4.27 Europe: a.d. 1301 to 1400  (Page 3/12)

Italy

Italy remained a conglomeration of contending city-states. The general economy was poor at the beginning of the century, with the Black Death killing 60,000 in Florence and 100,000 in Venice, great famines from 1315 to 1317, a decrease in manufacturing and trade and banking failures, particularly that of the Peruzzi and the Bardi houses in Florence. Naples was subject to France, under the House of Anjou and the rising Spanish power, Aragon, seized Sardinia in 1313, while Genoa took Corsica. Venice continued as a great power but had a serious uprising against its oligarchy in 1310. This "Tiepolo's Rebellion" was crushed, but it led to the permanent creation of an emergency committee called the "Council of Ten". Venice and Genoa kept up their battle on the seas throughout the century, with Venice the ultimate winner. (Ref. 49 , 220 , 279 )

It was in this century that mercenary armies became standard in Italy. Armed adventurers, often from north of the Alps, got together under various leaders and either blackmailed local authorities or plundered the countryside. One band of 10,000 armed men and twice as many camp followers fought its way across central Italy, acting in effect, as a migratory city. For protection against such mobs, citizens of the cities taxed themselves to hire mercenary soldiers and the latter reimbursed the citizens, in a sense, as they spent their pay in the community. Thus was armed violence commercialized in Italy. (Ref. 279 )

Overall, Italy did not stay "down" for long. In spite of the turmoil mentioned above, Italians were the primary managers of the commercial economy of Europe, with trade centers in Venice, Genoa, Florence, Sienna and Milan. This involved wholesale buying and selling, organizing projects in backwoods regions and extending credit. So extensive was their European financial dealings that the bankruptcy of the English King Edward III in 1339 triggered a general financial crisis in Italy. (Ref. 279 ) The Rinascita, or rebirth of the Classic Spirit, began in 1378 in Florence, financed by the money of the Medici family. This was the beginning of the humanist movement of emphasis on philosophy rather than religion, as the educated Florentines ignored some of the dogmas of the church and devoted themselves to the enjoyment of beauty in women, man and art. This state of bliss was marred some in 1345 when the industrial workers attempted to overthrow the ruling business oligarchy. There was much business in Florence as merchants there handled between 5,000 and 10,000 tons of Sicilian grain every year. (Ref. 260 ) Additional Notes

Although the European slave trade had almost died out, the decrease in population occasioned by the Black Death and famine resulted in Florence authorizing the import of slaves, providing they were infidels. By the end of the century almost every household had at least one, usually female, of Circassian, Tartar, Greek or Russian origin. All of this led the way for the Renaissance, which consumed all Italy in the next century. Toynbee (Ref. 220 ) says that this was a period of withdrawal and isolation from the rest of Europe, with new economic, political and cultural ideas developing. It was the age of Petrarch and Boccaccio and Dante, all of Florence. By the end of the century, in addition to Florence, there were Italian states of Venice, the Papal States, Naples and perhaps the most powerful of all - Milan, under Visconti lords. (Ref. 49 , 220 , 213 , 170 )