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SUMMARIES UNIT 3 : GOTHIC EUROPE (2º ESO)

  1. ECONOMIC RECOVERY

There was a period of economic recovery in Europe from the 12 th century onwards. Agricultura, craft activities and trade all grew. The population of Europe also increased considerably.
AGRICULTURE
Techical changes in agricultura improved productivity. Three-year crop rotation meant that in this period only one third of agricultural land was left fallow each year. The invention of the mouldboard plough was another important advance.
Improved agricultura made more food available to the population. People bécame healthier when they ate regularly. As a consequence, the population of Europe increased from about 45 million inhabitants in 1100to about 75 million in 1300.
CRAFTS
There was a growing demand for craft products. These were made in specialised workshops. The craftsmen formed guilds, which were associations that grouped together all the people who worked in the same field, for example, carpenters, metal workers or shoe makers.
The guilds regulated prices and working practices in a particular field. But they were also associations for mutual assistance, that provided help if a craftsman fell ill. There were different categories of craftsman:
  • Masrer craftsman. They owned the workshops and the tolos. They ran the guilds.
  • Journeymen. They worked for the master craftsman in Exchange for a salary.
  • Apprentices- they learnt their skills in return for foof and accommodation.
THE GROWTH OF TRADE
Trade increased greatly in the 12 th century- it was favoured by the rising demand for products caused by the increase in population, especially in cities. There were two types of trade:
  • Local commercial activity. Products were exchanged between the inhabitants of a city and the people who lived in the surrounding area.
  • Long-distance trade. This was still risky and sometimes dangerous so merchants organised themselves into associations. One of the most famous was the Hanseatic League in the Baltic.
There were two great centres of comercial activity:
  • The Mediterranean. There were trade routes all across the Mediterranean from Spain and Italy to the Muslim and Byzantine ports. Cities like Milan, Venice and Genoa bécame very important.
  • The Atlantic and the Baltic. Trade routes linked Portugal and the Cantabrian coast with cities like Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp in nort-west Europe. Lübeck and Hamburg, on the German coast, trade across the Baltic.
Trade fairs, like the fair at Champagne in France, were atended by merchants from the great trading cities. To finance their journeys the merchants were sometimes granted credit, and bills of Exchange were used instead of Money. These early types of financial activity later develop into banking.
  1. THE GROWTH OF THE CITIES
THE CAUSES OF URBAN GROWTH
Cities began to grow rapidly in the 12 th century, after eight centuries when nearly all of Europe’s inhabitants had lived in the cuntryside. There were several causes:
  • Economic growth. He expansión of agricultura meant that thee was a regular food supply for the growing urban population. Trade also revived urban life, and created a demand for the work o specialised craftsmen living in the cities.
  • Urban privileges. Fedal lords did not contol cities, whose inhabitants were free. Monarchs granted cities charters and privileges in order to reduce the influence of the nobility.
  • Rural migration. Many peasants fled from harsh conditions in the countryside, and went t olive in cities where they were free from feudal obligations.
 WHAT WERE CITIES LIKE?
Most of the population of Europe was still rural but cties bécame great centres of economic and cultural activity. Cities that had already existed in the late Roman Empire bécame important once again. Bu there were also completely new settlementswhere merchants and craftsmen settled in well – placed locations near ports, roads and castles.
In time, these settlements grew into cities. Their leading figures were known as burghers. A medieval city was surrounded by walls for its protection. At the city gates a tax was charged on all the products that were brought into the city to be sold.
Cities were divided into districts. Urban life was very unhealthy because he cities did not have sewers, and their streets were full of mud and dirty water. This created the conditions in which epidemics spread rapidly.
Most Medieval  cities were quite small, with just a few thousand people. But there were also several very large cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, such as Milan, Venice and Paris. Other very important cities were London, Barcelona and Bruges.
URBAN SOCIETY
Urban society was very different from rural life. Monarchs granted cities the right to form municipal governments that were elected by the leading citizens. This was the beginning of city councils.
In some regions, like Italy, cities formed independent republics that ruled the surrounding countyside. In other areas, including England and the Iberian Peninsula, the cities appointed representatives for assemblies that advised the monarch. There were also urban court that administered justice. This, too, was a significant advance because peasants had previously been subject to the judicial authority of their feudal lords.
A new social group emerged in the cities, the bourgeoisie, which was made up of the merchants and wealthier craftsme. It was a new social elite that contolled municipal government.
There were also minorities in the cities. The Jews lived in their own Jewish Quarter. There were also Muslim quarters on the Iberian Peninsula.
  1. THE RISE OF THE MONARCHIES
From the 12 th century onwards, European monarchs gradually strengthened their autority, and expanded the territory that they controlled. This was at the expense of the feudal lords.
THE MONARCHIES
Monarchs built up their power in different ways:
  • The bourgeoisie were an alternative source of power to the feudal lords.
  • Economic growth enabled the monarchs to collect higher taxes and finance their own armies and officials.
  • They expanded their territories through conquest and matrimonial alliances.
    THE EMERGENCE OF PARLIAMENTS
Representative assemblies were established in diferente countries, under different names. They were called the Estates General in France, the Cortes in Spain, Parliament in England and the Diet in Germany.
These assemblies were not democratic institutions as we understand the term today. They were formed of the nobility, the church and the leaders of the bourgeoisie. The monarchs used them to raise taxes and provide financial assistance. But the assemblies could also present their demands and petitions to the king.
    WARS BETWEEN KINGDOMS
There were many wars bettween kingdoms in the Middle Ages. The longest was the Hundred Years’ War whic England and France fought foro ver a century (137-1453). Today we think of countries as territories with natural geographic frontiers, but states were dynastic in the Middle Ages. Through marriages and inheritance, the English royal family ruled parts of France as well as England, and claimed the French throne. There was also economic rivalry between the two kingdoms. Battles were followed by truces and then by fighting once again before the English were finally defeated in 1453.
    THE PAPACY
  • Conflicts with rulers. The Pope was considered the religious leader of Christian Europe. But the Papacy was involved in conflicts to establish whether it had authority over secular rulers. Many of these disputes were with the Holy Roman Empire, which ruled many parts of Germany and Italy. A long dispute, called the Investiture Controversy, centre don whether it was the Pope or the Emperor who appointed bishops. This was finally resolved at the Concordat of Worms (1122), when the Church retained the right to appoint bishops, but in the Emperor’s presence.
  • Quarrels within the Church. There were divisions within the Catholic Church as a result of the claims of rival candidates to be the Pope. In 1309 this resulted in the seat of the Papacy being transferred o Avignon in France, where it was under the influence of the French monarchy. After 1378, there were rival Popes. One in Avignon and one in Rome (and even a third candidate). This Western schim lasted for nearly 40 years and harmed the prestige of the Papacy.

  1. THE CRISIS OF THE LATE MIDDLE AGES

    DEMOGRAPHIC CRISIS
The population of Europe had doubled in the 12 th and 13 th centuries. However, agricultural production had no trisen to the same extent. Consequently, by the 14 th century the population of Europe was badly fed and less healthy, and this made it more vulnerable to illnesses and epidemics.
The most terrible epidemic was the plague known as the Black Death, which spread through Europe between 1348 and 1350. At this time there were no effective medicines to treat sick people and the Black Death took the lives of more than one third of Europe’s population. It was followed by other epidemics, although these were nevero n the same scale.
Frequent wars were another factor that reduced the population.
As a result, there was a considerable decline in Europe’s population. There were probably fewer than 50 million inhabitants in Europe at the beginning of the 15 th century.
THE ECONOMY
There was agricultural and economic growth in Europe between the 11th and 13 th centuries. However, this stopped at the beginning of the 14 th century:
  • There was a change in the world’s climate in about 1300. There were harsher winters. There was flooding, and at other times there was drought, causing harvests to fail. Consequently, food supply bécame more irregular.
  • Agricultural production failed to match the rise in population. This was because there were few new technological innovations and three-year rotation did not work as well in Northern Europe as in the Mediterranean where the soil was more fertile.
  • There were frequent wars between kingdoms, and beween feudal lords. These wars reduced agricultural production and interrupted trade.

    SOCIAL UNREST
    Economic crisis and demographic decline had consequences for society:
  • In the countryside, there was a educed workforce, agricultural productivity declined and many cultivated fields were abandoned. Feudal lords tried to keep the same income by raising taxes on the remaining peasants. This caused social unrest, and there were peasant revolts throughout Europe. In France, a revolt caled the Jacquerie took place in 1358 when peasants attacked the catles and other residences belonging to the feudal nobility.
  • There were also tensions in the cities. Craft activity and trade declined, and food bécame scarce. The poorer inhabitants of cities demanded increases in their wages, and participation in government. There was unrest in many cities across Europe, including Barcelona, Paris and Florence. In this climate of insecurity and poverty, some people turned against minorities and there were anti-Jewish riots in many parts of Spain in 1391.
These riots and uprisings were violently repressed by the monarchs, feudal lords and bourgeoisie, who all wanted to maintain the existing social order.
  1. GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

URBAN CULTURE

The emergence of stronger monarchies and the growth of cities had great influence on European cultura. Previously, there had been Little learning outside monasteries, but in the 11 th and 12 th centuries new catedral schools were created in cities like Paris or Chartres. These schools trained members of the clergy and future royal officials.

The first universities were created i the 13 th century, under royal, aristocratic or religious patronage. There were many important universities throughout Europe, including Paris, Salamanca, Bologna, Oxford and Cambridge. Students studied a range of subjects such as Theology, Law and Medicine.
In the Middle Ages, nearly all literary Works had been written in Latin. But from the 11 th century onwards, woks like  The Song of Roland (written in Old French), and The Poem of the Cid (written in Old Spanish)helped to create national literatures. These anonymous epics were inspired by real incidents tat were transformed into heroic stories.

THE GOTHIC STYLE
In the 13 th and 14 th centuries, the Gothic styled replaced Romanesque. This artistic style began in France and then spread through the rest of Europe. It reflected the artistic interests of urban society and the emerging bourgeoisie.

Civil pride was reflected in a new type of urban architecture, which as more elaborate than before. For the first time, cities had outstanding civic buildings such as city councils, market halls and squares. The aristocrac built their palaces and castles in the new style.

However, the greatest achievements of Gothic architecture was still religious. The extraordinary Gothic cathedral bécame a key feature of each city. As well as fulfilling a religious purpose, it also demonstrated the wealth and importance of a región.

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

Gothic architecture had the following features:
  • The poined arch replaced the rounded Romanesque arch, and created an impression of height.
  • The ribbed vault was formed by two pointed arches crossing each other and was supported by four pillars that took its weight.
  • The flying buttresses were raised arches that connected the roofs to the external buttresses.
  • The improvement in vaulting reduced the pressure on the walls so glass Windows could be added higher up. The great circular openings on the façades of cathedrals were called rose Windows. The use of pinacles made the building look more vertical.
As a result of technical advances, Gothic catedral were much higher and more luminous than earlier ones. They gave people the impression that the building was rising into the sky.
  1. GOTHIC PAINTING AND SCULPTURE

GOTHIC SCULPTURE
Gothic sculpture maintained the Medieval tradition of representing religious subjects, and was used to decórate churches and cathedrals. Like Romanesque art, early gothic sculture was mainly anonymous, but the names of some later sculptors are known to us. There ere a number of differences compared to Romanesque sculpture:
  • Gothic sculpture was more naturalistic. Figures were more realistic and expressive. They were better proportioned and interacted with each other to create scenes.
  • It was more dynamic. Curved lines were gradually introduced to suggest movement.
  • It was independent of architecture. Free standing statues were created that could be viewed from all sides.
TYPES OF SCULPTURE
  • Reliefs were stillused to decórate the façades of cathedrals and churches.
  • Realisic portraits were made of kings, nobles and bishops. They were used to decórate their tombs.
  • Altarpieces were placed behind the altars in churches and cathedrals, combining sculpture and painting.
  • Choir stalls were the carved wooden seats where the clergy were seated during religious services.
  • Gargoyles were fantastic representations of grotesque creatures that decorated the roofs of cathedrals.
        GOTHIC PAINTING
like sculpture, Gothic painting was more naturalistic and expressive than earlier art. Gothic painters sometimes introduced nature into the background of their work. Artists achieved an impression of depth and distance, although they only learned how to show perspective properly in the 15 th century.

Painting for altarpieces was mainly done on Wood. Several wooden panels together made up an altarpiece, showing religious scenes, especially the crucifixión. Early Gothic altarpieces often had a golden background.

THE EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC PAINTING

Gothic painting evolved over several centuries. Artists developed more sopisticated techniques and represented a wider range of scenes, including some non-religious subjects.
  • I  Florence in he 13 th and 14th centuries, great artists like Cimabue and Giotto painted more realistic work than earlier painters. They were considered to be the precursors of the Italian Renaissance.
  • In 15 th century Flanders, artists like Jn van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden created fine oil paintings, which featured human portraits in varied settings. They mastered the technique of perspective and produced exceptionally detailed artwork.

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