EUROPE AND THE FAR EAST ABOUT 1400 A.D.
The Mediaeval Period in Europe.--Length of the Middle Age.--By the
Middle Ages we mean the centuries between 500 and 1300 A.D. This
period begins with the fall of the Roman Empire and the looting of
the Imperial City by the rude German tribes, and ends with the rise
of a new literature, a new way of looking at the world in general,
and a passion for discovery of every kind.
These eight hundred years had been centuries of cruel struggle,
intellectual darkness, and social depression, but also of great
religious devotion. Edward Gibbon, one of the greatest historians,
speaks of this period as "the triumph of barbarism and religion."
The population of Europe was largely changed, during the first few
centuries of the Christian Era, as the Roman Empire, that greatest
political institution of all history, slowly decayed. New peoples
of German or Teutonic origin came, fighting their way into western
Europe and settling wherever the land attracted them. Thus Spain and
Italy received the Goths; France, the Burgundians and Franks; England,
the Saxons and Angles or English.
These peoples were all fierce, warlike, free, unlettered
barbarians. Fortunately, they were all converted to Christianity by
Roman priests and missionaries. They embraced this faith with ardor,
at the same time that other peoples and lands were being lost to
Christendom. Thus it has resulted that the countries where Christianity
arose and first established itself, are now no longer Christian, and
this religion, which had an Asiatic and Semitic origin, has become the
distinguishing faith of the people of western Europe. For centuries the
countries of Europe were fiercely raided and disturbed by pillaging
and murdering hordes; by the Huns, who followed in the Germans from
the East; by the Northmen, cruel pirating seamen from Scandinavia;
and, as we have already seen, by the Mohammedans, or Saracens as they
were called, who came into central Europe by way of Spain.
Character of the Life during this Period.--Feudalism.--Life was so
beset with peril that independence or freedom became impossible,
and there was developed a society which has lasted almost down to
the present time, and which we call Feudalism. The free but weak man
gave up his freedom and his lands to some stronger man, who became
his lord. He swore obedience to this lord, while the lord engaged to
furnish him protection and gave him back his lands to hold as a "fief,"
both sharing in the product. This lord swore allegiance to some still
more powerful man, or "overlord," and became his "vassal," pledged
to follow him to war with a certain number of armed men; and this
overlord, on his part, owed allegiance to the prince, who was, perhaps,
a duke or bishop (bishops at this time were also feudal lords),
or to the king or emperor. Thus were men united into large groups
or nations for help or protection. There was little understanding
of love of country. Patriotism, as we feel it, was replaced by the
passion of fidelity or allegiance to one's feudal superior.
Disadvantages of Feudalism.--The great curse of this system was that
the feudal lords possessed the power to make war upon one another,
and so continuous were their jealousies and quarrelings that the land
was never free from armed bands, who laid waste an opponent's country,
killing the miserable serfs who tilled the soil, and destroying their
homes and cattle.
There was little joy in life and no popular learning. If a man did not
enjoy warfare, but one other life was open to him, and that was in the
Church. War and religion were the pursuits of life, and it is no wonder
that many of the noblest and best turned their backs upon a life that
promised only fighting and bloodshed and, renouncing the world, became
monks. Monasticism developed in Europe under such conditions as these,
and so strong were the religious feelings of the age that at one time
a third of the land of France was owned by the religious orders.
The Town.--The two typical institutions of the early Middle Age were
the feudal castle, with its high stone walls and gloomy towers,
with its fierce bands of warriors armed in mail and fighting on
horseback with lance and sword, and the monastery, which represented
inn, hospital, and school. Gradually, however, a third structure
appeared. This was the town. And it is to these mediaeval cities, with
their busy trading life, their free citizenship, and their useful
occupations, that the modern world owes much of its liberty and its
intellectual light.
The Renaissance.--Changes in Political Affairs.--By 1400, however,
the Middle Age had nearly passed and a new life had appeared, a new
epoch was in progress, which is called the Renaissance, which means
"rebirth." In political affairs the spirit of nationality had arisen,
and feudalism was already declining. Men began to feel attachment to
country, to king, and to fellow-citizens; and the national states,
as we now know them, each with its naturally bounded territory,
its common language, and its approximately common race, were appearing.
France and England were, of these states, the two most advanced
politically just previous to the fifteenth century. At this distant
time they were still engaged in a struggle which lasted quite a
century and is known as the Hundred Years' War. In the end, England
was forced to give up all her claims to territory on the continent,
and the power of France was correspondingly increased. In France
the monarchy (king and court) was becoming the supreme power in the
land. The feudal nobles lost what power they had, while the common
people gained nothing. In England, however, the foundations for a
representative government had been laid. The powers of legislation and
government were divided between the English king and a Parliament. The
Parliament was first called in 1265 and consisted of two parts,--the
Lords, representing the nobility; and the Commons, composed of persons
chosen by the common people.
Germany was divided into a number of small principalities,--Saxony,
Bavaria, Franconia, Bohemia, Austria, the Rhine principalities, and
many others,--which united in a great assembly, or Diet, the head of
which was some prince, chosen to be emperor.
Italy was also divided. In the north, in the valley of the Po,
or Lombardy, were the duchy of Milan and the Republic of Venice;
south, on the western coast, were the Tuscan states, including the
splendid city of Florence. Thence, stretching north and south across
the peninsula, were states of the church, whose ruler was the pope,
for until less than fifty years ago the pope was not only the head
of the church but also a temporal ruler. Embracing the southern part
of the peninsula was the principality of Naples.
In the Spanish peninsula Christian states had arisen,--in the west,
Portugal, in the center and east, Castile, Aragon, and Leon, from all
of which the Mohammedans had been expelled. But they still held the
southern parts of Spain, including the beautiful plain of Andalusia
and Grenada.
The Mohammedans, in the centuries of their life in Spain, had
developed an elegant and prosperous civilization. By means of
irrigation and skillful planting, they had converted southern Spain
into a garden. They were the most skillful agriculturists and breeders
of horses and sheep in Europe, and they carried to perfection many
fine arts, while knowledge and learning were nowhere further advanced
than here. Through contact with this remarkable people the Christian
Spaniards gained much. Unfortunately, however, the spirit of religious
intolerance was so strong, and the hatred engendered by the centuries
of religious war was so violent, that in the end the Spaniard became
imbued with so fierce a fanaticism that he has ever since appeared
unable properly to appreciate or justly to treat any who differed
from him in religious belief.
The Conquests of the Mohammedans.--In the fifteenth century,
religious toleration was but little known in the world, and the
people of the great Mohammedan faith still threatened to overwhelm
Christian Europe. Since the first great conquests of Islam in the
eighth century had been repulsed from central Europe, that faith had
shown a wonderful power of winning its way. In the tenth century Asia
Minor was invaded by hordes of Seljuks, or Turks, who poured down from
central Asia in conquering bands. These tribes had overthrown the
Arab's power in Mesopotamia and Asia Minor only to become converts
to his faith. With freshened zeal they hurled themselves upon the
old Christian empire, which at Constantinople had survived the fall
of the rest of the Roman world.
The Crusades.--The Seljuk Turks had conquered most of Asia Minor,
Syria, and the Holy Land. A great fear came over the people of Europe
that the city of Constantinople would be captured and they, too, be
overwhelmed by these new Mohammedan enemies. The passionate religious
zeal of the Middle Age also roused the princes and knights of Europe
to try to wrest from the infidel the Holy Land of Palestine, where
were the birthplace of Christianity and the site of the Sepulcher of
Christ. Palestine was recovered and Christian states were established
there, which lasted for over a hundred and eighty years. Then the Arab
power revived and, operating from Egypt, finally retook Jerusalem and
expelled the Christian from the Holy Land, to which he has never yet
returned as a conqueror.
Effects of the Crusades.--These long, holy wars, or "Crusades," had a
profound effect upon Europe. The rude Christian warrior from the west
was astonished and delighted with the splendid and luxurious life which
he met at Constantinople and the Arabian East. Even though he was a
prince, his life at home was barren of comforts and beauty. Glass,
linen, rugs, tapestries, silk, cotton, spices, and sugar were some
of the things which the Franks and the Englishmen took home with
them from the Holy Land. Demand for these treasures of the East
became irresistible, and trade between western Europe and the East
grew rapidly.
The Commercial Cities of Italy.--The cities of Italy developed this
commerce. They placed fleets upon the Mediterranean. They carried the
crusaders out and brought back the wares that Europe desired. In this
way these cities grew and became very wealthy. On the west coast,
where this trade began, were Amalfi, Pisa, Genoa, and Florence, and
on the east, at the head of the Adriatic, was Venice. The rivalry
between these cities of Italy was very fierce. They fought and
plundered one another, each striving to win a monopoly for itself of
this invaluable trade.
Venice, finally, was victorious. Her location was very favorable. From
her docks the wares could be carried easily and by the shortest
routes up the Po River and thence into France or northward over the
Alps to the Danube. In Bavaria grew up in this trade the splendid
German cities of Augsburg and Nuremberg, which passed these goods on
to the cities of the Rhine, and so down this most beautiful river
to the coast. Here the towns of Flanders and of the Low Countries,
or Holland, received them and passed them on again to England and
eastward to the countries of the Baltic.
Development of Modern Language.--Thus commerce and trade grew up
in Europe, and, with trade and city life, greater intelligence,
learning, and independence. Education became more common, and the
universities of Europe were thronged. Latin in the Middle Age had
been the only language that was written by the learned class. Now
the modern languages of Europe took their form and began to be used
for literary purposes. Italian was the first to be so used by the
great Dante, and in the same half-century the English poet Chaucer
sang in the homely English tongue, and soon in France, Germany, and
Spain national literatures appeared. With this went greater freedom
of expression. Authority began to have less weight.
Men began to inquire into causes and effects, to doubt certain things,
to seek themselves for the truth, and so the Renaissance came. With
it came a greater love for the beautiful, a greater joy in life, a
fresh zest for the good of this world, a new passion for discovery,
a thirst for adventure, and, it must also be confessed a new laxity of
living and a new greed for gold. Christian Europe was about to burst
its narrow bounds. It could not be repressed nor confined to its old
limitations. It could never turn backward. Of all the great changes
which have come over life and thought, probably none are greater than
those which saw the transition from the mediaeval to the modern world.
Trade with the East.--Articles of Trade.--Now we must go back for
a moment and pursue an old inquiry further. Whence came all these
beautiful and inviting wares that had produced new tastes and passions
in Europe? The Italian traders drew them from the Levant, but the
Levant had not produced them. Neither pepper, spices, sugarcane, costly
gems, nor rich silks, were produced on the shores of the Mediterranean.
Only the rich tropical countries of the East were capable of growing
these rare plants, and up to that time of delivering to the delver
many precious stones. India, the rich Malaysian archipelago, the
kingdom of China,--these are the lands and islands which from time
immemorial have given up their treasures to be forwarded far and wide
to amaze and delight the native of colder and less productive lands.
Routes of Trade to the Far East.--Three old sailing and caravan routes
connect the Mediterranean with the Far East. They are so old that we
can not guess when men first used them. They were old in the days of
Solomon and indeed very ancient when Alexander the Great conquered the
East. One of these routes passed through the Black Sea, and across
the Caspian Sea to Turkestan to those strange and romantic ancient
cities, Bokhara and Samarkand. Thence it ran northeasterly across Asia,
entering China from the north. Another crossed Syria and went down
through Mesopotamia to the Indian Ocean, A third began in Egypt and
went through the Red Sea, passing along the coast of Arabia to India.
All of these had been in use for centuries, but by the year 1400 two
had been closed. A fresh immigration of Turks, the Ottomans, in the
fourteenth century came down upon the scourged country of the Euphrates
and Syria, and although these Turks also embraced Mohammedanism,
their hostility closed the first two routes and commerce over them
has never since been resumed.
Venetian Monopoly of Trade.--Thus all interest centered upon the
southern route. By treaty with the sultan or ruler of Egypt, Venice
secured a monopoly of the products which came over this route. Goods
from the East now came in fleets up the Red Sea, went through the
hands of the sultan of Egypt, who collected a duty for them, and
then were passed on to the ships of the wealthy Venetian merchant
princes, who carried them throughout Europe. Although the object of
intense jealousy, it seemed impossible to wrest this monopoly from
Venice. Her fleet was the strongest on the Mediterranean, and her
rule extended along the Adriatic to the Grecian islands. All eager
minds were bent upon the trade with the East, but no way was known,
save that which now Venice had gained.
Extent of Geographical Knowledge.--The Maps of this Period.--To
realize how the problem looked to the sailor of Genoa or the merchant
of Flanders at that time, we must understand how scanty and erroneous
was the geographical knowledge of even the fifteenth century. It
was believed that Jerusalem was the center of the world, a belief
founded upon a biblical passage. The maps of this and earlier dates
represent the earth in this way: In the center, Palestine, and beneath
it the Mediterranean Sea, the only body of water which was well known;
on the left side is Europe; on the right, Africa; and at the top,
Asia--the last two continents very indefinitely mapped. Around the
whole was supposed to flow an ocean, beyond the first few miles of
which it was perilous to proceed lest the ship be carried over the
edge of the earth or encounter other perils.
Ideas about the Earth.--The Greek philosophers before the time of
Christ had discovered that the world is a globe, or ball, and had
even computed rudely its circumference. But in the Middle Ages this
knowledge had been disputed and contradicted by a geographer named
Cosmas, who held that the world was a vast plane, twice as long as
it was broad and surrounded by an ocean. This belief was generally
adopted by churchmen, who were the only scholars of the Middle Ages,
and came to be the universal belief of Christian Europe.
The Renaissance revived the knowledge of the writings of the old Greek
geographers who had demonstrated the earth's shape to be round and had
roughly calculated its size; but these writings did not have sufficient
circulation in Europe to gain much acceptance among the Christian
cosmographers. The Arabs, however, after conquering Egypt, Syria and
northern Africa, translated into their own tongue the wisdom of the
Greeks and became the best informed and most scientific geographers
of the Middle Age, so that intercourse with the Arabs which began with
the Crusades helped to acquaint Europe somewhat with India and China.
The Far East.--The Tartar Mongols.--Then in the thirteenth century
all northern Asia and China fell under the power of the Tartar
Mongols. Russia was overrun by them and western Europe threatened. At
the Danube, however, this tide of Asiatic conquest stopped, and then a
long period when Europe came into diplomatic and commercial relations
with these Mongols and through them learned something of China.
Marco Polo Visits the Great Kaan.--Several Europeans visited the
court of the Great Kaan, or Mongol king, and of one of them, Marco
Polo, we must speak in particular. He was a Venetian, and when a
young man started in 1271 with his father and uncle on a visit to
the Great Kaan. They passed from Italy to Syria, across to Bagdad,
and so up to Turkestan, where they saw the wonderful cities of this
strange oasis, thence across the Pamirs and the Desert of Gobi to
Lake Baikal, where the Kaan had his court. Here in the service of
this prince Marco Polo spent over seventeen years. So valuable indeed
were his services that the Kaan would not permit him to return. Year
after year he remained in the East. He traversed most of China, and
was for a time "taotai," or magistrate, of the city of Yang Chan near
the Yangtze River. He saw the amazing wonders of the East. He heard of
"Zipangu," or Japan. He probably heard of the Philippines.
Finally the opportunity came for the three Venetians to return. The
Great Kaan had a relative who was a ruler of Persia, and ambassadors
came from this ruler to secure a Mongol princess for him to marry. The
dangers and hardships of the travel overland were considered too
difficult for the delicate princess, and it was decided to send her
by water. Marco Polo and his father and uncle were commissioned to
accompany the expedition to Persia.
History of Marco Polo's Travels.--They sailed from the port of Chin
Cheu, probably near Amoy, [2] in the year 1292. They skirted the
coasts of Cambodia and Siam and reached the eastern coasts of Sumatra,
where they waited five months for the changing of the monsoon. Of
the Malay people of Sumatra, as well as of these islands, their
animals and productions, Marco Polo has left us most interesting and
quite accurate accounts. The Malays on Sumatra were beginning to be
converted to Mohammedanism, for Marco Polo says that many of them were
"Saracens." He gained a good knowledge of the rich and mysterious
Indian Isles, where the spices and flavorings grew. It was two years
before the party, having crossed the Indian Ocean, reached Persia
and the court of the Persian king. When they arrived they found that
while they were making this long voyage the Persian king had died;
but they married the Mongol princess to his son, the young prince,
who had succeeded him, and that did just as well.
From Persia the Venetians crossed to Syria and thence sailed to
Italy, and at last reached home after an absence of twenty-six
years. But Marco Polo's adventures did not end with his return to
Venice. In a fierce sea fight between the Venetians and Genoese,
he was made a prisoner and confined in Genoa. Here a fellow captive
wrote down from Marco's own words the story of his eastern adventures,
and this book we have to-day. It is a record of adventure, travel,
and description, so wonderful that for years it was doubted and
its accuracy disbelieved. But since, in our own time, men have been
able to traverse again the routes over which Marco Polo passed, fact
after fact has been established, quite as he truthfully stated them
centuries ago. To have been the first European to make this mighty
circuit of travel is certainly a strong title to enduring fame.
Countries of the Far East.--India.--Let us now briefly look at the
countries of the Far East, which by the year 1400 had come to exercise
over the mind of the European so irresistible a fascination. First
of all, India, as we have seen, had for centuries been the principal
source of the western commerce. But long before the date we are
considering, the scepter of India had fallen from the hand of the
Hindu. From the seventh century, India was a prey to Mohammedan
conquerors, who entered from the northwest into the valley of the
Indus. At first these were Saracens or Arabs; later they were the
same Mongol converts to Mohammedanism, whose attacks upon Europe we
have already noticed.
In 1398 came the furious and bloody warrior, the greatest of all
Mongols,--Timour, or Tamerlane. He founded, with capital at Delhi,
the empire of the Great Mogul, whose rule over India was only broken
by the white man. Eastward across the Ganges and in the Dekkan,
or southern part of India, were states ruled over by Indian princes.
China.--We have seen how, at the time of Marco Polo, China also was
ruled by the Tartar Mongols. The Chinese have ever been subject to
attack from the wandering horse-riding tribes of Siberia. Two hundred
years before Christ one of the Chinese kings built the Great Wall that
stretches across the northern frontier for one thousand three hundred
miles, for a defense against northern foes. Through much of her history
the Chinese have been ruled by aliens, as they are to-day. About 1368,
however, the Chinese overthrew the Mongol rulers and established the
Ming dynasty, the last Chinese house of emperors, who ruled China until
1644, when the Manchus, the present rulers, conquered the country.
China was great and prosperous under the Mings. Commerce flourished
and the fleets of Chinese junks sailed to India, the Malay Islands,
and to the Philippines for trade. The Grand Canal, which connects
Peking with the Yangtze River basin and Hangchau, was completed. It
was an age of fine productions of literature.
The Chinese seem to have been much less exclusive then than they
are at the present time; much less a peculiar, isolated people than
now. They did not then shave their heads nor wear a queue. These
customs, as well as that hostility to foreign intercourse which they
have to-day, has been forced upon China by the Manchus. China appeared
at that time ready to assume a position of enormous influence among
the peoples of the earth,--a position for which she was well fitted
by the great industry of all classes and the high intellectual power
of her learned men.
Japan.--Compared with China or India, or even some minor states,
the development of Japan at this time was very backward. Her people
were divided and there was constant civil war. The Japanese borrowed
their civilization from the Chinese. From them they learned writing
and literature, and the Buddhist religion, which was introduced
about 550 A.D. But in temperament they are a very different people,
being spirited, warlike, and, until recent years, despising trading
and commerce.
Since the beginning of her history, Japan has been an empire. The
ruler, the Mikado, is believed to be of heavenly descent; but in the
centuries we are discussing the government was controlled by powerful
nobles, known as the Shogun, who kept the emperors in retirement in
the palaces of Kyoto, and themselves directed the State. The greatest
of these shoguns was Iyeyasu, who ruled Japan about 1600, soon after
Manila was founded. They developed in Japan a species of feudalism,
the great lords, or "daimios," owning allegiance to the shoguns, and
about the daimios, as feudal retainers, bodies of samurai, who formed
a partly noble class of their own. The samurai carried arms, fought
at their lords' command, were students and literati, and among them
developed that proud, loyal, and elevated code of morality known as
"Bushido," which has done so much for the Japanese people. It is this
samurai class who in modern times have effected the immense revolution
in the condition and power of Japan.
The Malay Archipelago.--If now we look at the Malay Islands, we find,
as we have already seen, that changes had been effected there. Hinduism
had first elevated and civilized at least a portion of the race, and
Mohammedanism and the daring seamanship of the Malay had united these
islands under a common language and religion. There was, however,
no political union. The Malay peninsula was divided. Java formed a
central Malay power. Eastward among the beautiful Celebes and Moluccas,
the true Spice Islands, were a multitude of small native rulers, rajas
or datos, who surrounded themselves with retainers, kept rude courts,
and gathered wealthy tributes of cinnamon, pepper, and cloves. The
sultans of Ternate, Tidor, and Amboina were especially powerful,
and the islands they ruled the most rich and productive.
Between all these islands there was a busy commerce. The Malay is
an intrepid sailor, and an eager trader. Fleets of praos, laden with
goods, passed with the changing monsoons from part to part, risking the
perils of piracy, which have always troubled this archipelago. Borneo,
while the largest of all these islands, was the least developed, and
down to the present day has been hardly explored. The Philippines
were also outside of most of this busy intercourse and had at that
date few products to offer for trade. Their only connection with the
rest of the Malay race was through the Mohammedan Malays of Jolo
and Borneo. The fame of the Spice Islands had long filled Europe,
but the existence of the Philippines was unknown.
Summary.--We have now reviewed the condition of Europe and of
farther Asia as they were before the period of modern discovery
and colonization opened. The East had reached a condition of quiet
stability. Mohammedanism, though still spreading, did not promise to
effect great social changes. The institutions of the East had become
fixed in custom and her peoples neither made changes nor desired
them. On the other hand western Europe had become aroused to an excess
of ambition. New ideas, new discoveries and inventions were moving
the nations to activity and change. That era of modern discovery and
progress, of which we cannot yet perceive the end, had begun.