Social And Economic Changes In The Middle Ages

4. “The notion that the later Middle Ages was a calamitous, miserable period has been vastly overstated.” Before examining whether this assertion is exagerated or not, it is important to understand where this view comes from. “Struck by a plague that carried off between a fifth and a half of its population, shaken by Ottoman Turks who conquered Constantinople and moved into the Balkans, buffered by internal wars that threatened the very foundation of its political life, Europe shuddered.”1 This negative view of the late Middle Ages also results from the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) that opposed France and England for over a century, popular uprisings that punctuated the 13th and 14th centuries, the economic contraction and the great Schism that divided the Catholic church. However, Europe in the late Middle Ages “shrugged and forged ahead”, in other words, people of this time still managed to create or just imagine cultural, artistic and political innovations.2 That is why, I will argue that indeed, the latr Middle Ages was not a calamitous and miserable period at all, but rather just a period of intense social, political and economical changes. Politically speaking, the 14th and especially 15th …show more content…
From the premises of the humanism movement, the Italian Renaissance, which 'made the language and art of the ancient past the model for the present”, Leonard de Vinci 's work, composed of paintings as much as scientifical sketches, the Ottoman Court that aimed at reviving the Byzantine Empire 's art and the interiority depicted in both litterature, through personal stories like Saint Catherine of Siena 's visions, and German paintings, there was a huge variety of cultural and artistic expressions.10 Finally, the late Middle Ages is also a time of inventions, such as the printing press of Gutenberg around 1450, and the beginning of long travels, that eventually led to the discovery of new