9th, 10th, 11th and 12th centuries: The Later Byzantine Empire and Early Medieval Europe |
By the beginning of the 9th century, a series of powerful empires stretched across Europe and Asia from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Despite the further disruptions of the period, active communications and commerce across Europe and to and from Asia were underway.
The Byzantine Empire continued to dominate a civilised, Christian eastern Europe and east Mediterranean throughout the period, while the Medieval German empire emerged as the leading power in the west after the division of the Frankish empire in the 9th century. By the 10th century, stable political organisations were emerging in north-west Europe and Scandinavia, and in the 11th century, the Normans assumed major importance from Britain to Scandinavia. In the 12
Mass conversions to Islam led to a decline of Christianity in the eastern Mediterranean, while in the west Christianity spread to northern and eastern Europe and Scandinavia.
Jewish merchants were an integral part of the opening up of trade in western Europe in early Medieval times, and were granted commercial privileges and the right to live under their own laws while performing essential banking functions.
The 11th and 12th centuries were a time of recovery in western Europe; forests were cleared for agriculture, towns grew, and the western Mediterranean was re-conquered from Islam.
© 1998 Oxfordshire Museum Service,
Setúbal Museums and the Benaki Museum
