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sometime in the 11th century a peasant slipped away from the village in Europe to which he was bound for life his family was required to work the soil for the local Lord and had done so for centuries longer than anyone could remember this peasant however wanted something more something new as soon as the Great Gate of a local Town opened he entered now he only had to live in the town for a year and a day hiding from the Lord's men who might look for him and he would be forever free
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he would no longer be a serf but a townsman free to make his choices while great events like Crusades Wars and dynastic changes dominated the Chronicles the headlines of the day the future of Western Society was being formed in these commercial towns that were growing up during the high Middle Ages in this lecture I will look at Western Europe and West Africa where trade networks transformed society and culture I will begin in Western Europe whereby the 11th century commercial towns began
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to appear almost everywhere during the Early Middle Ages after the fall of the Western Roman Empire the few towns in the west were primarily administrative centers that's where a bishop might live as he presided over the church's business after the year 1000 with the population growth and an increased desire for trade more cities grew up to satisfy commercial needs but the growth of these cities raised an unusual problem in the rural West how to organize and govern them
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during the Early Middle Ages the feudal system had developed to support armies of mounted Knights supported by serfs bound to the soil Lords and Kings offered land in exchange for military service and the system worked pretty well to field and support armies in the 11th century a bishop summarized the right order of society that this feudal system represented he wrote from the beginning mankind has been divided into three parts men of Prayer farmers and Men of War
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this simple three-part understanding of the correct order of society mentioned nothing of towns or merchants or artisans unlike the East which maintained a long tradition of urban Society the West had to reinvent it let's first look at the founding of commercial towns themselves groups of merchants or lower nobility who wanted to found a town would obtain a charter from the Lord on Whose lands the town stood these Charters granted townspeople freedom from the labor obligations that
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bound The Peasants who lived on the land a lord could not come to town to demand free men come to work to build a road or a castle or command women to come help sheer sheep or bake bread these Charters also guaranteed protection from unreasonable taxation some towns were even able to gain the right to run their own Law Courts free from Royal law in exchange for these rights the Lord received money and ongoing payments from the increasingly prosperous towns it is this kind of freedom from the
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feudal system that Drew some peasants and Artisans to escape for a year and a day to live an urban life these towns occupied a violent world so residents first build walls to protect themselves the great Gates were closed at night preventing anyone from entering these walls Define the space of a city so thoroughly that the earliest definition of a town in a 16th century dictionary claimed they were residential areas surrounded by walls of course the freedom within the walls
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that attracted so many didn't mean Anarchy talents had to develop ways to govern themselves the townspeople joined together in sworn Mutual Aid and protection associations called communes this word comes from the same root as the 19th century term communism both meaning from the community the communes elected their own officials regulated taxation within the town and generally provided Safety and Security within the walls they were not Democratic for people accepted it as natural that rich
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citizens would govern the town so Merchants were disproportionately represented as leaders this in turn stimulated long distance trade Tradesmen within the towns also developed ways to regulate the trade and Manufacturing within the walls of the town they formed guilds Collective organizations of Tradesmen to establish rules for their trade for example there were Guilds of gold work shoemaking bread baking and so forth they decided who could work in the trade they regulated the quality of the
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work and set prices since women usually outnumbered men in the cities they participated in the guilds and families arranged marriages to retain control of Commerce widows ran businesses and took their husbands places in a business boys and girls served as apprentices in the shops until they learned the trade then they could work as a paid employee called a journeyman under the guidance of a guild member finally a journeyman had to present a sample of their best work whether a fine
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pair of shoes or an intricate piece of jewelry to the guild Masters if this masterpiece was found worthy the journeyman was promoted to a full member of The Guild a master notice that there is nothing of free enterprise here prices and quality were set and even the numbers of Tradesmen were established if the guild decided there were too many artisans in a given field a new master had to leave the town to find a place in another town if a worker were skilled he might find a
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town that needed Bakers or goldsmiths an unskilled worker like the surf with whom I began this lecture might work as an apprentice until he was trained was not easy but an age when Mobility upward and Geographic was frowned upon this was a breath of fresh air the layout of the towns was also set by the guilds and the commune most towns grew up organically with no planned grid as we saw in the Chinese cities instead as we can see in the layout of old parts of European cities the streets followed
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a winding pattern with no plan all the members of One Guild stayed on one street The Butcher Street the Goldsmith Street center of the city always included a church the larger cities proudly sported a cathedral home of the bishop and the center of town with the expanding economy certain demographics began to shift to the Forefront of urban life one such group was the Jewish population ever since the time of the Roman Empire many medieval towns had a significant
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population of Jews acting as Merchants Artisans and in most jobs in the city traditionally Jews had taken a particularly strong role in early Banking and there were a couple of reasons for this on the one hand in many kingdoms like England Jews were forbidden to own land which was the traditional place people invested their money there were no real Banks even Kings kept their National Treasury and boxes stored in their castles since Jews could not own land they held
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their profits in cash which they could lend a second reason Jews entered money lending was that Christians were forbidden to charge interest on money that they lent it was considered a sin to make money on time since time belonged to God after all interest is the cost of money over time since Jews had no such prohibition Christians came to Jews to borrow money when Richard the lionhearted was held for ransom after his Crusade his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine raised the money by
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borrowing from her Jewish subjects most of the time in the Middle Ages Jews and Christians co-existed as they built the new growing Urban centers in the West we have Charters and other records that show the often close relationship between urban Jews and the Lords of the land for example in the late 11th century we have a charter granted by a bishop to Jews who were willing to settle in the German Town of spire the bishop wrote that he thought it would greatly add to spire's honor if I
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should establish some Jews in it he offered them special trading concessions in return for their settlement in another example at the beginning of the 13th century King Henry III of England issued a special Charter of protection for the Jews but these relationships didn't mean that there was never trouble against the Jews in 1290 for example King Edward the first of England expelled all the Jews from England allowing them to take their valuables with them but leaving their uncollected debts
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behind Urban Christians and Jews depended on each other in an uneasy coexistence throughout most of the Middle Ages the development of these towns provided a vehicle for Commerce to grow for both Christians and Jews now let's look at the long distance trade patterns that fed the wealth of these cities by the 11th century Europe had two major trading zones the first and oldest was centered on Northern Italy which became a significant source for the luxury goods coming from the East Venice Pisa
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and Genoa were their substantial fleets took the lead as early as 1082 the venetians had received Charters giving them free trade in Byzantine Waters and Pisa and Genoa negotiated similar treaties with Muslim rulers that opened new markets the Italian fleets of this Southern trade zone brought the traditional silks and spices passing through the great Muslim bazaars in Baghdad but they also traded in North Africa where as we will see new trade routes brought goods North from
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sub-Saharan West Africa by the 11th century a new northern trade zone had emerged that brought the north into the prosperous Trade Network but also developed a new way of organizing urban life the northern Zone was centered on the Baltic and the North Sea this Northern Region had a number of items that were much in demand the first pillar of this trade was the demand for dried cod fish the large Cod is a cold water fish and Scandinavian fishermen brought their
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catch to shore where it was dried and salted this huge bottom feeding fish had flesh that had almost no fat fat resists salt so oily fish have to be packed in barrels Cod on the other hand can be air dried salted and simply stacked then it would last a long time and could be exported all over new DNA studies of fish bones show that Baltic Cod was consumed all over Europe and even into the Middle East fish were also supplemented by more luxury goods from the north Amber Furs
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hunting Hawks and even precious Lumber were exported perhaps the most influential trade in this Northern Zone was the World Trade we have seen that fine breeds of sheep have been brought into England from Spain and North Africa by the 11th century English landlords converted portions of their lands to sheep raising they exported the raw wool to cities and Flanders particularly Bruges and Ghent where the wool was spun into fine cloth for export since the early 14th century the Speaker
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of the House of Lords in London has been sitting on a wool sack as a reminder of wool as the source of England's wealth this Northern zone of trade was dominated by cities and beginning in the late 12th century some of these Northern cities joined together to guard each other against raids by Pirates and to coordinate trading efforts the first aligned cities probably began in lubic in Northern Germany but the alliance extended from London all the way to northgarode and Russia by the
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13th century this Alliance was formalized by a series of Charters that was called The Hanseatic League Hansa means Guild in medieval German and the cities were dominated by German merchants at its height the Hanseatic League included many cities over time these range from 20 to 200 and this group The transcended National boundaries remained powerful until the 16th century when the rise of national monarchies separated this Alliance throughout the high and late Middle Ages
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however the Hanseatic League brought prosperity to the north Travelers today to Bergen can still see the great warehouses that stored the goods and the Old Town features a large carving of a cod fish which brought so much wealth to the north the markets still sell the dried salted cod which takes a skilled cook to prepare as we can see by the organization of the Hanseatic League the growth of commercial urban life had nothing to do with the land of nobility who were responsible for
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fielding armies however early in the 12th century the French count of champagne figured out how to make a profit from this widening web of trade he granted charters for various towns and Champaign to organize and host fairs that would periodically bring Merchants from both zones of trade together the count provided the space for the fares set up booths arrange for police to keep order and provided money changers to facilitate trade each day the fair featured a different
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product from wool to cloth to fish Etc and the count collected a sales tax from all the transactions that were made we are so used to having entertainment available to us all the time it's hard to imagine how exciting these fares would be there were jugglers and musicians and people heard music and poetry from far regions there were games and snacks available at the booths that were hastily erected in a great field we can get a sense of the excitement of the fairs through Modern Recreations of
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these events in medieval fairs that are held in many cities today at these fairs people could also see goods from afar silks from the East and exotic animal pelts from sub-Saharan Africa by way of Italian Merchants landing at North African ports in these great Mercantile trade shows it became clear that the world Beyond Europe was never very far away now I will turn to West Africa where a new Empire had grown up to become a power in the 12th century while the Middle East was frequently a
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region of warfare between Crusaders and the invasions of various Turkish tribes Islam spread peacefully and without much notice in the west into sub-Saharan Africa during the 9th and 10th centuries Berber Muslim Traders from the north brought Islam into the region and tribes in the South converted slowly from their traditional religions such slow conversions allowed for some traditional practices to become associated with Muslim practices and a syncretic form of Islam appeared in Africa
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we have seen that female genital mutilation was one traditional African practice that became associated with Islam but there were others a very religious Muslim traveler to Mali in the 14th century commented on differing Muslim practices in the court of a particularly Pious Malian emperor The Traveler IBN batuta approved of the education that required people to learn the Quran by heart but he was shocked by some bad practices he wrote that women servants slave girls and young daughters
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appear naked before people exposing their genitals women who come before the sultan are naked and unveiled and so are his daughters in addition to what he perceived as lack's behavior of women even batuta also reprimanded these African Muslims for their dietary practices instead of keeping Halal rules of cleanliness he claimed the Africans eat carrion dogs and donkeys as all religions discovered even in this age of Faith religious practices are never uniform they are always informed
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by local cultural practices but in spite of even batuta's complaints by the early 13th century Mali was indeed a devout Islamic State its attachment to Islam made the Mali Empire a significant trading partner to North Africa the Middle East and even into Europe this Empire emerged in 1235 and lasted throughout the Middle Ages and in time all of Eurasia became acutely aware of the wealth and power of West Africa as we have seen everywhere from China to Western Europe the prosperity of the
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high Middle Ages began with Agriculture and a relative piece that allowed for trade the same was true for the Mali Empire the conquest of the rulers of Mali provided internal peace and travelers in the 14th century commented on how goods and Traders could pass through these lands with no fear of Bandits or other problems mali's agricultural produce was helped in part by the climatic warm period of the high Middle Ages that let the Vikings explore to North America
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in Africa this climate shift brought dry weather that caused people to move from the borders of the Sahara an area called the Sahel to the great Savannahs to the South the Sahel is a semi-arid zone that extends all across Africa separating the desert from the south this Zone was inhabited by semi-nomadic people who let flocks of hearty goats and sheep browse along the scrub then as now this border region was susceptible to periodic droughts that drove people South
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but the Border was always important to facilitate the trade across the Sahara during the warm period many people of the Sahel moved South but the rulers of Mali continued to control this Borderland during the Mali Empire agriculture flourished in the savannah increased by the population moving south from the Sahel agriculture produced more grains and cereals further increasing the population goats and sheep continued to graze in the Sahel and traitors brought Cola nuts
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and exotic Forest snails from the forest lands agricultural production and local trade and food stuff continued to contribute to population growth and since the Kings taxed all agricultural products the Royal coffers grew full as we have also seen long distance trade depended on luxury goods and Molly controlled the greatest luxury of them all gold from the gold fields of the Niger River Valley and further south on the Volta River workers Pan the alluvial gold from the
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rivers and though the Kings owned every nugget Gold Dust was used for local trade as elsewhere this wealth was reflected in the growth of cities important towns like GAO wallata and niani grew up along what became an East-West trade route but the most important city of the Mali Empire was Timbuktu located above the bend in the Niger River the northernmost point of the river Timbuktu is located on the border between the Sahara Desert and the Sahel the critical point were Goods passed
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between the desert berbers and the people of the Savannah salt gold and other Goods passed through this city and the Kings taxed them all Timbuktu probably had a population of about a hundred thousand and became famous as a center for Islamic worship and study it's great mosque the sunkora mosque is the oldest mosque south of the Sahara it was built in the 14th century and is made of round dried mud bricks as we will see in a later lecture Timbuktu became a major Center of
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Islamic Studies linking West Africa with Muslims from Egypt and Beyond the city is known for the many important Islamic manuscripts that are preserved today and which still draw Scholars from around the world Timbuktu was built and fortified in the 14th century by mali's most famous ruler Mansa Musa he ruled Mali from 1312 until his death in 1337 and he literally placed Molly on the map for Europeans and Asians during his Reign map makers included his Empire on their maps of Africa
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how did he come to such prominence in 1324 he performed the pilgrimage to Mecca the Hajj that is required as one of the pillars of Islamic faith and he made his pilgrimage in spectacular fashion to reach Arabia he first crossed the long arduous desert heading north he took with him a huge retinue he loaded a hundred camels each carrying 300 pounds of gold and they were guarded with over ten thousand soldiers and 500 slaves he was joined by his senior wife and his main advisors
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he successfully navigated the Sahara and arrived in Cairo when he returned from his pilgrimage Mansa Musa brought Architects poets and Scholars who helped contribute to timbuktu's establishment as a center of learning while the world was amazed at Molly's wealth within his kingdom he received criticism for spending so lavishly on his Hajj and it took years for the kingdom to recover Molly was not the only prosperous region that emerged in Africa during the high
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Middle Ages during the Early Middle Ages Bantu speakers moved toward the east coast of Africa south of the Old Kingdom of Aksum on the Horn of Africa these people mixed with Arab traders from the Indian Ocean the resulting people were known as the Swahili which means people of the coast in Arabic during their Heyday from about 1200 to 1500 the Swahili created a string of wealthy towns and cities on the 2400 Mile Stretch of Coastline between Mogadishu and the North and Northern
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Mozambique in the south this Swahili Coast formed a second wealthy Trading Zone in Africa Swahili had become the major language of East Africa today with more than 100 million speakers these cities boasted beautiful multi-story houses built of coral Stone and some of the towns had populations of up to 15 000 people their Harbors were filled with ships from around the Indian Ocean that took advantage of the monsoon winds that had brought goods to this region for centuries
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the merchants of these cities lived comfortably in their Coral Stone houses for which they are famous these houses had rooms surrounding Courtyards and a high degree of material Comfort indoor toilets running water rooftop Terraces and beautifully carved wooden doors they displayed expensive Chinese porcelain and other Rich trade goods these coastal cities were not simply intermediaries between the Asian trade and goods from the African interior such as gold from Mali instead they profited
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from a complex economy that included fishing raising domesticated animals boat building and other trades one of the sources that allow us to see the diversity of this Region's economy comes from the account of a 14th century traveler to Swahili Coast he writes of the meals he was served stews of chicken meat fish and vegetables a testimony to its culinary diversity he writes of bananas cooked in milk showing that bananas that originate in Southeast Asia had already found their
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way and thrived in East Africa he writes of food seasoned with peppercorns from India saffron from Spain and mangoes from Southeast Asia the diverse world came together at the tables of the Swahili Coast the high point of the Middle Ages from the 12th through the 13th century was fostered by several factors a warming climate increased agricultural production and population and a growth of centralized governments these influences allowed for a restored and invigorated urban life that
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facilitated trade wealth and awareness of the greater world coming up I will look more closely at some of the artistic and intellectual accomplishments of the high Middle Ages that all this growing wealth fostered I'll look at architecture philosophy and literature to see the creative outpouring of the Middle Ages all over the world that so many of us continue to admire today
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