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  • European Societies (14th-15th Century)

    • Gender, Work, Politics, and Religion

      • Most Europeans lived in small villages

      • Peasant farmers owned separate plots of land, but they worked the fields communally

        • Men did most of the field work, women helped at planting and harvest

        • Some regions: men herded livestock, women cared for children

      • Europeans kept livestock, so hunting was not a major part of their culture 

      • Men dominated most areas of life in Europe

        • European women held inferior social, religious, and economic positions, yet wielded power in their households

        • Christianity was the dominant European religion

        • Europeans were nominally Catholic, but many adhered to local beliefs 

        • Kings allied themselves with the church when it proved beneficial to them, but would often act independently

    • Effects of Plague and Warfare

      • Black Death in 1346 devastated Europe, ⅓ of people die

        • Recurred with severity in the 1360s and 1370s

      • Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453)- France and England war

        • Interrupted overland trade routes

        • Forces the need for a maritime route for trade

      • New Inventions

        • Triangular sail (Lateen sail)

        • Compass

        • Astrolabe- measure latitude

        • Quadrant-measure latitude

    • Political and Technological Change

      • Increase of taxes following the 100 years war

      • New pride in national identity

      • 1485-Henry VII founds the Tudor dynasty and began uniting a divided land

      • Charles VII’s successors u0-nifies France

      • 1492- Ferdinand and Isabella defeat the Muslims in the al-Andalus region of Portugal and Spain

      • Technological Changes

        • Moveable type and printing press, invented in Germany (1450s)

          • Printing stimulated the European’s curiosity of the New World 

          • Ptolemy’s Geography (1475) and Marco Polo’s Travels (1477)

          • Search for a trade route that goes around the Muslim kingdoms begins

    • Motives for Exploration

      • Countries wanted African and Asian luxuries, such as silk and spices

      • Spreading Christianity around the world with missionaries

        • Convert “heathens” to Catholicism