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    of 36
    1 The Medieval West 1 ChISiS goog dawned with a chill. i 1303 and then again during 1307, the Baltic Sea froze over No one fi ‘ever heard of that happening before, and the freez A ing cold foretold worse disasters. The cold weather crops rotted in sodden fields. The meager han came late, precipitating a surge in price for produce and forcing King Edward Il of England impose price controls. But capping prices aid 08 grow more food ( In 1315 thestuation gotworse.In England de ing that year, the price of wheat rose 800 perce THE OTTOMAN SULTAN in 1478the Venetian peter, Gentile Blin went to Costantinope to alt the portrait of Sultan Mehmeti who had fonguered the Byzantine Empire, Hence, encounters between Cristian Europe and theTurks became one ofthe most important themes in the history ofthe West. although lam prohibted the depletion ofthe human image, the Sultan apparently di not object to2 Chistion pining hs porta. LEARNING OBJECTIV Howdid disturbancesin the rudimentary. ‘global economy ‘ofthe Middle Ages precipitate almost complete financial collapse ‘and jidespeead socal dis © Watch the Video Series on MyHistoryLab Learn about some key topics related to this chapter with the MyHistoryLab Video Series: Key Topics in Western Civilization Preachers compared the ceaseless rains tothe great flood inthe Bible, and floods dd come, over: 113 \whelming dikes in the Netherlands and England, washing away entire towns in Germany, turning flelds into lakes in France. Everywhere crops filed. Things got much worse. Torrential rains fll again in 1316, and forthe third straight year the ‘tops flled, creating the most severe famine n recorded European history. The effects were most 331 332 ‘The fear of the Black Death and the inability to discern its causes focused the at- tention of contemporaries on the bodies of the sick. Almost any discoloration of the skin or glandular swellings could be interpreted as a sign of the Black Death’s presence. Physicians and surgeons, of course, were the experts in reading the signs of the body for disease. As victims and their distraught families soon discovered, however, physi- cians did not really know what the glandular swellings and discolorations of the skin meant. Boccaccio reported that “No doctor's advice, no medicine could overcome or alleviate this disease. ... Either the disease was such that no treatment was possible or the doctors were so ignorant that they did not know what caused it, and consequently could not administer the proper remedy."* In the absence of an alternative, government officials resorted to quarantines to stop the spread of the disease. They locked up infected households for 40 days, which ‘was especially hard on the poor who needed to work to eat. To maintain quarantines and bury the dead, city councils created public health bureaucracies, complete with their own staff physicians, grave diggers, and police force. The extraordinary powers granted to the public health authorities helped expand the authority of the state over its citizens in the name of pursuing the common good. The expansion of governmen- tal bureaucracy that distinguished modern from medieval states was partly the result of the need to keep human bodies under surveillance and control—a need that began with the Black Death. Experts have long disputed the cause of the Black Death, but DNA evidence has now verified that the bubonic plague was the most likely culprit even ifthe epidemio- logical characteristics ofthe disease have mutated over the past 700 years. The bubonic plague can appear in two forms. Inthe first form itis usually transmitted to humans by a flea that has bitten a rodent infected with the Yersinia pestisbacllus, usually a rat. The infected flea then bites a human victim. The infection enters the bloodstream, causing inflamed swellings called buboes (hence, “bubonic” plague) in the glands of the groin ar armpit, internal bleeding, and discoloration of the skin, symptoms similar to those Boccaccio described. The second form of plague was the pneumonic type, which infected the lungs and spread by coughing and sneezing, Either form could be lethal, but the complex epidemiology of bubonic plague meant thatthe firs form could not be transmitted directly from one person to another. After being infected, many victims probably developed pneumonia as a secondary symptom, which then spread quickly to others. As one contemporary physician put it, one person could seemingly infect the entire world. In some cases, the doctor caught the illness and died before the patient did, ‘The visitations of the bubonic plague in the late nineteenth and twentieth cen- turies, which have been observed by physicians trained in modern medicine, formed the basis for the theory linking the Black Death to the bubonic plague. Alexandre Yersin discovered the bubonic plague bacillus (Yersinia pestis) in Hong Kong in 1894 and traced its spread through rats and fleas. Most historians and epidemiologists think that something similar to this must have happened in 1348, but there are dif- ferences between the fourteenth- and twentieth-century plagues, The Black Death spread much more rapidly from person to person and place to place than the bubonic plague does in modern epidemics. For example, rats do not travel very far very fast, and in modern examples the bubonic plague has rarely spread more than 12 miles per year. In 1348, however, the Black Death traveled as far in a day as rat-borne bubonic plague does in a year. Many of the reported symptoms from the fourteenth century do not match the symptoms observed in modern plague victims Moreover, the Black Death, unlike the bubonic plague, seems to have had a long incubation period before the first symptoms appeared. Because of the long incubation, those who had the dis- ‘ease transmitted it to others before they knew they were sick, which helps explain why the disease was so lethal despite attempts to quarantine those afflicted with it Thus, the bacillus has probably mutated, changing the epidemiology, or the bubonic plague that appeared during the Black Death was often confused with other epidem- ics that had other characteristics. In Europe about 20 million people died, which would have been more than the combined populations ofthe six largest cities (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Hous- ton, Philadelphia, and Phoenix) in the United States today. Across Europe life expec tancy decreased from 43 years in 1300 to only 24 years by 1400. The deaths usually clustered in a matter ofa few weeks or months after the disease first appeared in a par- ticular locale. The death toll, however, varied erratically from place to place, ranging from about 20 to 90 percent. So great was the toll in southern and western Europe that entire villages were depopulated or abandoned. Paris lost half its population, Florence as much as four-fifths, and Venice two-thirds. In the seaport of Trapani, Italy, every- one apparently died or left. Living in enclosed spaces, monks and nuns were especially hard hit. All the Franciscans of Carcassonne and Marseille in France died. In Mont- pellier, France, only 7 of the 140 Dominicans survived. In isolated Kilkenny, Ireland, Brother John Clyn found himself let alone among his dead brothers, and he began to write a diary of what he had witnessed because he was afraid he might be the last per- son left alive in the world. (See Different Voices in this chapter.) The Black Death kept coming back. In the Mediterranean basin where the many port cities formed a network of contagion, the plague reappeared between 1348 and 1721 in one port or another about every 20 years. Some of the later outbreaks were just as lethal as the initial 1348 catastrophe. Florence lost hal its population in 1400; Venice lost a third in 1575-1577 and a third again in 1630-1631. Less exposed than the Mediterranean, northern Europe suffered less and saw the last of the dread dis- ease in the Great Plague of London of 1665-1666. Most of Poland escaped without any signs of the disease, and east-central Europe in general was far less severely hit than western Europe, probably because the sparse population made the spread of contagion less likely THE TRIUMPH OF DEATH This deal fom Fancesco Tai fesco, The Tiumph of Death nthe Camposanto Ps, 2.1350, depicts an elegant cavalcade of arctocats on horseback pernginhoror at the bodies of plage tins. © weer ne vteo The Phe 333 334 FLAGELLANTS During the Black Death many peopebeleved God was punishing them oth sns. In order tecexpiate those sine, sme young men performed flageltion a prctice once reserved fr monks who whipped themlves 9 form of penance In ode a conta the practice among laymen, cnfaeritis were formed in hich collective agelation was organized, The lagliants depictedher a formed nt a procession displaying ‘holy banner and crucifix while one bother logs wo others. A Cold Wind from the East How did forces outside Europe, in particular the Mongol and Ottoman Empires, luence conditions in the West? faced the mounted warriors ofthe distant Mongol tribes, whose relentless con- quests drove them from Outer Mongolia across central Asia toward Europe. ‘The Mongols and Turks were nomadic peoples from central Asia. Closely re- lated culturally but speaking different languages, these peoples exerted an extraordinary influence on world history despite a rather small population. Map 11.2 shows the place of origin of the Mongols and Turks and where they spread across a wide belt of open, relatively flat steppe land stretching from the Yellow Sea between China and the Korean peninsula to the Baltic Sea and the Danube River basin in Europe. Virtually without for- ests and interrupted only by a few easily traversed mountain ranges, the broad Eurasian steppes have been the great migration highway of world history from prehistoric times to the medieval caravans and the modern trans-Siberian railway. As the Mongols and Turks charged westward out of central Asia on their fast po- nies, they put pressure on the kingdoms of the West. Mongol armies hobbled Kievan Rus, and Turks destroyed Byzantium. As a consequence, the potential Orthodox allies in the East of the Catholic Christian West were weakened or eliminated. Converts to Is- Jam, the Ottomans pushed into the Balkans. In contrast to the ere ofthe twelfth-century Crusades, Catholic Europe found itself on the defensive against a powerful Muslim foe. D uring the same period the West was suffering from deadly microbes, it also wu The Mongol Invasions ‘Whereas the Europeans became successful sailors because of their extensive coastlines and close proximity to the sea, the Mongols became roving horsemen because they needed to migrate several times a year in search of grass and water for their ponies and livestock. They also became highly skilled warriors because they competed persistently with other tribes for access to the grasslands. Between 1206 and 1258, the Mongols transformed themselves from a collection, of disunited tribes with a vague ethnic affinity to create the most extensive empire in the history of the world. The epic rise ofthe previously obscure Mongols was the work of a Mongol chief named Temujin, who succeeded in uniting the various quarreling tribes and transforming them into a world power. In 1206 Temujin was proclaimed Genghis Khan (ca. 1162-1227) (“Very Mighty King”), the supreme ruler over all the Mongols. Genghis broke through the Great Wall of China, destroyed the Jin (Chin) Empire in northern China, and occupied Beijing, His cavalry swept across Asia as far as Azerbaijan, Georgia, northern Persia, and Kievan Rus. Genghis Khan ordered that after his death his empire would be divided into four principalities or Khanates for his sons and grandsons. They continued Mongol expansion. Eventually, Mongol armies conquered territories that stretched from Korea to Hungary and from the Arctic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, ET he Monga Ene, 1206-405 eR Sint contin SS comigssthssversos mm Be Meroe bee 158 © BRL isn se Nr red | mono egy oe str 2 MAP 11.2 THE MONGOL EMPIRE, 1206-1405 The Mongols and Turks were nomadic peoples who spread ‘ut acos5 Asia and Europe from ther homeland in tha region of Mongol. The Mongel armies eventually “onquere vast erties from Kore tothe borders of Hungary an fom the Arctic Ocean tthe Arabian Sea, From the dates shown how rapa ald the Mongol armies spread thei ule? 335 MONGOL HORSEMAN Unie the fourteenth century European representations ofthe Mongol this contemporary Chinese lustatlon accurately depicts the appearance, des, and equipment af a Mengol Archer fon horebock 1206-1227 Reign of Genghis Khan. 1206-1258 Mongol armies advance Undefeated acoss Eurasia, 1260 Defeat in Syria of Mongols by Mamluks of Egypt. 1369-1405 Reign of Tamerlane. The Mongol success was accomplished through a highly disciplined military or- ganization, tactics that relied on extremely mobile cavalry forces, and a sophisticated intelligence network. During the campaign against the Rus in the winter of 1223, the Mongol cavalry moved with lightning speed across frozen rivers. Although the Rus 336 forces outnumbered the Mongol armies and had superior armor, they were crushed in every encounter with the Mongols. ‘The Mongol armies employed clever tactics, First, they unnerved enemy soldiers with a hail of arrows. Then they appeared to retreat, only to draw the enemy into false confidence before the Mongol horsemen delivered a deadly final blow. European chroniclers at the time tried to explain their many defeats at the hands of the Mongols by reporting that the Mongol “hordes” had overwhelming numbers, but evidence clearly shows that their victories were the result not of superior numbers, but of supe rior discipline and the sophistication of the Mongol intelligence network. Once they hhad conquered a territory the Mongols secured the caravan routes across Asia, known as the Silk Road, creating the Mongol Peace. (See Encounters and Transformations in this chapter.) However, the Mongol Peace came at an enormous human cost. It is estimated that Ghenghis Khan’s armies were responsible for the deaths of 40 million people or about 11.1 percent of the world’s population, a death toll second only to World War Il, which killed 66 million people. And Mongol armies may have been responsible for spreading the Yersinia pestis bacillus from its home in China, making the Mongols indirectly responsible for the Black Death, ‘Mongol power climaxed in 1260. In that year the Mongols suffered a crushing defeat in Syria at the hands of the Mamluk rulers of Egypt, an event that ended the ‘Mongol reputation for invincibility. Conflicts and succession disputes among the vari- ‘ous Mongol tribes made them vulnerable to rivals and to rebellion from their unhappy subjects. The Mongol Empire did not disappear overnight, but its various successor Khanates never recaptured the dynamic unity forged by Genghis Khan. During the fourteenth century the Mongol Peace sputtered to an end. In the wake of these upheavals, a warrior of Mongol descent known as Tamerlane (t. 1369-1405) created an army composed of Mongols, Turks, and Persians, which challenged the established Mongol khanates. Tamerlane’s conquests rivaled those of Genghis Khan, but with very different results, His armies pillaged the rich cities that supplied the caravan routes. Thus, in his attempt to monopolize the lucrative trans- Eurasian trade, Tamerlane largely destroyed it. The collapse of the Mongol Peace broke the thread of commerce across Eurasia and stimulated the European search for alternative routes to China that ultimately resulted in the voyages of Christopher Columbus in 1492. The Rise of the Ottoman Turks "The Mongol armies were never very large, so the Mongols had always augmented their numbers with Turkish tribes. The result was that outside Mongolia, Turks gradually absorbed the Mongols. Turkish replaced Mongolian as the dominant language, and the ‘Turks took over the government of the central Asian empires that had been scraped to- gether by the Mongol conquests. In contrast to the Mongols, many of whom remained Buddhists, the Turks became Muslims and created an exceptionally dynamic, expan- sionist society oftheir own (see Map 11.3). ‘Among the Turkish peoples, the most successful state builders were the Ottomans. Named for Osman I (r. 1281-1326), who brought it to prominence, the Ottoman dynasty endured for more than 600 years, until 1924. The nucleus of the Ottoman state was a small principality in Anatolia (a portion of present-day Turkey), which in the early fourteenth century began to expand at the expense of ts weaker neighbors, including the Byzantine Empire. The Ottoman state was built not on national, linguistic, or ethnic unity, but on a purely dynastic network of personal and military loyalties to the Ottoman prince, called the sultan. Thus, the vitality of the empire depended on the energy of the individual sultans. The Ottomans thought of themselves as ghazis, warriors for Islam devoted to destroying polytheists, includ- ing Christians. (To some Muslims, the Christian belief in the Trinity and veneration (BB Resa te Document “The Mongol: An Excerp from the Novgorod rnc, 1315, 337 : Encounters and Transformations The Silk Road othing better facilitated encounters between East and West than the Silk Road. The label actually refers to a network of caravan tals connecting China with west- tem Asia and Europe through the Taklimakan, one of the most inhospitable deserts on Earth. Travelers had litle choice but +o pick their way from oasis to oasis across central Asia. On the eastern and western edges of ths vast territory the civlzations of China and the West developed, and the Silk Road connected them. ‘Many highly valuable commodities were transported along E these routes besides silk, including ivory, gol, Jewels, iron furs, and ceramics (hence, the term “fine China’for the most precious ceramics). None of these commodities, however, captured the Imagination of the West as much as silk, which had been trans- ported from China across the Silk Road since Roman times (see Chapter 6), The importance of the Silk Road required peaceful politcal conditions to thrive, lest caravans be plundered. Per- haps the greatest era forthe Silk Road came under the Chinese Tang dynasty (618-907), which provided stability that allowed commerce to flower along the road. After the T'ang dynasty col- lapsed, the road was unsafe until the Mongol invasions in the thirteenth century. “The Mongol invasions completely altered the composition E of Asia and much of eastern Europe—economically, politically, and ethnically. Once the Mongols had corquered new terrto- ries, they established the Mongol Peace by reopening the Silk Road across the Asian steppes, making trans-Eurasian trade pos- sible and guaranteeing the safety of merciants. Thanks to the Mongols, European Christians began to traverse the ilk Road to China and to encounter directly the civilizations of the East. The ‘Mongols were tolerant of religious diversity and welcomed the first Christian missionaries into China. A Raman Catholic arch- bishopric was founded in Beijing in 1307. ‘The most famous ofthe many merchants who traversed the SilkRoad during the Mongol Peace were the Venetians from the Polo family, including Marco Polo, who artived at the court of the Great Khan in China in 1275, Marco Polo's book about his! travel offersa vivid and often remarkably perceptive account of: the Mongol Empire during the Mongol Peace. It also illustrates: better than any other source the cultural engagement of the Christian West with the Mongol East during the late thirteenth century, Although Marco Polo was a merchant who traveled: (continued on next pagel Brew se croserLook Mra nae o te ik Rand 338 [MARCO POLO TRAVELING BY CAMEL CARAVAN ON THE SILK ROAD Thisitustration iil fom alate fourtsanth-century ata A Mongol escort provides security forthe wavelers. fontinued fom previous to make a profit, his book brought a great store of cultural ing were his discussions of religion. Marco classified peoples ac- the sixteenth century. cording to their religion and evaluated religions with the eye of ‘a western European Catholic. He was harshest about Muslims, bbut seemed more tolerant of idolaters"; that i, Buddhists and Hindus, whose practices he found intriguing. He also reported: Peace for the West? For Discussion sees MAP 11.3. THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE The Otoman sate expanded fom asmall principal in Anatol which Is south ofthe Black Sea, rom there the Ottomans spread eastward ito Kuristan and Armenia. nthe West they optred al of Greece and much af the Balkan peninsula From this map what was the strategic slnfcance for ‘wade and mitary power ofthe location ofthe Ottomen Empire? of numerous saints demonstrated that Christians were not true monotheists.) Dur- ing the fourteenth century, incessant Ottoman guerilla actions gradually chipped away at the Byzantine frontier. ‘The Byzantine Empire in the middle of the thirteenth century was emerging from a period of domination by Frankish knights and Venetian merchants who had conquered Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. In 1261, the Byzantine emperor, Michael VIII Palaeologus (r. 1260-1282), recaptured the great city. The revived Byzantine Empire, however, was a pale vestige of what it once had been, and the Palaeologi emperors desperately sought military assistance from ‘western Europe to defend themselves from the Ottomans. Dependent on mercenary on magical practices and reports of miracles. Because of the Information—some accurate, some fanciful—that stimulated : popularity of his book, Marco Polos views of Asia became the the Western imagination about the East. Perhaps most reveal- ! principal source of knowledge in the West about the East until, ‘What were the advantages and disadvantages of the Mongol 339 Wa GB rons oocomene “Mehmed I (15th Century) Kritvoulos 340 armies and divided by civil wars, the Byzantines offered only pathetic resistance to the all-conquering Ottomans. From their base in Anatolia, the Ottomans raided far and wide, launching pirate fleets into the Aegean and gradually encircling Constantinople after they crossed over into Europe in 1308. By 1402 Ottoman territory had grown to 40 times, its size a century earlier. During that century of conquests, the frontier between Christianity and Islam shifted. The former subjects of the Byzantines in the Balkans fell to the Ottoman Turks. Fragile Serbia, a bastion of Orthodox Christianity in the Balkans, broke under Ottoman pressure. First unified in the late twelfth century, Serbia established political independence from Byzantium and autonomy for the Serbian church. Although the Serbs had taken control over a number of former Byzantine provinces, they fll to the invincible Ottomans at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, Lamenting the Battle of Kosovo has remained the bedrock of Serbian national identity to this day. Serbia's western neighbors, the kingdoms of Bosnia and Herzegovina, deflated un- der Ottoman pressure during the late fifteenth century. Unlike Serbia, where most of the population remained loyal to the Serbian Orthodox Church, in Bosnia and Herze- govina the Serbian-speaking land-holding classes converted to Islam to preserve their property. The subjugated peasants, also Serbian-speaking, remained Orthodox Chris- tians who turned over one-third of everything they raised to their Muslim lords, which, ‘The final assault came in May 1453 and lasted less than a day. When the city fll, the Ottoman army spent the day plundering, raping, and enslaving the populace. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI, was never found amid the multitude of the dead. The fall of Constantinople ended the Christian Byzantine Empire, the continu- ous remnant of the ancient Roman Empire. But the idea of Rome was not so easily snuffed out. The first Ottoman sultans residing in Constantinople continued to be called “Roman emperors.” Although the western European princes had done little to save Byzantium, its de- mise shocked them. Now they were also vulnerable to the Ottoman onslaught. For the next 200 years the Ottomans used Constantinople as @ base to threaten Christian Europe. Hungary and the eastern Mediterranean empire of Venice remained the last arene kech ute eka ee RTL 1281-1326 Reign of Osman |. 1308 Ottoman Empire advances into Europe. 1389 Battle of Kosovo; Serbia becomes vassal state of the Ottomans. 1451-1481 Reign of Mehmed I "The Conqueror.” 1453 Fall of Constantinople and death of last Byzantine emperor. lines of defense for the West, and at various times in succeeding centuries the Otto- mans launched expeditions against Europe, including two sieges of Vienna (1529 and 1683) and several invasions of Italy. Hundreds of years of attacks by the Mongol and Ottoman Empires redrew the map of the West. Events in Europe did not and could not take place in isolation from the eastern pressures and influences. The Mongol conquest finished off Kievan Rus. Although Mongols burned down Moscow in the winter of 1238 and pillaged it in 1293, its remote, forested location offered some security from further attacks and occupa- tion, As a result, Moscow and the Republic of Novgorod, which escaped the Mongol attacks entirely, replaced Kiev as the centers of power in what would become Russia ‘The Ottoman conquests also created a lasting Muslim presence within the borders of Burope, especially in Bosnia and Albania, In succeeding centuries Christian Europe and the Muslim Ottoman Empire would be locked in a deadly competitive embrace, but they also benefited from innumerable cultural exchanges and regular trade. Hostil- ity between the two sides was recurrent but never inevitable and was broken by long periods of peaceful engagement. In fact, the Christian kingdoms of western Europe went to war far more often with one another than with the Turks. Economic Depression and Social Turmoil How did disturbances inthe rudimentary global economy of the Middle Ages precipitate almost complete financial collapse and widespread social discontent in Europe?

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