What caused the crisis of the Late Middle Ages in Europe?
The crisis of the Late Middle Ages was caused by a combination of the Great Famine of 1315-1317, the Black Death (which killed between a third and sixty percent of those infected), endemic warfare including the Hundred Years' War, and the Western Schism that divided the Catholic Church from 1378 to 1417. By around 1420, the accumulated effect of plague and famine had reduced Europe's population to perhaps a third of what it had been a century earlier.
How did the Black Death change European society in the Late Middle Ages?
The Black Death created severe labor shortages that made surviving workers more expensive. Efforts by landowners to suppress wages, such as England's 1351 Statute of Laborers, failed and fueled peasant rebellions including the French Jacquerie of 1358 and the English Peasants' Revolt of 1381. The long-term result in Western Europe was the virtual end of serfdom, while in Eastern Europe landowners used the same crisis to impose stricter bondage on peasants.
What was the Western Schism and when did it occur?
The Western Schism lasted from 1378 to 1417 and divided the Catholic Church between rival popes in Avignon and Rome. It began when Pope Gregory XI returned to Rome in 1377 after the papacy had been based in Avignon since 1309, and competing elections produced two claimants. The Council of Constance, meeting from 1414 to 1418, reunited the papacy in Rome.
How did the printing press spread in the Late Middle Ages?
Movable-type printing began at a single print shop in Mainz, Germany around 1440 and spread to around 270 cities across Central, Western, and Eastern Europe by the end of the 15th century, producing more than 20 million volumes. The press made scholarly books widely accessible and replaced the manuscript culture of the Middle Ages with a system where documented facts could proliferate rapidly.
Who was Jan Hus and why was he important in the Late Middle Ages?
Jan Hus was a Czech priest whose teachings drew on the reforming ideas of Oxford professor John Wycliffe. When Hus was summoned to the Council of Constance in 1414 and burned as a heretic in 1415, a popular uprising broke out in the Czech lands. The Hussite Wars that followed weakened both the Catholic Church and the German element within Bohemia, and his legacy influenced Martin Luther's Reformation a century later.
What role did the Ottoman Empire play in Late Middle Ages European history?
The Ottoman Empire's expansion reshaped Europe's political and economic geography. After the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Byzantine Empire was permanently extinguished and by 1479 the entire Balkan peninsula was under Ottoman control or vassalage. Ottoman dominance over eastern Mediterranean trade routes pushed Portugal and Spain to seek alternative routes, directly prompting Vasco da Gama's voyage to India in 1498 and Christopher Columbus's crossing to the Americas in 1492.