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Although generally classified by most scholars as the last century of the medieval era, the 14th century is generally seen as the beginning of the Renaissance and the beginning of a modern state of mind. The precise time is difficlt to set and of course varied accross Europe. The Renaissance began at Firenze around 1300 and gradually spread north. Even so, the indicators that constitute the Renaissance did not reach other areas of Europe 1-2 centuries. Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales in England. The only Crusade ever deployed in Europe supressed the Catharists in southern France. The bubonic plague first appeared in Sicily and Europe and spread like wild fire, wihin a year it had reached England. Within 5 years a third of Europeans were dead asa result of the Black Death. The social, politicl, and economic consequences were immeasurable. Not by accident, the Renaissance like the plague also first appeared in Italy and gradually spread north to the other states of Western Europe. Germany was not only devestated by the Plague, but also the Hundred Years War. The Crusades played an important role in expanding the vision of Medieval Europe leading to the Renaissance. Crusading knights brought with them back to Europe new fabrics, especially silk. This was to fuel the European desire to establish direct trade contacts with China. After the Plague, Europe slowly recovers.
Although generally classified by most scholars as the last century of the medieval era, the 14th century is generally seen as the beginning of the Renaissance and the beginning of a modern state of mind. "Renaissance" means "rebirth" in French and describes the cultural and economic changes that occurred in Europe beginning in the 14th century. The precise time is difficlt to set and of course varied accross Europe. The Renaissance began at Firenze around 1300 and gradually spread north. Even so, the indicators that constitute the Renaissance did not reach other areas of Europe 1-2 centuries. It was during the Renaissance that Europe emerged from the Feudal System of the Middle Ages. The stagnant Medieval economy began to expand. The Renaissance was not just a period of economic growth. It was an age of intense cultural ferment. Enormous changes began in artistic, social, scientific, and political endevours. Perhaps of greatest importance was that Europeans began to develop a radically different self image as they moved from a God-centered to a more humanistic outlook.
The economy of Western Europe was quickening. Cities were growing in size and trade routes developing. Trades routes connecting northern and southern Europe were becoming more established. The textile industry in the Low Countries was becoming increasingly important and Englnd was a major source of wool supporting thaat industry. The richest and most populace Europen country was France, largely because of the productivity of the French soil and climte. Agriculkture continued to be the most importnt elemnt in nationl economies. Innovations from China were impriving the prodyctivity of agriculture. The locus of the European economy was till in the south. A factor here was the Renissance. Another factor was the connection with the Silk Road. The Crusades had increased the demand or luxury goods like silk, porcelin, and spices from the East. The Silk road ran through Muslim areas controlled by the Ottomnd and Arabs. The Venetians and Genoese in the Eastern Mediterranean benefitted from this trade. This would lead in the next century to the Portuguese and Spanish in the West launching the maritime expansion of Europe, but in the 14th crntury this trade had to be conducted through Muslim areas and the Italian maritime republics.
Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales in England.
Europe continued to be dominated by the Catholic Church in the West and the Orthodox Church in the East. The only Crusade ever deployed in Europe supressed the Catharists in southern France. The Catholic Church was rocked by the Christianity: Babylonian (Avignon) Captivity of the Papacy and the Great Schism. The Ottomans pressured Chtistians in the Balkans. The Reconquista in Spain continued to press Muslims south. The Catholic Church dealt with heritics very severly, but reformers began to appear tht would eventully leadr to Luther and the Reformation.
The Little Ice Age (LIA) was a period of regional cooling dfurin periods of generral climatic warming. The impact wasc especially severe in the North Atlantic area. 【Ladurie】 Ihis includes both the Americas and Europe, but the larger population was in Europe and thus the historicl and ecomnomic impact was most severe there. The America were not unaffected. The huge collapse of Amer-Indian population is usuall attributed to exposure to European diseases. That cetrtainkly was a major if not main cause, but dclining agricultural productivity ws also involved. 【Koch, et. al..】 The LIA term is a relatively recent creation, introduced by an American geolgist just as the world lurched ino World War II. 【Matthes】 He introduced the idea that climate makes history. This is not something thast historianns readily accepted, but few historias today deny thst it is a factor that has to be considered. Historians and geologists debate the chrinological period. Some suggest the 16th to the 19th centuries. Others suggest a wider timec fram, something like the 14th century 1300 to the mid-19th century. And there seen to be within thus time oeriod, shorter intervals of particulsrly cold weather in various regions. .
The casuses of the LIA are not well established. Possible causes are cyclical variation in solar radiation, unusually intense volcanic activity, as well as changes a range of phenomenon, including ocean circulation, Earth's orbit and axial tilt. Probably all of these fctirs wereinvilved to different degrees. The result was global climate, changes having devestating impacts on human populations through changes in agriculturlmproductivity. Agriculture at the timec was the primary economic sctivity. Other impacts probsbly include bubonic plague and epidemics.
The bubonic plague first appeared in Sicily and Europe and spread like wild fire, wihin a year it had reached England. Within 5 years a third of Europeans were dead asa result of the Black Death. The social, politicl, and economic consequences were immeasurable. Not by accident, the Renaissance like the plague also first appeared in Italy and gradually spread north to the other states of Western Europe. Germany was not only devestated by the Plague, but also the Hundred Years War.
The Crusades played an important role in expanding the vision of Medieval Europe leading to the Renaissance. Crusading knights brought with them back to Europe new fabrics, especially silk. This was to fuel the European desire to establish direct trade contacts with China. After the Plague, Europe slowly recovers.
Koch, Alexander, Chris Brierley, Mark M. Maslin, and Simon L. Lewis. (2019). "Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492," Quaternary Science Reviews Vol. 207, pp. 13–36.
Ladurie, Emmanuel Le Roy. Times of Feast, Times of Famine: a History of Climate Since the Year 1000 (Doubleday: Garden City, New York, 1971).
Matthes, François E. "Report of Committee on Glaciers, April 1939". Transactions, American Geophysical Union Vol. 20, No. 4, (1939), p. 518. Matthes' weork described glaciers in the Sierra Nevada of California. He postulasted that he believed could not have survived the overall warming period -- the hypsithermal. He invented the tem '"Little Ice Age'. Geoplgists today tend ton use the term 'Neoglaciation'.
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