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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS

XX. EUROPEAN CITIES DURING THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

Em. Macron, Rediscovering the Path to Europe

» Contents of this Chapter

Growth of the Cities   * City Life   * Civic Industry—the Guilds   * Trade and Commerce   * Money and Banking   * Italian Cities   * German Cities, the Hanseatic League   * The Cities of Flanders

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THE CITIES OF FLANDERS

COUNTY OF FLANDERS

In the Middle Ages the Netherlands, or "Low Countries," now divided between Holland and Belgium, consisted of a number of feudal states, nominally under the control of German and French kings, but really quite independent. Among them was the county of Flanders. It included the coast region from Calais to the mouth of the Scheldt, as well as a considerable district in what is now northwestern France. The inhabitants of Flanders were partly of Teutonic extraction (the Flemings) and partly akin to the French (the Walloons).

FLANDERS AS A COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL CENTER

Flanders enjoyed a good situation for commerce. The country formed a convenient stopping place for merchants who went by sea between the Mediterranean and the Baltic, while important land routes led thither from all parts of western Europe. Flanders was also an industrial center. Its middle classes early discovered the fact that by devotion to manufacturing even a small and sterile region may become rich and populous.

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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents

url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp

IN PRINT

Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy