Norman Ponzi, an expert in medieval urban history, pointed out: "Cities or towns (these two words are almost synonyms) are larger human settlements than villages, and their residents' employment and livelihood do not mainly depend on agriculture. In fact, the diversity of functions (such as handicraft manufacturing, commerce, service industry and even agriculture itself) is one of its outstanding characteristics.

Another feature of cities is that the land cultivated by citizens can't produce enough food to maintain basic survival, at least in medieval cities. He always needs to import food from outside the area under his direct control.

Because this kind of input needs feedback or payment, citizens must also produce goods or provide services for outsiders. In the end, every successful city has established a complex relationship not only with the surrounding areas, but also with relatively distant places. They not only supply the city with food, but also provide the city with raw materials needed for handicrafts. They are the hinterland of the city. "

The city is the center of handicraft industry and commerce, that is to say, the city is the economic center. This is completely different from the fact that most ancient cities in China appeared as political centers. In ancient cities of China, there were government agencies and troops stationed in government offices and county offices. There are officials, soldiers, landlords and businessmen among the residents, while the cities in western Europe are mainly the residences of businessmen. ?

Second, the characteristics of culture

In the heyday of the Middle Ages, the profound economic, political and social changes in Western Europe contributed to the peak of academic and cultural prosperity. The cultural exchanges and contacts between regions and countries were closely linked, and the cultural coverage extended to the unprecedented whole of Western Europe.

In the heyday of the Middle Ages, Western European culture had three new features:

First, it has broken through the narrow scope of knowledge activities with monasteries as the main part, and universities in cities have been established one after another, becoming open and active places for knowledge dissemination and research, such as Paris University, Oxford University and Bologna University in Italy, all of which are academic and cultural centers, forming a relatively open and free cultural atmosphere.

Second, academic culture reflects the drastic changes in social life, and there are many innovations, such as the arrangement and creation of traditional literature of various ethnic groups, the emergence of works reflecting citizens' lives, the emergence of Gothic architectural art, Abela's heresy and Thomas Aquinas' theoretical changes in Christian philosophy and theology.

Third, it changed the closed and self-contained state in the early Middle Ages, and the exchanges between Western European civilization and the two major civilizations in the East, namely Byzantine civilization and Islamic Arab civilization, began. In the heyday of the Middle Ages, Western European civilization gained great development by closely communicating with Eastern civilization and absorbing its outstanding achievements.

Through Byzantium, Sicily and Spain, a large number of classical Greek and Roman texts preserved by the two great eastern civilizations were reintroduced to Western Europe at this time, and the rationalism and humanistic spirit traditions of Greece and Rome were valued.

There has been an upsurge in studying Roman law and applying it to real economic and social life. It can be said that the academic and cultural upsurge in western Europe in the heyday of the Middle Ages prepared for the Renaissance.

From15th century to16th century, western European society was in the late Middle Ages, and medieval civilization in western Europe was declining. Feudal relations of production tend to disintegrate, and capitalist industry and commerce have developed greatly. Due to the rapid expansion of primitive accumulated capital and the plunder of overseas colonies, the power of citizens or bourgeoisie has gradually grown, and they have used each other in some countries, which conflicts with monarchy.

The spiritual culture of Western Europe in the Middle Ages dominated by Christianity was shaken and declined under the impact of humanism. However, the transition from medieval civilization to modern civilization in Western Europe did not go through long twists and turns, spiritual and cultural faults or even "retrogression" like the transition from Roman civilization to medieval civilization.

But through the Renaissance, a transitional civilization. Renaissance strongly denied and criticized the medieval culture in western Europe, but it also inherited and continued.

Extended data

The scale of Western European cities in the Middle Ages;

In the Middle Ages, the population of the largest cities in Western Europe was above 50,000, and none of them exceeded 10, such as Paris, Florence and Venice. There are only 15 ~ 20 cities in western Europe with a population of 20 ~ 50 thousand, such as Rome in Italy, Barcelona in Spain, Lyon in France, Cologne in Germany and so on. 1 10,000 ~ 20,000 people are also big cities.

/kloc-Small and medium-sized towns with less than 0/10,000 people abound. "In medieval Western Europe, there were about 10000 towns, which means there was a city every 500 square kilometers, or every 20 kilometers." This density is already very high. Specific to western European countries, the situation is different.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, Tokyo, the capital city, was a mega-city with a population of one million, and it was the only one in the world. China is now 560,000 square kilometers smaller than Europe (560,000 square kilometers is slightly smaller than Qinghai Province). Western Europe, including Germany, is collectively referred to as Western Europe, accounting for about half of Europe.

/kloc-in 0/000, the population of Europe is close to 30 million, and that of Western Europe is less than 20 million. After wars and massacres, the population of China in the early Ming Dynasty was still 60 million. On average, the urban density in Western Europe is higher than that in China. ?

The original towns in western Europe were very small, with only one street or two vertical and horizontal streets in the city. The street center or intersection is the market. Around the market, craftsmen live together and businessmen live together. There are also residential areas centered on lords or churches. Even if the Lord lives in the city, he is not from the city. ?

The early cities in western Europe also have a strong agricultural color. Residents grow vegetables and raise pigs and cattle in front of and behind the house. The same is true of small cities in China. The ancient city of Yongnian County, Hebei Province has been preserved to this day. At the beginning of this century, there were vegetable fields and a few crops in the city.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Western Europe Middle Ages