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There are many important things that the cities of Europe did for the people of their nations as we reached the peak of the Middle Ages. The most important however was that there now became a centralized location where knowledge could be stored and shared with other people.

After the fall of Rome, and turmoil that was the Dark Ages, nearly all knowledge, technology, and important writings of mankind were lost except for a few bastions of refuge such as the monastaries that saved and kept the old knowledge safe at a time of continuous warfare, plague, and chaos. The amount of people who were illiterate before the Renaiscance was astounding, and nations were created, fell, and were recreated many times before everything settled into a type of momgenous zone of culture.

It is said that the great cities of London, Paris, etc... had their beginnings during the Dark Ages, and were built as a way to give the monarchs a centralized capital when the rural lands were still being run by nobleman in a fuedal system of serfs and lords. Trade went through the cities from all corners of the world, and with it came ideas, technology, and many of the new inventions that came out of the East during the crusades.

People also needed these cities for protection when the smaller landowners and noblemen were in constant battle with one another over their lands and resources. People flocked to the cities for a better life and because of this, they became crowded and we see the detriment of this by the Black Plague that hit Europe during the 14th century, killing umpteen millions.

The cities of the Middle Ages were also the one place where you could afford to create the early Universities such as Oxford which started the rise in Europe of literacy and progress and began the slow climb that would culminate in the Renaiscance where ideas, technology, and knowledge flourished. The cities also gave people a sense of nationalism and pride for their nation that was barely solidified after centuries of wars and barbarism. France, England, Austria, and Hungary are but a few nations that came into being during this time, and because of the capital cities that grew in stature, they for the most part became the icons of these nations.

The European cities also had an effect on the building of another barbaric nation during the time of the Middle Ages, and that was with Peter the Great in Russia. Before Peter, Russia was as closed off a nation as any in the world because of their xenophobic attitudes and the tyrrany of their leaders. But Peter took it upon himself to go to the new European cities and not only interact with the monarchs of these nations, but to gather as much knowledge and technology as possible to bring back to his country. He personally learned the best shipbuilding techniques of the day, and even learned medical practices such as dentistry. This allowed Russia to change how they saw cities and their importantce, and during this time create the jewel known as St Petersburg.

Cities have always been the central place where trade, ideas, and knowledge could be shared amongst an entire nation, and with many nations, and if it wasnt for the European cities of the Middle Ages, the effects of the Renaiscance would not have been as glorius if all that progress had been relegated to pockets of rural growth. The cities of Europe in the Middle Ages were the springboard for which the Renaiscance took us from the middle ages, to toadys modern world.

Learn more about this author, Kenneth Schortgen Jr.
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