The word Middle Ages, in the history of western civilization, refers to the history of Europe from about 500 AD to 1500 AD. The beginning of the Middle Ages marked the decline of the Western Roman Empire, and the ancient history of Western Europe came to an end. The end of the Middle Ages heralded the beginning of the Renaissance ("the rebirth of Europe"). Several major events can mark the end of the Middle Ages, including the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the first use of the printing press in 1456, the discovery of the New World by Europeans in 1492, the Protestant Reformation led by Martin Luther in/0/5/kloc-7, and the prosperity of Italian Renaissance art. The Middle Ages ended in the middle of ancient and modern history.

From the demise of Rome (AD 455) to the first academic revival in the West under the rule of Pope Sylvester II (AD 999- 1003), this period is called the "dark age" in Europe, and is traditionally considered as a relatively poor period in the history of European civilization. This is true in the field of natural philosophy, but in several centuries, there have been some fundamental technological innovations, which have provided a material basis for most people's way of life that is superior to that of ancient Greece and Rome. After the Teutonic barbarians invaded the fragmented Roman Empire, they brought many things that we are still familiar with today: for example, pants replaced Roman robes, butter replaced olive oil, the manufacturing method of blankets was improved, and the manufacturing of sledges, wooden barrels and pots was also improved. More importantly, these barbarians spread the cultivation of rye, oats, wheat and hops (now also called hops). Pedals for riding horses, especially heavy-duty wheel plows, provided conditions for the development of the agricultural three-nursery system and laid the foundation for the life of the medieval landlord manor.

The old plough used in ancient times has remained basically unchanged since the Bronze Age. Only the plow mouth has generally replaced wood with iron since the tenth century BC. Because there are no wheels, the old plough must be lifted to a certain height by the plough. This work requires considerable strength, and the furrows are neither straight nor deep. The land has only been scratched once, and it needs to be plowed twice, and the second time is ploughed at right angles to the first time. It is reasonable for the old plough to cultivate for one year and rest for the next year in the loose and arid land in the Mediterranean region where the two-nursery system is implemented, but it is not suitable in the north where the soil is thick, wet and fertile. The new plough shows its advantages.

This new plough was used by barbarians in the first century BC. It has a wheel to control the depth of plowing, which makes the plowman labor-saving. The new plow has a surface plow and a soil-turning template, which makes the plowed ditch deep and tidy, making the cross plow method adopted in the south redundant. Based on the above reasons, the new plough enables people to plow the land into many long fields according to the three-nursery system in the north, instead of plowing the land into square fields according to the two-nursery system adopted at the foot of the Alps and the Loire River basin. When this innovation was first mentioned in 765 AD, in addition to the traditional winter sowing method, it was also sown in spring. The typical cycle is to plant wheat once in the first winter, oats, barley or beans once in the second spring, and let the land lie fallow in the third year. Therefore, if the output per unit area of land is the same, the output of the three-nursery system in the north is one third more than that of the two-nursery system in the south.

The new plow is heavier than the old one, and it is very difficult to pull it. Therefore, before horses were usually used to cultivate land in the tenth and eleventh centuries, farmers in a village used cattle to cultivate land in partnership. In ancient times, horses were rarely used to cultivate land, because the known harness form at that time would make horses waste half their strength. In ancient times, the harness for riding horses was made according to the neck yoke of driving cattle, so that horses could not pull the plow with their shoulders when they needed the most force. Ride on the back of the horse's neck and tie it around the front neck with a belt. In this way, as long as the horse drags forward hard, it will choke itself to death. Moreover, the ancients did not know how to drive horses in tandem to increase the pull of horses, nor did they know how to use horseshoes. As a result, horse classics often hurt their hooves in rocky fields.

By the ninth and tenth centuries, the method of plowing land with horses had been used quite effectively in northern Europe. The horse collar may come from Asia, because the Teutonic and Slavic languages of the horse collar, that is, the English word hames, come from Central Asia and West Asia. Tandem harnesses and horseshoes were also introduced. As a result, the effective pulling force of horses was three or four times greater than that of ancient times. At this time, people cultivated the land in Malay, but it was generally only used in the three-nursery system in northern Europe, because there was surplus rice to feed horses. Cattle are generally used in southern areas with relatively poor output, because cattle can be raised with straw. Cows eat less, horses save time and effort.

Another labor-saving design is the waterwheel, which was widely used to grind millet in the dark ages. The ruby of Vitruvius in Rome describes the vertical waterwheel about 16 BC, and the horizontal waterwheel may have existed earlier. But in ancient times, people or livestock generally pushed or pulled grain, and water milling only became popular in the dark ages. By the middle ages, most rural areas in Europe had their own mills. Geography in A.D. 1086 listed that there were about 5,000 mills in Britain at that time, indicating that there was almost one mill for every 400 people in Britain. In the twelfth century, windmills appeared. The first record is the windmill in Normandy in A.D. 1 180. This kind of windmill has a horizontal drive shaft and a vertical sail, so it probably has nothing to do with the oriental windmill with a vertical drive shaft in the tenth century, but was invented by Europeans themselves.

As a result of this innovation, most of the working people got rid of some manual labor required in ancient times at this time and could produce some surplus food beyond the needs of feeding the population of the manor. These surplus grains provided conditions for the development of handicrafts and commerce in cities and towns, and provided wealth for those famous pioneering works from 1 1 century to13rd century, such as the Crusades, the construction of churches and the establishment of universities. The surplus grain used by craftsmen and students in big cities to keep fit came from areas with extremely difficult traffic conditions at that time. So did the workers who built the church. An American author estimates that the cost of labor and materials for 80 churches built by the French in the century from 1 170 to 1270 is equal to one billion dollars at present value.

Another result of technological innovation introduced in the dark ages is that the center of civilization has shifted from the Mediterranean to northern Europe, because many advanced technologies have been used more effectively in northern Europe. During the 1 1 and13rd centuries, the trade of surplus grain and handicraft products developed significantly, especially in northern Europe, and the commercial transactions conducted through the Baltic Sea and the North Sea could compete with the Mediterranean in quantity. This development can be seen from the Hanseatic League established by commercial cities in 124 1 year. At that time, the main Hanseatic cities were Lubeck (Germany), Cologne (Germany), breslau (Poland) and Danzig (Poland), but there were also several special cities in this alliance, such as Novgorod (Russia) and London.

With the expansion of trade, new inventions have been made in navigation technology, such as stern rudder and tooth marks. It is said that these first appeared on the merchant ships of the Hanseatic League in Europe in the13rd century. Ancient Europeans rowed with paddles beside the stern, just like rowing a canoe with paddles. It is not effective to drive in this way on a big ship, which limits the sailing action of the big ship, especially when driving against the wind. The stern rudder overcomes this limitation, and the tooth marks allow the front and lower corners of the main sail to be pulled out of the bow, so that the ship can sail against the wind. The longitudinal sail device itself is a product of the dark ages, which can make the ship turn against the wind. The earliest form of this longitudinal sail device, namely the jib, was first found in the murals of the Muslim church in South Palestine, and later found in a Byzantine painting in the 9th century.

This discovery of navigation also helps to save manpower, such as saving the labor of boat slaves who are imprisoned on the boat and rowing, which greatly expands the scope of shipping. Now bigger ships can be built, instead of sailing along the coast as in the early days, and crossing the ocean freely. /kloc-in the 0/3rd century, a magnetic needle compass appeared in Europe. When a ship crosses the ocean on a cloudy day, it must be used to determine the direction, because neither celestial bodies nor land can be seen at this time. In this respect, the north leads again, because it is easy to look out from the Mediterranean. /kloc-in the 0/5th century, the compass manufacturers in Flanders corrected the difference between the north and the real north, while the merchants in southern Genoa did not.

Similar technological progress has been made in the handicraft industry on which commerce depends. In the textile industry, the spinning wheel was developed in the13rd century, but it is uncertain when the loom was improved. At about the same time, water conservancy was also used to wet cloth, which is an operation of beating cloth in water to shrink it, making it thicker and more durable. Knocking on the door was first operated by hand, but in the second half of the twelfth century, a pile hammer driven by a water truck was used to lick cloth. Shortly thereafter, hydraulic piling hammers were used to crush indigo used in dyeing houses and bark used in leather industry. Since then, hydropower has established many industries. In13rd century, water power was used to saw wood and push the bellows of blacksmith's blacksmith's shop. In14th century, it was used to cast hammers and grind stones. In15th century, it was used to pump water for mining. Perhaps the most important project in hydraulic utilization is to start the bellows of the blacksmith's shop, raise the smelting temperature by wind power, and melt the iron ore so that it can be cast. Cast iron or pig iron appeared in Europe in the thirteenth century, but blast furnaces were not widely used until the fifteenth century.

Other technological innovations were brought to Europe by Muslims or Mongols from China. At first, it was papermaking, which was developed in 1 150 when Muslims occupied Spain. Not too many teenagers. In 1 189, the first paper mill in a Christian country was established in errol. By 1276, papermaking had spread to Montfano, Italy, and to Nuremberg, Germany, in 139 1 year, while the first paper mill in Britain was established in 1494. As for printing, perhaps the Mongols brought China's printing technology, perhaps some samples to Europe, and the technical details were re-studied by Europeans themselves. The complicated capital letters printed on many manuscripts in the Middle Ages were 1 174 carved with wooden blocks in Engelberg Abbey. In ancient times, Bi Meng invaded Europe, and Muslims described China's printing earlier. The earliest record of block printing in Europe was carried out in Lavaine in A.D. 1289. Then it was quickly changed to movable type and metal plate printing. Samples of these plates appeared in Limoges of 138 1, Antwerp of the Netherlands of 14 17, and Haram of the Netherlands of 1435. Finally, Gutenberg, the inventor of the Germanic territory of Mainz, completed this work from 1436 to 1450, thus perfecting the early modern printing.

Gunpowder first appeared in Europe in the13rd century. The first person to mention gunpowder was the British philosopher roger bacon. In a letter he wrote to his friends in A.D. 1249, he mentioned his thoughts on this magical substance, which may become a reality in the future, about a few years after the Mongols invaded Europe. Artillery was first mentioned in A.D. 1325, and was first discussed in the form of professional papers in A.D. 1327. The artillery described in A.D. 1327 shows that the early artillery was bottle-shaped and fired with arrows. Perhaps the first artillery was made of the thunderbolt used by China people. This "thunderbolt" was fired by a catapult from a tin can full of gunpowder. Now the tin can is only partially filled with gunpowder, and the shells are shot from the nozzle. Later, European cannons were made of many iron bars, but they were soon cast, first with copper and then with iron.

Printing and firearms at the end of the Middle Ages had a similar influence on the invention of writing and cast iron at the end of the Bronze Age. Printing, like the invention of letters, improved the cultural level of human beings and made the records of human civilization accumulated in past dynasties spread more widely. It promoted the rise of local documents and craft documents, and craftsmen recorded valuable experiences handed down from generation to generation for the first time in history. Printing makes it easier for people to obtain the Bible, so as to seek religious truth according to their own experience of the Bible, according to the suggestions of religious reformers, thus contributing to the rise of the Protestant Reformation.

Gunpowder and firearms ended the era of armored warriors and their fortified castles, just as iron eliminated bronze age warriors and their chariots and bronze swords. However, the beginning of firearms did not eradicate people's belligerence, because artillery destroyed the Swiss phalanx, which was still an effective way to deal with knights until the sixteenth century. Moreover, at that time, the manufacture of gunpowder and the control of casting guns were in the hands of governors, and the military power was concentrated in these hands. Thus, the development of firearms promoted the rise of dynasties with absolute power in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

In the Middle Ages, there were not only the development of new technology, but also the progress of handicraft skills and the differentiation of handicraft industry. The mechanical clock appeared in the thirteenth century. According to records, from 1232 to 1370, 39 clocks were made. These original mechanical clocks are big, heavy and rough, and they are only used in large public buildings, monasteries or churches. However, the technology of making clocks and watches has made rapid progress. By the sixteenth century, Nuremberg had made pocket watches. Similarly, in the reconstruction, the ratio of the floor area to the total section of the surrounding load-bearing walls increased from four to one in the middle ages to eight to one, indicating that progress has been made in saving building materials and construction technology. With the refinement of this skill, the differentiation of handicrafts appeared. Engineers and tool makers are separated from lathes and blacksmiths, and sculptors and painters are separated from masons and decorators. Professional craftsmen are skilled enough to read and write down their skills and experiences; Later, these people also absorbed some knowledge from academic traditions and made contributions to the development of modern science.

As far back as A.D. 1250, we have the notes of bricklayer Willard Onnakur. He traveled everywhere. After the Mongolian invasion, he went to Hungary to rebuild the church and wrote down what he saw and heard. The creatures he painted are very real and based on observation. In particular, he pointed out that his lion was painted according to a living lion, but his lion picture was still the same as that seen on the heraldry. On the other hand, the animals and plants painted by those scholars were copied from early manuscripts, so the authenticity was quickly lost, and biological illustrations became formalistic and formulaic. In the Chronicle of French Vegetation written in about 550 AD, a plant that looks like a strawberry looks more like a blackberry in the Chronicle of Rhine Vegetation written in 1050 AD after repeated copying without reference to the plant itself.