Medieval Technological Revolution

The Medieval Technological Revolution

The roots of Western technological progress can be found in the Middle Ages (700-1400). Europe became more technologically advanced than China only after about 1350, but during the middle ages (also known as the medieval period) European technology began to progress while the Chinese increasingly believed that innovation was a bad thing.

The fall of Rome resulted in a near-complete collapse of civilization

barbarian tribes took over
literacy was nearly lost
slavery became impractical and the idea developed that it was immoral to hold Christians as slaves
civilization had to be rebuilt on a new foundation (Christianity)
the only functioning organization left was the church (Catholic)

the four seasons Agriculture:

The moldboard plow (8th century)

required 6 to 8 oxen to pull so led to cooperative farming

PEM photo: Moldboard Plow, National Museum of American History

Three field crop rotation (9th century)

winter wheat or rye
spring oats, beans, or barley
fallow

Horsepower replaces oxen (widespread by 12th century)--horse could work for more hours a day and moved 50% faster

oats (oxen can work on grass alone)
the horsecollar (8th-9th century)--allows a horse to pull 4 or 5 times more weight.

Horsecollar

iron horseshoes (common by 11th century) allowed horses to work on wet ground
the stirrup made possible the mounted knight, creating a demand for more and better horses

Feudalism

Manorial System : the serfs (not a slave, but bound to the land--cannot move away) lived in a village and farmed the land communally, giving a share of their labor and the crop to the knight
the knight and his family lived in the castle and had responsibility to protect the serfs and to fight when called up by the king
such government as there was was provided by the knights and lords
the farmers had some opportunity to better themselves by improving farming practices

image source

waterwheel at 17th century ironworks Water Power

invented in Roman times but used only rarely through the 5th century
Spread of the water wheel in the 8th and 9th centuries

In 1086 the Domesday Book lists 5624 mills in 3000 English communities--an average of one mill for every 50 households

first mills were floating mills or mills attached to bridges. They first had undershoot wheels (20-30% efficient), then overshoot (50-60% efficient, 13th century) with the water directed by a canal or a wooden millrace
the invention of the cam allows the conversion of rotary motion into reciprocating motion
new uses for water power:

around 1000: fulling wool cloth, beating hemp, water driven trip hammers to break up iron ore
around 1100 water powered bellows, edge runner wheels to crush olives for oil
around 1200 saw mills that used water power both to power a rotary saw and to feed in the log
around 1300 water powered grindstones, pumps to remove water from mines

damming a river for water power--1177 Toulouse had 3 dams with 43 mills. The largest dam was 1300 feet long
windmills (12th century) used in areas where land was flat or streams froze in the winter

Windmill

23. Life and Miracles of Saint Louis Christianity and attitudes towards technology

motivation to go out and spread Christianity
God no longer inhabits nature
Man's dominion over the earth--new attitude
monasteries developed and spread technology because they needed it to be self-supporting on marginal land and because they believed work was virtuous
monks work with their hands--the first intellectuals who got their hands dirty ( The Cistercians )
Christianity prohibited the owning of Christians as slaves so slavery became much less common
Cathedrals were a technological achievement with a religious purpose--competition to build taller both for civic pride and because people saw it as getting closer to God ( a medieval mason , images of medieval art and architecture )
the invention of the clock in the late 13th century--at a monastery ( Revolution in Timekeeping )