Figure 1.--The Triumph of Death is an oil panel painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder painted about 1562, about a decade after the Plague had passed, but left about half of Europe dead. It all happened so quickly and then was gone. Bruegel's painting depicts a panorama of an army of skeletons wreaking havoc across a blackened, desolate European landscape. Fires burn in the distance, and the sea is littered with shipwrecks. There are a few leafless trees in a landscape bare of vegetation. This was for affect. People died, but not vegetation. Actually vegetaion increase as abandoned agricuural land returned to nature. This of course becuse of the monumental death toll was left on the European mind.

"The summer rains were so hevy that grain could no ripen. It could hrdly be gathered and used to bake bread ... unless it was first put in vessels to dry. Around the end of autumn, the dearth was mitigated in part, but toward Christmas it became as bad as before. Bread did not hve its usual nourishing power and strength because the grain was not nourished by the warmth of summer sunshine. Hence those who ate it, even in large quantities, were hungry again after a little while. There can be no doubt that the poor wasted away while the rich were constantly hungary."

-- John de Trokelowe

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.

The Renaissance

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.

Economy

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.

Literature

Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales in England.

Religion

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.

Little Ice Age

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 that historians readily accepted, but few historias today deny that it is a factor that has to be considered. Historians and geologists debate the chrnological period. Some suggest the 16th to the 19th centuries. Others suggest a wider time fram, something like the 14th century 1300 to the mid-19th century. And there seen to be within this time period, shorter intervals of particularly 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 fctors were involved 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 activity. Other impacts probably include bubonic plague and epidemics.

Agriculture

Today agriculture in our advanced Western economies is is a kind of economic after thought. But through most of history, agriculture was the primary generator of wealth. and the majjor reason that China was such a rich and prosperous society is thay Chinese agriculture was more advanced and productive than backward Europeam agriculture. Gradually, very gradually this began to change. fter tghe collapse of Rome, Europe had a population of approximately less thn 15 million people (about 600 AD). By the beginning of the 14th century, the Europeam population ha invreased nearly 75 million people -- a five fold increase. This was due to two major change. First, the imprtant changes in agricultural tecnology. Second, the decline in foreign invasions. As we are talking about agriculture here, we will just discuss the first change, nuch of which involved Chinese agricultural technology gradually reaching the West. Early medieval farmers were barely scratched away at the soil with light Roman plows. They worked to an extent in Italy and North Africa (the Roman grain basket), but were totally unsuitavle for the heavier more clayish soils of northern Europe. There were two isues here. One was the beast of burden powering the plow. The other was the design of the plow. First, the weight of the Roman plow was carried in a pole that went across the animal's neck. This meant that if the weight was too heavy the animal would suffocate. The impact was to limit the power that could be achieved from the animal. It also mean that only light sandy soils could be farmed. Ths significanly limited the area of land that could made arable. A series of inventions led to dramatic changes in Euopean agriciltural productivity. Some medievl genius came up with developed a new kind of collar for horses and oxen. These new collars rested on the shoulders of the animal and not the neck. Thus allowed animals to apply mre power to the plw, drawing much heavier loads. The use of heavier plows to open up the expolotation of large aeas of virgin, often heaily forested land to farming. Those new plows were called carruca. They were capable of digging deeply into the soil and turning it over. This brought air into the topsoil and the mineral and nutrient content. A related innovation was iron horseshoes which were became increasingly common and this dramatically increased the horses ability to apply muscle power along with iron plowshares which proved capable of digging into heavy northern soils efficiency. The increase in animal power avaiable to framers alone substantialy increased agrucultural output. But this was not all of wah ws happening. Farmers also began adopting improved farming methods. Medieval European farmers generally followed a two-field crop rotation system. Farmers planted one field and left a another 'fallow' so it could recover its fertility with plantings such as allfalpha. This system proved was sustainable but limited overall output. As Europe slowly emerged from the medoievcal era, farming began to change. This was notable by (1000 AD). Farmers were becoming more systematic. A major change here was three-field crop rotation. A typical arrangemet was to plant one field with wheat (the preferred crop, the second with soil repleishing legumes (peas, beans, lentils) or barley, and leaving the third fallow. Here animals were allowed to graze on grass, weeds, and leftover stalks. Te animals manure helping to fertilize the soil. Each year after harvest, farmers rotated the fallow field would be planted with grain--usually wheat. Te rain feld was planed with legumes and the legume field left fallow. This process dramatically enriched the soil with nutrients. Thus the overall crop yields dramatically increased. And with the greater varietyof crops, meaning te kegums, the actual nutritional content of food aailable to Europeans improved. There wre other valuab;e imprivements. We see more windmills and watermills appearin to grinding grains into usable flour (11th and 12th century). There was a hug benefit between hand-grinding grain at home and mill ground grain. Peasants usually thw women could take most of a day to grind enough flour to bake bread for a family. In cotrast, a mill could grind 50 pounds of grain in less than a half hour. Peasants may have resented having to pay for access to the, mostly owned by landowners (nobles or the Church), the enormous increase in productivity meant oe more step in moving away subsustince farming, increasing the productiion of food overall. Milled flour became the norm across most of Europe by during the 12th century.

Security

A major factor in Europe's populatio increse was the improvemebts in agticultural productibity, but the imroving security situation was also important. Europe was the victim of foreign invaders. Huns and Avars hreatened te eatly midevil worlas did the Magars. Then the Saracens threatened southern Europe (7th century). Than the Vikngs terrorized northern Europe (9th cntury) This all began to change (by the 11th century). AS Eyropean afucultural productivity improve the European states could aford to marial the military power to fend off invaders. At thesame time.the Vikings went from being raiders to becoming members of settled European Vhristian kingdoms, the Magyars likewise took over and settled in present-day Hungary, and the Saracens were beaten back by increasingly powerful southern-European kingdoms, altough the Ottoman Empire remaije a powerful danger. With the relative social stability afforded by prace, peasants were able to consistently plant and harvest their crops and not have them devoured by hungry firign invaders or see them trampled. Warfare between European Crstian states continued, but the Papacy succedded in directig ome of that miliarism into the Crusaes. Andte overall levels of violence, at least, does appear to have dropped off (11th century). Tragicallthe nature interrcesimr wars changed urin ther 14th cenury. What hd been small sc;e-wars betweem s,aal mumbers of knohjts turned ito much more desrustibe wars aginst ever larger armies. The Hundred Years War

Famine (1315-17)

Whay began as a very promising century with populations and agricultural production rising soom turned to a century of dispainr. Climatic changes resulted in the Great Famine (1315-17) and there were major famine events troughout Eurpe even when the Great Famine had abated, extending in some areas until 1322. The problem was that what Europeamns wantd to grow was wheat. But wheat as not a crop best suited for northern Europe, cludir, wrrwer northern Wurope. It had been developed for sunny semi-arid landxape o the Middl Eat. The famines of the early 14th century marked the onset of a series of large-scale crises that profoundly impacted the European ecooimy and society. his catastrophic event affected vast regions, stretching from Poland to the Alps. It ws rdramatic reversl of the period of growth and prosperity that began (11th century). The Europen famine began with adverse climatic conditions (spring 1315). Unusually heavy rains and cool temperatures prevented crops from being planted on time and eventually maturing. This ment successive harvest failures. The situation persisted throughout 1316 until the summer harvest (1317). Eureat thetime was not preprd to deal with ome crop failure, ket alone two. Europe did not fully recover (1322). A severe outbreak of cattle disease drastically reduced head levels (sheep and cattle) in many cases by 80 percent).

The Plague: Black Death(1347-51)

The medieval plague, commonly referred to as the Black Death, was the most cathestrophic epidemic in recorded history. The plague is believed to have been brought west from China. It devestatedlarge areas of China. Europeans had no resistance to it in much the same way that smallpox brought by Europeans was to desimate Native Americans in the 16th and 17th centuries. The plague ravaged Europe from 1347-51. There were also serious subsequent outbreaks as well. The plague often killed whole families, in part because family members could not bring themselve to abandon each other. Villages were devistated. An estimated 1,000 villages were completely destroyed. Historians estimate that about one-third of the European population died in the plague. The plague, however, had a profound impact on Europe beyond the incalcuable human pain and suffering of those affected. As strange as it may sound, the plague set in motion cultural and economic trends that played a major role in shaping modern Europe.

Impact of the Crusades

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.

Peasant Revolts

The peasants who survived the Black Death began demandungg changes and the loosening of the restrictions involved with Feudal serfdom. They were in astrong nargaining position. Before the Plague, land was valuable an labor cheap. As a result of the enormous death toll this situarion was reversed. Land declined in value and labor increased in value. And many peasants made real gains in their economic situation. The aristocrats who controlled the land did not take the new situaton lightly and resisted any erosionm of feudal bonds whch tied their peasant workers to the land. The Jacquerie is the first and most notorious of the peasant uprisings (1358). It all began in a small non descript village but eventually spread and overran most of northern France, the Jacquerie rebels destroyed noble castles and killed dozens of noblemen and their families before being put down in a bloody wave of suppression. Probably the most famous to Englsh speakers was the Great Revolt--the first great popular rebellion in English history. It was ultimately unsuccessful (1381). The peasant leaders included Wat Tyler and they demanded massive social changes which included a removal of the poll tax, an end to the cap on labour wages, redistribution of the Church's wealth, and the total abolition of serfdom. This did not happen, but the social fabric supporung serfdom was undeniably weakened. These were the earlies peasant rebllion, but many more albeit on a smaller scale followed in the 14th century.

Clothing

Sources

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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Created: August 10, 2003
Last updated: 2:04 PM 3/10/2025