews were

blamed for bringing the plague. They were driven from

their homes, or worse, massacred. The bubonic

plague and its aftermath disrupted medieval society,

hastening changes that were already in the making.