High Middle Ages In Europe

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Plagues & Witches – Paper Middle Ages 11/18/2008 The High Middle Ages in Europe was a time of growth and expansion, not only in terms of population, but also in terms of ideas. New developments and ideas involving the economy, government, and religion caused almost every aspect of daily life to change. There was a reason for why each town was located where it was. The town had necessities such as water for many factors. Most towns had a stream running through or beside them, so therefore there needed to be a stream around the area of the town. These towns consist of mostly merchants who were considered the middle class. They were the peasants who would move from their manners into the towns. There were also wealthy merchants, who…show more content…
The bishop or monastery ran the towns, in other words, they made and enforced all laws. The “judges” for prosecution were also the church. However, the church had no control in the country sides. The country sides were controlled by Nobility. From 1100 AD – 1300 AD, the merchant class began to develop more and wealth began to increase due to increase in trade. Business owners were not forced to stay in towns, they could pick up and move anywhere at anytime. Because of the increase of wealth by the merchants, they church’s power began to fade and by 1300 AD the merchants had control over the towns. There are many different things that caused the population to grow. One of the biggest roles that played a part in the growth was the expansion of agriculture. The towns were beginning to become too crowded for families to be able to grow their own crops. They relied on travelers to come into town on certain days of the week to set up shops to sell fruits, vegetables, and also some meat. There were a few shops that would stay open everyday, but most would only come and set up one or two days in a week. Most travelers were peasants who would grow extra crops on their…show more content…
If there was no sewage system, sewage would simply be collected in a bucket in the nighttime and thrown out the window onto the street and never cleaned. It was very difficult to avoid the mess since the streets through the town were narrow and twisted. This was one of the many contributions of the sanitary problems in the towns. Other factors contributing to this were that the horses and pigs walking along the streets would leave all their droppings on the street as they were walking and that also would never be cleaned. The only time any of this sewage mess would be somewhat cleaned is when there was rain. However, when the rain would run down the streets, it would seep into the wells through cracks and contaminate the drinking water for the village. Because of all these factors, maximum age for people was very low due to infections and diseases. They would also spread easily because there were a lot of festivals, dances, plays and traveling performers going from town to
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