Effects of the Crusades

The Crusades brought cultural diffusion & introduced new ideas into Western Europe Increased desires for luxury goods like silk, cotton, sugar, & spices Introduced technologies like compass, astrolabe, ship designs, & gunpowder Introduced ideas like Arabic numbers, chemistry, algebra, telescope

During the Middle Ages, only priests could read & write After the Crusades, learning increased & more people were educated Greek ideas Roman ideas Islamic ideas Chinese ideas Ideas about the Bible

High Middle Ages—Crusades Medieval fairs brought iron & salt to the feudal manors; this was a very rare thing After the Crusades, people wanted more luxury goods & began to trade Trade led to the growth of cities

Effects of the Crusades The failures of the Crusades decreased the power of the Church & Pope Lords & knights lost power as they sold lands to raise money to fight the Crusades Kings increased their power & formed nations

Rise of Cities

Between CE agriculture, trade, and finance made significant advances. This was in part due to the growing population and to territorial expansion of Western Europe. Cultural interaction with the Muslim and Byzantine worlds sparked the growth of learning and the birth of an institution new to Europe – the university.

Europe’s revival would have been impossible without better ways of farming. Expanding European civilizations required an increased food supply. #1. A warmer climate, which lasted from about 800 to 1200 brought improved farm production. #2. There was a switch to horsepower. A team of horses could plow three times as much land than a team of oxen. New harnesses were required for this switch. A harness that went across the horse’s chest.

#3. The Three-Field System was introduced. Under this new system farmers could grow crops on two-thirds of their land each year, not just on half. As a result food production increased Villagers had more to eat; well fed people, especially children could better resist diseases and live longer. As a result the European population grew dramatically.

Guilds Another change in European society was the development of 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.

Earliest guilds were merchant guilds. – These merchants band together to control supply and demand. About the same time skilled artisans such as glassmakers, winemakers, and tailors, created craft guilds. – They set standards for quality of work, wages, training and working conditions. – Husbands and wives typically worked together at the family trade. – In a few crafts such as cloth making women formed the majority.

Guilds became powerful forces in the medieval economy. – By the 1000s, artisans and crafts people were manufacturing goods by hand for local and long-distance trade. – The wealth they accumulated helped them establish influence over the government and the economy of towns and cities. Expansion of trade and business increased availability of trade goods and new ways of doing business and is referred to as the Commercial Revolution.

Fairs & Trade 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. Cloth was the most common trade item. Also bacon, salt, honey, cheese, wine, leather, dyes, knives, and ropes.

No longer was everything produced on self-sufficient manors. More goods from foreign lands became available. Trade routes spread across Europe and opened up trade with Constantinople, North Africa and Asia.

Business & Banking As traders moved from fair to fair they needed large amounts of cash or credit and ways to exchange many types of currencies. Bills of exchange established exchange rates. Letters of credit between merchants eliminated the need to carry large amounts of cash. To buy goods from distant places, many merchants had to borrow money. Church forbade people from charging interest. This is why many Jews were the first bankers.

Society Changes Over time more workers move to town which led the towns to grow into cities. More money was available for building businesses, which meant more tax money to increase the king’s power and wealth.

Urban Life Flourishes From , the population of Western Europe rose from around 30 million to about 42 million. Towns grew and flourished. Still tiny compared to Constantinople though. As more people moved towns and they grew into cities there were some drawbacks. Cities had narrow streets filled with animals and their waste. People dumped household and human waste into the streets. Most people never bathed, and houses were fire hazards.

Despite the drawbacks many people chose to live in cities because of the economic and social opportunities they offered. – Many serfs ran away to cities because they could become free by living in a there for a year and a day.

Shift in Social Order The merchants and craftspeople of medieval towns did not fit into the traditional medieval social order. At first towns came under the authority of feudal lords. As trade expanded, the merchant class town dwellers did not like the lord’s interference and they fought for freedoms and privileges. Merchant class town dwellers became known as the burghers.