The seizure of Constantinople through the greed of the West in the First Crusade in 1204 split east and west Mediterranean, ushering in a period of progressive eastern European weakness and western European strength. Feudal monarchies in France and England grew stronger, royal supremacy was established, Christian Spain and Portugal were reconquered from the Moors.

The rise of northern European mercantilism with the Hanseatic League, and of southern European banking, eroded the importance of the Jews as merchants and financiers, and Jews were maltreated and expelled from one European country after another.

The 14th century was a time of political and economic crisis. The Black Death ravaged Europe; aristocrats threatened the kingship with internecine dynastic wars, employing bands of mercenaries. There were peasant revolts, and serfdom on the land ended.

The 15th century was a period of economic recovery, characterised by the strengthening of state control, with more taxes, armies and navies. Gradually European mercantilism and finance had been developing. The greatest wealth and largest cities were still concentrated in Mediterranean Europe and especially Italy. Luxury goods flowed west and north from Asia and Africa and were transmitted via the Italian ports to northern Europe. Northern European trade in raw materials was still dominated by the Hanseatic League; international monetary exchanges had grown up in Bruges as well as Italy.

What about Eastern Europe? In the late Middle Ages, South-Eastern Europe fell to the Turks (Constantinople fell in 1453) and entered a period of stagnation, relieved by a fierce sense of identity and a desire to defend traditional values, often lacking in the West.