HIST 1F96 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Guanches, Lateen
Document Summary
After 1450 ad, europe enters the age of the renaissance with growth in science and arts. End of the plague means huge population growth and competition for available land (population of europe 1450 55 million, 1600 100 million) Period of remarkable technological inventions (printing press, astrolabe postio according to sun and stars, cartography map writing, lateen sails) During the crusades, merchants had returned to europe with silks and spices from the orient. Italian city states created cross-country caravans of trade goods from the orient and arab world which they sold from high profits in europe. Monarchs sought alliances with merchants to challenge the nobles and their control of land and labour. Monarchs would grant exclusive trade charters to merchants who in return would pay taxes to monarchy and grant loans for foreign expansion plans. Nation states became more centralized and monarchs more powerful: the rise of portugal prominence. Portugal had prince henry the navigator who was interested in the sea.
