Each crusade generally lasted for a year or more before the area was secured and the queen could return home. By comparison, other expeditions into China or India could last two or three years. By , the Crusades were at an end and the crusading soldiers abandoned the area and returned home. After conquering Jerusalem in , an army was established to keep control of the city.
This lead to the establishment of numerous military orders. These were a kind of association, group representation or affiliation to a particular leader, queen or cause; though all orders served the Christian Catholic Church in Rome. The Age of Chivalry ebbed after several Crusades, in which Jerusalem was won and lost, and its focus was shifted toward vain and selfish pursuits.
This lead to the fighting of great wars-mostly between England and France — due to bickering among royal houses and noble families of different nations. As these high-ranking sides fought, the class divisions grew deeper and the poor were further exploited in order to support the rich. By mid new orders like the Order of the Golden Fleece were formed by royal courts.
While knighthood was once a noble profession, now knight becoming less effective in the battle are more often were simple sporting entertainment for royal families. Religion became less influential and even trivialized by some courts, saw the beginning of the The Hundred Years War between England and France.
Between the 10th and 13th centuries, most European cathedrals were built in the Romanesque style. Romanesque cathedrals are solid and substantial: They have rounded masonry arches and barrel vaults supporting the roof, thick stone walls and few windows. Around , church builders began to embrace a new architectural style, known as the Gothic. Gothic structures, such as the Abbey Church of Saint-Denis in France and the rebuilt Canterbury Cathedral in England, have huge stained-glass windows, pointed vaults and arches a technology developed in the Islamic world , and spires and flying buttresses.
In contrast to heavy Romanesque buildings, Gothic architecture seems to be almost weightless. Medieval religious art took other forms as well. Frescoes and mosaics decorated church interiors, and artists painted devotional images of the Virgin Mary, Jesus and the saints. Also, before the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, even books were works of art.
Craftsmen in monasteries and later in universities created illuminated manuscripts: handmade sacred and secular books with colored illustrations, gold and silver lettering and other adornments. Convents were one of the few places women could receive a higher education , and nuns wrote, translated, and illuminated manuscripts as well. In the 12th century, urban booksellers began to market smaller illuminated manuscripts, like books of hours, psalters and other prayer books, to wealthy individuals.
Chivalry and courtly love were celebrated in stories and songs spread by troubadours. It was especially deadly in cities, where it was impossible to prevent the transmission of the disease from one person to another. The plague started in Europe in October , when 12 ships from the Black Sea docked at the Sicilian port of Messina. Most sailors aboard the ships were dead, and those who were alive were covered in black boils that oozed blood and pus. Symptoms of the Black Death included fever, chills, vomiting, diarrhea, terrible aches and pains — and then death.
Victims could go to bed feeling healthy and be dead by morning. The plague killed cows, pigs, goats, chickens and even sheep, leading to a wool shortage in Europe. Understandably terrified about the mysterious disease, some people of the Middle Ages believed the plague was a divine punishment for sin. Others turned on their neighbors, purging people they believed to be heretics. Thousands of Jews were murdered between and , while others fled to less populated areas of Eastern Europe.
Today, scientists know the plague was caused by a bacillus called Yersina pestis , which travels through the air and can also be contracted through the bite of an infected flea. Landless peasants known as serfs did most of the work on the fiefs: They planted and harvested crops and gave most of the produce to the landowner.
In exchange for their labor, they were allowed to live on the land. They were also promised protection in case of enemy invasion. During the 11th century, however, feudal life began to change. Agricultural innovations such as the heavy plow and three-field crop rotation made farming more efficient and productive, so fewer farm workers were needed—but thanks to the expanded and improved food supply, the population grew.
As a result, more and more people were drawn to towns and cities. Meanwhile, the Crusades had expanded trade routes to the East and given Europeans a taste for imported goods such as wine, olive oil and luxurious textiles. As the commercial economy developed, port cities in particular thrived.
By , there were some 15 cities in Europe with a population of more than 50, In these cities, a new era was born: the Renaissance. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!
Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. During this era, America became The Iron Age was a period in human history that started between B. During the Iron Age, people across much of Europe, Asia and parts of Africa began making tools and weapons from iron and The Bronze Age marked the first time humans started to work with metal.
Bronze tools and weapons soon replaced earlier stone versions. Humans made many technological advances during the The Stone Age marks a period of prehistory in which humans used primitive stone tools.
Lasting roughly 2. During the Stone An ice age is a period of colder global temperatures and recurring glacial expansion capable of lasting hundreds of millions of years. Thanks to the efforts of geologist Louis Agassiz and mathematician Milutin Milankovitch, scientists have determined that variations in the In the realm of infectious diseases, a pandemic is the worst case scenario.
The Black Death was a devastating global epidemic of bubonic plague that struck Europe and Asia in the mids.
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