High Middle Ages

===Technology===
{{main|Medieval technology|Artes mechanicae}}

During the 12th and 13th century in Europe there was a radical change in the rate of new inventions, innovations in the ways of managing traditional means of production, and economic growth. In less than a century there were more inventions developed and applied usefully than in the previous thousand years of human history all over the globe. The period saw major [[technology|technological]] advances, including the adoption or invention of [[windmill]]s, [[watermill]]s, [[printing]] (though not yet with movable type), [[gunpowder]], the [[astrolabe]], [[glasses]], [[scissors]] of the modern shape, a better [[clock]], and greatly improved ships. The latter two advances made possible the dawn of the [[Age of Discovery]]. These inventions were influenced by foreign culture and society.

[[Alfred W. Crosby]] described some of this technological revolution in ''The Measure of Reality: Quantification in Western Europe, 1250-1600'' and other major historians of technology have also noted it.
[[File:WorldShips1460.jpg|thumb|Ships of the world in 1460, according to the [[Fra Mauro map]].]]
* The earliest written record of a [[windmill]] is from [[Yorkshire]], England, dated 1185.
* [[Paper]] manufacture began in Italy around 1270.
* The [[spinning wheel]] was brought to Europe (probably from India) in the 13th century.
* The [[magnetic compass]] aided navigation, first reaching Europe some time in the late 12th century.
* Eye [[glasses]] were invented in Italy in the late 1280s.
* The [[astrolabe]] returned to Europe via Islamic Spain.
* [[Fibonacci]] introduces [[Hindu-Arabic numerals]] to Europe with his book ''[[Liber Abaci]]'' in 1202.
* The West's oldest known depiction of a stern-mounted [[rudder]] can be found on church carvings dating to around 1180.