Transcript The West in Crisis: The Later Middle Ages, 1300-1450

The West in Crisis: The Later
Middle Ages, 1300-1450
The West
CHAPTER 10
Mass Starvation
• By fourteenth century, virgin land in
western Europe was exhausted
• Medieval agriculture could not sustain
unchecked population growth
• Cycle of famine and disease began after
1310
The Black Death
• Bubonic and pneumonic plagues
• Spread from central Asia into Europe along
trade and shipping networks
• Between ca. 1345 and ca. 1355, one-third of
the population between India and Iceland
died from plague
• Network of contagion in western Europe
persisted, from 1348 to 1721
The Mongol Invasions
• 1206-1258 Mongols established the most
extensive empire in the world, stretching
from China to Hungary
• Altered the economic, ethnic and political
composition of Asia and eastern Europe
• Mongol Peace - restored trade networks
• Collapse of Peace, in fourteenth century,
severed commercial links across Eurasia
The Rise of the Ottoman
Turks
• Ottoman Turks founded an empire and dynasty
that endured until 1924
• Ottoman state built upon a network of personal
and military loyalties to the sultan, rather than
upon ethnic or linguistic unity
• 1308-1453 Ottomans conquered Byzantine Empire
• Created a lasting Muslim presence in eastern
Europe and altered the boundaries of the West
The Collapse of International
Trade
• Financial infrastructure of medieval Europe
depended upon trade in luxury goods
• End of Mongol Peace disrupted supply of
luxury items
• Italian bank collapses extinguished lines of
credit in western Europe
• War between France and England consumed
aristocratic wealth
Rebellions From Below
• Guild monopolies of economic, social and
political power, in cities, created resentment
• Economic
depression
confounded
rising
expectations, in cities and countryside
• Urban revolts in Florence, Ghent, Bruges, Paris
and Rouen, ca. 1380
• Rural uprisings in France (1358) and England
(1381)
• Lack of any clear alternative to existing sociopolitical order led to universal failure
The Babylonian Captivity and
the Great Schism
• 1305-1378 popes resided in Avignon, rather than
in Rome - The Babylonian Captivity
• Politicized papacy increased corruption and led to
selling of indulgences
• Great Schism 1378-1417 - western Europe divided
in allegiance to rival popes in Rome and Avignon
• Conciliar Movement resolved the schism and
provided a model for modern Catholicism
The Search for Religious
Alternatives
• New heretical movements in England and
Bohemia - John Wycliffe and Jan Hus
• Criticized the political power and wealth of
the Church, emphasized preaching and
scripture over sacraments
• Modern Devotion - Thomas à Kempis
• Emphasized individual piety and spiritual
responsibility
The Fragility of Monarchies
• Aristocratic privilege of jurisdiction limited
authority of the monarch and led to conflicts
of loyalty
• Strength of monarchy and centralized
government depended upon individual king
• French monarchy was constitutionally very
weak
The Hundred Years’ War
• Dispute over the duchy of Aquitaine - the king of
England was also a vassal of the king of France
• Succession crisis in France, 1328 - Edward III of
England claimed French crown
• A series of occasional pitched battles, with long
periods of truce and exhaustion
• By 1453, England had lost the majority of its
French possessions
The Hundred Years’ War in
Perspective
• Drew in other states, becoming a Europeanwide war, at certain times
• Demographic and agricultural devastation
of France
• Deepened European economic depression
• England became more English - aristocracy
abandoned French language and culture
The Military Revolution
• Increased importance of infantry units
• Need to train and maintain large standing
armies
• Introduction of gunpowder and firearms
• Declining importance of cavalry challenged
the social status of the aristocracy
Reminders of Death
• Death constituted a pervasive cultural theme
and obsession
• Encouraged
ethical
behavior
by
emphasizing the transitory nature of life
• Disturbingly graphic depictions of death
and dying in art and literature
• Dying was a public event and a crucial
religious moment
Illusions of a Noble Life
• Escapist fantasy world of chivalry
• Aesthetic and ethical ideal of the knighterrant
• Erotic desire in the myth of the knight
suffering to save his beloved
• New chivalric crusading orders formed
• Cultural significance of the court of
Burgundy
Pilgrims of the Imagination
• Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) - The Divine Comedy
• Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) - The
Decameron
• Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1342-1400) - The
Canterbury Tales
• Margery Kempe (1373-1440) - The Book of
Margery Kempe
• Christine de Pisan (1364-1430) - The City of
Ladies, The Book of Three Virtues
Defining Cultural Boundaries
• Spanish Reconquest led to systematic policies to
destroy Muslim and Jewish culture in the Iberian
peninsula
• Defensive legislation to protect ethnic identity of
settlers in eastern Europe, Ireland and Wales
• Search for scapegoats and increasing concern
about a Satanic conspiracy to destroy Christianity
- idea of the reality of witchcraft emerged
Looking Inward
• Shift in the political and religious frontiers of the
West
• Reinforcement of Christian identity
• Development of self-consciously national
identities
• Inability to understand causes of economic and
demographic catastrophes led to search for
scapegoats
• Development of new spiritual sensibilities