Quote: from Elm at 8:05 pm on Mar. 4, 2009
They had steam operated doors. Hell they even had a computer (rope knot drive but still). I can't think of a culture where the most technological feats were not found where the largest populations gathered.
These were all generally seen as novelties and were hardly used on a wide scale. If they were, we'd have seen an industrial revolution begin a lot sooner than about the 19th century.
They had accurate distance measuring tools, paved roads.
As far as measuring tools went, so did those in medieval Europe to a good extent. At least enough for a general census to be taken in England immediately after William the Conquerer's conquest in 1066 (also known as the "Doomsday Book," a survey of the population for tax purposes). Granted though, this was primarily the result of William having a considerable degree of centralization and authority in England, which most western European kingdoms during this time did not. The methods (and thus the technology) were there, but the means to carry them out weren't always available.
A health knowledge that was still being used 600 years later with little to no advancement. Oh and apartment buildings.
Of course, as far as health knowledge goes, much of the knowledge during this time, as well as Roman times, dated back to Hippocrates. Much of the knowledge in health gained during this time was from Arabia, diffused into Europe via the Moors in Spain, and to a much smaller extent, the Byzantines.
The medieval Europeans, however, made one key contribution - that is the concept of quarantine, which came about as a result of the Black Plague that swept through Europe around 1348 - 1352. Even if it seems rather crude and primitive, prior to then, it wasn't realized that the sick were necessarily contagious in some manner.
The loss of plumbing alone created a huge sanitation problem for Europe which is one reason their city populations were so low. Along with the loss of concrete making cheap public housing unrealistic as well.
It was a reason why they remained so low for awhile, however, the reason for the depopulation of the big cities was a direct result of the breakdown in trade. Without imports of food and other basic goods, the people had to disperse into the countryside and revert back to subsistence farming. This was what occurred immediately after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire (this situation never happened in the East) and from there, agricultural technology was improved upon.
I should also say that this breakdown in trade also made paved roads less necessary than before. Moreover, as the saddle and stirrup were introduced, travelling great distances overland became much mroe easy and quick than during the Roman era (which while not having much to do with hauling a cart of goods, had plenty to do with personal travel, which was still infrequent during the medieval era just as it was during the Roman era), where riding on horseback was rather difficult and dangerous.
Tell me you would rather be a citizen in 1000 Germany or France than a citizen anywhere of Rome in 100 AD?
Depends on what exactly my function in society would be. As I said, urban society in the Roman Empire was much more sophisticated and the living standards of the urbanites were greater than during the medieval era, hence if I were to be a resident of an urban center, Rome would be the obvious choice.
However, if we're talking about farming in the countryside (as the majority did, even in Rome), Germany or France of the 11th century would be far more preferable than Rome of the 2nd century. Simply put, innovations were made that allowed plows to be driven by horses and oxen without choking them to death, whereas this wasn't the case in Roman society. Agricultural techniques of the 11th century Europe were far superior to the techniques of the Roman 2nd century, hence a greater agricultural output (this improvement in agricultural output was compounded upon by the medieval warming period as well and allowed Europe's population by 1300 to be greater than any other region in the world, even greater than both China or India, though of course once it ended, the population reached its bottleneck event and made it ever more vulnerable to the Black Plague; the popuation of Europe after that steep decline was still greater than Roman Europe and continued to rise, though more slowly than before). Roman agricultural techniques were far from becoming "mechanized," whereas the medieval Europeans had already began the process first by using animals to a greater extent than ever before and using windmills and watermills (which were both improved from the primitive Roman versions) on a much greater scale with more success.
Post edited at 11:09 am on Mar. 5, 2009 by Bud2400
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