Europe Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===High and Late Middle Ages=== {{Main|High Middle Ages|Late Middle Ages|Middle Ages}} {{See also|Medieval demography}} [[File:Mappa delle Repubbliche marinare italiane con stemmi civici.svg|thumb|180px|The [[maritime republics]] of medieval [[Italy]] reestablished contacts between Europe, Asia and Africa with extensive trade networks and colonies across the Mediterranean, and had an essential role in the [[Crusades]].<ref>Marc'Antonio Bragadin, ''Storia delle Repubbliche marinare'', Odoya, Bologna 2010, 240 pp., {{ISBN|978-88-6288-082-4}}</ref><ref>G. Benvenuti, ''Le Repubbliche Marinare. Amalfi, Pisa, Genova, Venezia'', Newton & Compton editori, Roma 1989</ref>]] The period between the year 1000 and 1250 is known as the [[High Middle Ages]], followed by the [[Late Middle Ages]] until c. 1500. During the High Middle Ages the population of Europe experienced significant growth, culminating in the [[Renaissance of the 12th century]]. Economic growth, together with the lack of safety on the mainland trading routes, made possible the development of major commercial routes along the coast of the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] and [[Baltic Sea]]s. The growing wealth and independence acquired by some coastal cities gave the [[Maritime Republics]] a leading role in the European scene. The Middle Ages on the mainland were dominated by the two upper echelons of the social structure: the nobility and the clergy. [[Feudalism]] developed in [[France]] in the Early Middle Ages, and soon spread throughout Europe.<ref name="natgeo 158">National Geographic, 158.</ref> A struggle for influence between the [[nobility]] and the [[monarchy]] in England led to the writing of [[Magna Carta]] and the establishment of a [[parliament]].<ref name="natgeo 186">National Geographic, 186.</ref> The primary source of culture in this period came from the [[Roman Catholic Church]]. Through monasteries and [[cathedral school]]s, the Church was responsible for education in much of Europe.<ref name="natgeo 158"/> [[File:Philip II and Tancred meeting in Messina - British Library Royal MS 16 G vi f350r (detail).jpg|thumbnail|upright=0.9|left|[[Tancred of Sicily]] and [[Philip II of France]], during the [[Third Crusade]] (1189–1192)]] The [[Papacy]] reached the height of its power during the High Middle Ages. An [[East-West Schism]] in 1054 split the former Roman Empire religiously, with the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] in the [[Byzantine Empire]] and the Roman Catholic Church in the former Western Roman Empire. In 1095 [[Pope Urban II]] called for a [[Crusades|crusade]] against [[Muslims]] occupying [[Jerusalem]] and the [[Holy Land]].<ref name="natgeo 192">National Geographic, 192.</ref> In Europe itself, the Church organised the [[Inquisition]] against heretics. In the [[Iberian Peninsula]], the [[Reconquista]] concluded with the [[Granada War#Last stand at Granada|fall of Granada in 1492]], ending over seven centuries of Islamic rule in the south-western peninsula.<ref name="natgeo 199">National Geographic, 199.</ref> In the east, a resurgent Byzantine Empire recaptured Crete and Cyprus from the Muslims, and reconquered the Balkans. Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe from the 9th to the 12th centuries, with a population of approximately 400,000.<ref>{{harvnb|Laiou|Morisson|2007|pp=130–131}}; {{harvnb|Pounds|1979|p=124}}.</ref> The Empire was weakened following the defeat at [[Battle of Manzikert|Manzikert]], and was weakened considerably by the [[Siege of Constantinople (1204)|sack of Constantinople in 1204]], during the [[Fourth Crusade]].<ref name="DuikerSpielvogel2010">{{cite book|first1=William J.|last1=Duiker|first2=Jackson J.|last2=Spielvogel|title=The Essential World History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UJpI18JaEL0C&pg=PA330|access-date=20 January 2013|year=2010|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-0-495-90227-0|page=330|quote=The Byzantine Empire also interacted with the world of Islam to its east and the new European civilization of the west. Both interactions proved costly and ultimately fatal.|archive-date=11 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511203023/http://books.google.com/books?id=UJpI18JaEL0C&pg=PA330|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Findlay2006">{{cite book|first=Ronald|last=Findlay|title=Eli Heckscher, International Trade, And Economic History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VOE-sRivB6kC&pg=PA179|access-date=20 January 2013|year=2006|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=978-0-262-06251-0|pages=178–179|quote=These Christian allies did not accept the authority of Byzantium, and the Fourth Crusade that sacked Constantinople and established the so-called Latin Empire that lasted until 1261 was a fatal wound from which the empire never recovered until its fall at the hands of the Ottoman Turks in 1453 (Queller and Madden 1997).|archive-date=11 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511210105/http://books.google.com/books?id=VOE-sRivB6kC&pg=PA179|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Browning1992">{{cite book|first=Robert|last=Browning|title=The Byzantine Empire|url=https://archive.org/details/byzantineempire0000brow|url-access=registration|access-date=20 January 2013|year=1992|publisher=CUA Press|isbn=978-0-8132-0754-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/byzantineempire0000brow/page/253 253]|quote=And though the final blow was struck by the Ottoman Turks, it can plausibly be argued that the fatal injury was inflicted by the Latin crusaders in 1204.|edition=Revised}}</ref><ref name="Byfield2008">{{cite book|first=Ted|last=Byfield|title=A Glorious Disaster: A.D. 1100 to 1300: The Crusades: Blood, Valor, Iniquity, Reason, Faith|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o8hJgj5q5IEC&pg=PA136|access-date=20 January 2013|year=2008|publisher=Christian History Project|isbn=978-0-9689873-7-7|page=136|quote=continue to stand for another 250 before ultimately falling to the Muslim Turks, but it had been irrevocably weakened by the Fourth Crusade.|archive-date=11 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511204709/http://books.google.com/books?id=o8hJgj5q5IEC&pg=PA136|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Golna2004">{{cite book|first=Cornelia|last=Golna|title=City of Man's Desire: A Novel of Constantinople|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xHXGa8HSQIQC&pg=PA424|access-date=20 January 2013|year=2004|publisher=Go-Bos Press|isbn=978-90-804114-4-9|page=424|quote=1204 The Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople, destroying and pillaging many of its treasures, fatally weakening the empire both economically and militarily|archive-date=11 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511214428/http://books.google.com/books?id=xHXGa8HSQIQC&pg=PA424|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Powell2001">{{cite book|first=John|last=Powell|title=Magill's Guide to Military History: A-Cor|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lBYZAQAAIAAJ|access-date=20 January 2013|year=2001|publisher=Salem Press|isbn=978-0-89356-015-7|quote=However, the fifty-seven years of plunder that followed made the Byzantine Empire, even when it retook the capital in 1261, genuinely weak. Beginning in 1222, the empire was further weakened by a civil war that lasted until 1355. ... When the Ottomans overran their lands and besieged Constantinople in 1453, sheer poverty and weakness were the causes of the capital city's final fall.|archive-date=11 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511212456/http://books.google.com/books?id=lBYZAQAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Irvin2002">{{cite book|first=Dale T.|last=Irvin|title=History of the World Christian Movement: Volume 1: Earliest Christianity To 1453|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C2akvQfa-QMC&pg=PA405|access-date=20 January 2013|date= 2002|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-567-08866-6|page=405|quote=Not only did the fourth crusade further harden the resentments Greek-speaking Christians felt toward the Latin West, but it further weakened the empire of Constantinople, many say fatally so. After the restoration of Greek imperial rule the city survived as the capital of Byzantium for another two centuries, but it never fully recovered.|archive-date=11 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511205749/http://books.google.com/books?id=C2akvQfa-QMC&pg=PA405|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Frucht2004">{{cite book|first=Richard C.|last=Frucht|title=Eastern Europe: An Introduction to the People, Lands, and Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lVBB1a0rC70C&pg=PA856|access-date=20 January 2013|year=2004|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-800-6|page=856|quote=Although the empire was revived, the events of 1204 had so weakened Byzantium that it was no longer a great power.|archive-date=11 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511213734/http://books.google.com/books?id=lVBB1a0rC70C&pg=PA856|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="DuikerSpielvogel2010v2">{{cite book|first1=William J.|last1=Duiker|first2=Jackson J.|last2=Spielvogel|title=The Essential World History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UJpI18JaEL0C&pg=PA386|access-date=20 January 2013|year=2010|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-0-495-90227-0|page=386|quote=Later they established themselves in the Anatolian peninsula at the expense of the Byzantine Empire. ... The Byzantines, however, had been severely weakened by the sack of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade (in 1204) and the Western occupation of much of the empire for the next half century.|archive-date=11 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511220210/http://books.google.com/books?id=UJpI18JaEL0C&pg=PA386|url-status=live}}</ref> Although it would recover Constantinople in 1261, [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantium]] [[Fall of Constantinople|fell in 1453]] when [[Fall of Constantinople|Constantinople was taken]] by the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref name="natgeo 211">National Geographic, 211.</ref><ref name="Peters2006">{{cite book|first=Ralph|last=Peters|title=New Glory: Expanding America's Global Supremacy|url=https://archive.org/details/newgloryexpandin00pete|url-access=registration|access-date=20 January 2013|date=2006|publisher=Sentinel|isbn=978-1-59523-030-0|quote=Western Christians, not Muslims, fatally crippled Byzantine power and opened Islam's path into the West.}}</ref><ref name="Chronicles">{{cite book|title=Chronicles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ay0RAQAAMAAJ|access-date=20 January 2013|year=2005|publisher=Rockford Institute|quote=two-and-a-half centuries to recover from the Fourth Crusade before the Ottomans finally took Constantinople in 1453, ... They fatally wounded Byzantium, which was the main cause of its weakened condition when the Muslim onslaught came. Even on the eve of its final collapse, the precondition for any Western help was submission in Florence.|archive-date=11 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511220240/http://books.google.com/books?id=Ay0RAQAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> [[File:Mongols suzdal.jpg|thumb|upright|The sacking of [[Suzdal]] by [[Batu Khan]] in 1238, during the [[Mongol invasion of Europe]] (1220s–1240s)]] In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadic [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] tribes, such as the [[Pechenegs]] and the [[Cuman-Kipchak Confederation|Cuman-Kipchaks]], caused a massive migration of [[Slavic peoples|Slavic]] populations to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north, and temporarily halted the expansion of the Rus' state to the south and east.<ref name="Klyuch1">{{Cite book|last=Klyuchevsky|first=Vasily|title=The course of the Russian history|url=http://www.kulichki.com/inkwell/text/special/history/kluch/kluch16.htm|isbn=978-5-244-00072-6|year=1987|publisher="Myslʹ|access-date=2022-07-30|archive-date=2007-10-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071024124216/http://www.kulichki.com/inkwell/text/special/history/kluch/kluch16.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Like many other parts of [[Eurasia]], these territories were [[Mongol invasion of Rus|overrun by the Mongols]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/citd/RussianHeritage/4.PEAS/4.L/12.III.5.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20110427075859/https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/citd/RussianHeritage/4.PEAS/4.L/12.III.5.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 April 2011 |title=The Destruction of Kyiv|publisher=University of Toronto|access-date=10 June 2008}}</ref> The invaders, who became known as [[Tatars]], were mostly Turkic-speaking peoples under Mongol suzerainty. They established the state of the [[Golden Horde]] with headquarters in Crimea, which later adopted Islam as a religion, and ruled over modern-day southern and central Russia for more than three centuries.<ref>"[https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9037242/Golden-Horde Golden Horde] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080529001039/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9037242/Golden-Horde |date=29 May 2008 }}", in ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', 2007.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.accd.edu/sac/history/keller/Mongols/states3.html |title=Khanate of the Golden Horde (Kipchak) |publisher=Alamo Community Colleges |access-date=10 June 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080607055652/http://www.accd.edu/sac/history/keller/Mongols/states3.html |archive-date=7 June 2008 }}</ref> After the collapse of Mongol dominions, the first Romanian states (principalities) emerged in the 14th century: [[Moldavia]] and [[Walachia]]. Previously, these territories were under the successive control of Pechenegs and Cumans.<ref>Spinei, Victor. The Romanians and the Turkic Nomads North of the Danube Delta from the Tenth to the Mid-Thirteenth Century, Brill, 2009, {{ISBN|978-90-04-17536-5}}</ref> From the 12th to the 15th centuries, the [[Grand Duchy of Moscow]] grew from a small principality under Mongol rule to the largest state in Europe, overthrowing the Mongols in 1480, and eventually becoming the [[Tsardom of Russia]]. The state was consolidated under [[Ivan III the Great]] and [[Ivan the Terrible]], steadily expanding to the east and south over the next centuries. The [[Great Famine of 1315–1317]] was the first [[Crisis of the Late Middle Ages|crisis]] that would strike Europe in the late Middle Ages.<ref>[http://www.oglethorpe.edu/faculty/%7Eb_smith/ou/bs_foundations_chapter9.htm The Late Middle Ages] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151102090226/http://www.oglethorpe.edu/faculty/~b_smith/ou/bs_foundations_chapter9.htm |date=2 November 2015 }}. Oglethorpe University.</ref> The period between 1348 and 1420 witnessed the heaviest loss. The population of [[France in the Middle Ages|France]] was reduced by half.<ref>Baumgartner, Frederic J. ''France in the Sixteenth Century.'' London: [[Macmillan Publishers (United States)|Macmillan Publishers]], 1995. {{ISBN|0-333-62088-7}}.</ref><ref>Don O'Reilly. "[http://www.historynet.com/magazines/military_history/3031536.html Hundred Years' War: Joan of Arc and the Siege of Orléans]". ''TheHistoryNet.com''. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061109043743/http://www.historynet.com/magazines/military_history/3031536.html |date=9 November 2006 }}</ref> Medieval Britain was afflicted by 95 famines,<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/08/08/do0809.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2004/08/08/ixop.html Poor studies will always be with us]{{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}. By James Bartholomew. Telegraph. 7 August. 2004.</ref> and France suffered the effects of 75 or more in the same period.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/201392/famine Famine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150507160730/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/201392/famine |date=7 May 2015 }}. Encyclopædia Britannica.</ref> Europe was devastated in the mid-14th century by the [[Black Death]], one of the most deadly [[pandemic]]s in human history which killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe alone—a third of the [[Medieval demography|European population]] at the time.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-diseases/plague-article.html|title=Plague: The Black Death|magazine=National Geographic|access-date=1 April 2012|archive-date=16 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120216182517/http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-diseases/plague-article.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> The plague had a devastating effect on Europe's social structure; it induced people to live for the moment as illustrated by [[Giovanni Boccaccio]] in ''[[The Decameron]]'' (1353). It was a serious blow to the Roman Catholic Church and led to increased [[persecution of Jews]], [[beggars]] and [[leper]]s.<ref name="natgeo 223">National Geographic, 223.</ref> The plague is thought to have returned every generation with varying [[virulence]] and mortalities until the 18th century.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.infoplease.com/cig/dangerous-diseases-epidemics/bubonic-plague.html |title=Epidemics of the Past: Bubonic Plague – Infoplease.com |publisher=Infoplease.com |access-date=3 November 2008 |archive-date=21 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081021133412/http://www.infoplease.com/cig/dangerous-diseases-epidemics/bubonic-plague.html |url-status=live }}</ref> During this period, more than 100 plague [[List of epidemics|epidemics]] swept across Europe.<ref name="Revill">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/may/16/health.books |title=Black Death blamed on man, not rats | UK news | The Observer |newspaper=The Observer |first=Jo |last=Revill |date=16 May 2004 |access-date=3 November 2008 |location=London |archive-date=12 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140212100811/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/may/16/health.books |url-status=live }}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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