What were the effects of the Middle Ages?

Answer 1

If you call the introduction of feudalism a revolution in agriculture, then there was a revolution, but generally a revolution is not a movement backwards. The introduction of the feudal system moved people from towns to the country. The king, his retainers, family depended on the income from landed property. The country estate was known as manor. A manor varied in size according to the wealth of the lord. Great nobles might have several manors. England during the period following the Norman conquest contained more than 9,000 manorial estates. Of the arable land of the manor the lord reserved as much as he needed for his own use. This was called his "demesne" or domain. The rest of the land he allotted to the peasants who were his tenants. They cultivated their holdings in common and these were spilt into a large number of small strips and separated by banks of unploughed turf. Farming methods were very backwards. Farmers did not know how to enrich the land or to rotate the crops. Manor lands were farmed using the three field system. One field was devoted to winter crops, another summer crops, and a third was fallow. Farm tools and implements were few and clumsy. Wooden ploughs only scratched the ground and furrowing was done with a hand implement that was like a large rake. So, to answer your question I do not feel that there was a revolution in agriculture and thus, two effects didn't take place. As with many things in the 1,000 years of history that this time consisted of there wasn't much development done in science, farming, or learning.

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The Medieval period was not one of total darkness. Historians see this time as one of great change and innovation. The agricultural revolution was a major change in how farming was done in Europe. It was the agricultural revolution that brought about:

• crop rotation (called 3 field farming). This meant a huge increase in available food
• the use of heavy plows. This too made huge changes in how crops were planted because it could cut very deep into the soil.
• the development of the horseshoe meant horses could be used in the wet cold fields of Northern Europe, instead of oxen. During the Medieval period, big strong war horses were bred with farm horses. The horses could plough a field faster than oxen, required fewer because they had stronger pulling power which all resulted in about a 30% increase in peasant productivity.

Answer 2

Over all, the Middle Ages was a period of slow, sometimes painful, but clear growth in learning and innovation that became more rapid and stronger with the passing of time, until it lead to the Renaissance.

The Middle Ages (476 to 1453 AD) began during a period of general decline of literacy, trade, and security, which had begun two centuries earlier. This decline continued with the beginning of the Middle Ages, but from the very start, there were forces bringing a return to normality. These included the Byzantine Empire, a stalwart intellectual center during a time of decline, the monastic movement in Ireland and Scotland, which consciously sought to preserve Latin civilization and was asked by Charlemagne to help his campaign for literacy, and the spread of Islam, which, devastating as it was to Roman civilization, spread ancient philosophy, science, and mathematics across the Mediterranean.

But from the lowest point in European civilization, some time after 500 AD, there were clear signs of a rise in literacy. The King's School at Canterbury is said to have been founded in 596, and four other current schools in the UK began as church operated schools before the end of the seventh century. The oldest state operated school, the Beverly Grammar School, opened in Yorkshire in 700 AD.

Charlemagne brought scribes and teachers from Northern England, Scotland, and Ireland, among other places, to his court to foster learning. His example was followed by Alfred the Great, who fostered education to the point of making it policy that all free men who could learn should be taught to read and write in English. He also had great books translated into English.

The first university was opened in Bologna in 1088. Others soon followed. The University of Paris was granted the privilege of issuing secular doctor's degrees by the pope in 1215. By the end of the Middle Ages, over seventy universities were operating in Europe.

There was a commensurate rise in science and invention. The horse collar, the stirrup, gunpowder and the cannon, new looms, rag paper, and the printing press were all inventions of the Middle Ages.

Similarly, there was a rise of literature in vernacular languages. Geoffrey Chaucer is just one example.

The arts grew apace. There were impressive advances in architecture, art, and music. For example, perspective drawing, which had been understood in ancient times and lost, was recovered in Europe, from rudimentary beginnings in the tenth century. Bowed instruments were introduced and improved. The Gothic arch was developed, and this resulted in the High Gothic period.

Answer 3

new technologies and the expanding of production