The European Exception

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The European Exception
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Review

• The collapse of the Roman Empire left behind an
  economically weak area in western Europe
• Kings struggled with popes over who would be
  supreme in Christendom
• By 1300, the kings had the upper hand
• In 1000, the European economy was centered on the
  manor
• Serfs (unfree peasants) worked the land for the
  lord in exchange for a strip of land that they
  could farm for the benefit of their family

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Questions

• How did the European economy grow and develop
  during the High Middle Ages (A.D. 1000-1300)?
• Why did this era of economic prosperity come to
  an end?
• Why did Europe develop in a direction different
  from most pre-industrial societies?

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The Changing Medieval Economy

• Technological Improvements led to improved
  agriculture
• Wheeled plow
• Horse collar
• More iron tools
• Mining improvements introduced more silver into
  the economy
• Increasing wealth led to increasing trade
• Townsfolk began to produce more goods, merchants
  went further to find things to buy and sell
• Charters
• The population and economy of Europe grew rapidly
  between 1000-1300

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Estimated Population, in Millions
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The Crisis of the 14th Century

• Military Crisis The Hundred Years War
  (1337-1453)
• Religious Crisis The Great Schism (1378-1417)
• Demographic Crisis Famine and Plague
• Bubonic Plague
• Pneumonic Plague
• Septicaemic Plague

The Siege of Orleans, Hundred Years War
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(No Transcript)
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Lancing a Buboe
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The Danse Macabre
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The Social Consequences

• Social disintegration as city dwellers fled to
  country
• Emotional reactions ranged from hedonism to
  fanatical religious devotion
• Flagellants convinced that if they hit
  themselves repeatedly, God would spare them from
  the plague

Flagellants
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The Economic Consequences

• Fewer workers meant that worker labor was more
  valuable
• Landowners and guild masters tried to keep wages
  of workers and peasants fixed
• Result Large scale peasant and urban worker
  riots in late 14th century
• Increase of available land led to more efficient
  economy as regional economies began to
  specialize example England produced more wool

Danse Macabre
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The European Exception

• Traditional Complex Societies
• Early/High Medieval Europe was a traditional
  pre-industrial society
• A Changing Europe
• Increasing power of monarchs
• Limited power of monarchs
• State, Society, and Contractual Agreements
• Parliament in England
• Result Europe produced a society with a large
  capacity for innovation and an endless desire for
  wealth ultimately (18th c.) the two features of
  European society would lead to the industrial
  revolution

Edward I Presiding over Parliament