Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps and diagrams
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 The physical basis of European history
- Part I The classical civilizations
- Part II The Middle Ages
- 3 From the second to the ninth century
- 4 Europe in the age of Charlemagne
- 5 From the ninth to the fourteenth century
- 6 Europe in the early fourteenth century
- 7 The late Middle Ages
- Part III Modern Europe
- Part IV The Industrial Revolution and after
- Index
6 - Europe in the early fourteenth century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps and diagrams
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 The physical basis of European history
- Part I The classical civilizations
- Part II The Middle Ages
- 3 From the second to the ninth century
- 4 Europe in the age of Charlemagne
- 5 From the ninth to the fourteenth century
- 6 Europe in the early fourteenth century
- 7 The late Middle Ages
- Part III Modern Europe
- Part IV The Industrial Revolution and after
- Index
Summary
By the early fourteenth century the period of medieval economic growth was over; the population of Europe reached its peak at about this time, and the spatial pattern of cities was to develop no farther before the nineteenth century.
POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY
The political map of Europe had assumed a form which, with minor changes, it was to retain into modern times. Only in the Balkan peninsula, where the Byzantine empire was clinging desperately to its last foothold, were major changes still to come. In most of Europe political control was becoming more centralized, and kingship more absolute. Feudalism, as a mode of government, was weakening, though its outward symbols were as conspicuous as ever. Only in eastern Europe and Russia were feudal relationships tending to strengthen.
In the Spanish peninsula the southward advance of the Christian states had reduced the Moorish kingdom of Granada to the Sierra Nevada and neighboring coastlands. To the north, Castile, having absorbed Léon and other petty states, reached from the Biscay coast in the north to the Strait of Gibraltar (Fig. 6.1). It dominated the Meseta, while around its periphery lay Navarre and Gascony, Aragon and Portugal. Only Castile still had a boundary with the Moors and still continued its centuries-old crusade against them. Portugal and Aragon were casting their eyes beyond the seas and were beginning that commercial expansion which was to take them to Asia and the New World.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- An Historical Geography of Europe , pp. 142 - 186Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1990