Editing Medieval Stasis (section)

==Why the Medieval Stasis of the Post-Roman Middle Ages Ended==

In our own world, there were several critical developments which dramatically altered the status quo and led to the disruption of Medieval Stasis.  These were:

* '''Printing:''' The invention of printing resulted in an upswing of literacy and education across all but the lowest classes of society.  Greater availability of religious texts immediately caused schisms in Christianity as its foundational texts were scrutinized, while broadsheets and pamphleteering became the first form of ostensibly independent "news" through which the masses could be swayed to one view or another.  The church had been instrumental in raising people to subscribe to the status quo and its disruption left the system it was propping up vulnerable. Printing (and the refinements of the techniques for producing paper) also lead to a revolution in administration, as the rapid reproduction of records and similar documents simply made it easier to govern by decree, rather than giving a local noble you appointed some broad orders and hope he would stick to them.  
* '''Casting & Gunpowder:''' These two technologies were linked at the hip.  Gunpowder weaponry was powerful, but also expensive and complicated to make (cannons are generally cast, and once you can cast guns you can cast all kinds of new things).  It made feudalism untenable; no longer could a lord have his smith hammer out some weapons and outfit some men at arms.  Instead he paid taxes (bastard feudalism) so the king could buy guns made by...
* '''Craft Guilds (the Emergence of a Middle Class):''' The increasing complexity of creating of arms and desired goods drove the formation of labor organizations specifically focused on production; all kinds of production from guns to fabrics to ships and everything else.  As these organizations gained wealth, they gained power and with it an awareness of their importance relative to the importance of their supposed betters; this awareness found its outlet in the growing public forum fueled by printing.  
* '''Fractional Investment:''' With craft guilds and casting, economies were primed to begin growing rapidly, beyond the ability of the nobility to retain control or even complete awareness of what was going on.  Into this the growing artisan classes (particularly in the Netherlands) threw in the concept of modern investment, allowing individuals of lower means to participate in larger endeavors at reasonable risk.  Whether it was building polders or sending ships on trading missions or establishing businesses, this lit a fuse for explosive economic growth which ultimately made feudalism (and its tendency to maintain the status quo) economically obsolete.
* '''Colonialism:''' This also goes hand in hand with the emergence of the Middle Class. The discovery of the Americas single-handedly fixed the decades long economic recession Europe experienced by opening up the vast deposits of precious metals (so vast in fact, that some of the mines established by the Spanish in the 1500s are operating to this very day) sitting there to the European powers (mostly Spain). Expansionism and wars between ''Nations'' as opposed to ''Kings'' over economical and strategic dominance (instead of dynastic struggles over thrones and titles) that seem more familiar to us became the norm as a result, as nations started to argue over their slice of the cake instead of the cake as a whole. Additionally, the founding of the colonies in the Americas and trade stations in Asia and Africa gave birth to the first vestiges of a globalized economy, where nations across the world directly started to interact with each other, with the sideeffect of adverse events directly impacting everyone involed. Colonialism changed the face of the world in ways that would take up too much space to even broadly lay down on this page, so we'll just leave it at that. 

While there were innumerable other factors, these were major destabilizing elements that individually might have been coped with, but in concert made change inevitable.  In designing a medieval setting, care must be given to the degree of technology that is introduced.  As a general rule anything which cannot be created by the labor of a single person (excluding buildings, anyway), is liable to begin a chain reaction of economic activity which transfers wealth (and thus, power) away from a landholding nobility to a middle, merchant class.  

This is why Venice with its shipbuilders and traders was the birthplace of the Renaissance.  Unlike all the rest of Europe, Venice never succumbed to medieval stasis from feudalism; instead it succumbed to naked plutocracy.  The middle merchant class of wealthy citizens (citizen in the Roman/Byzantine sense) grew so powerful so fast from shipbuilding and trade that they engaged in centuries of backstabbing and petty power grabs.  In feudalistic countries, you were rich ''because you were king'', and your line might reign for centuries.  In Venice you were Doge (we swear, that's what they called the guy in charge) ''because you were rich'' and used your money to bribe/threaten/murder enough people to make you Doge; and odds were you'd be dead within a couple years to make someone else Doge. In a fit of irony, Venice, Ragusa and other merchant city-states eventually suffered a stagnation due to the closing of the Silk Road and the shift of trade lines from Mediterranean to Atlantic, this just goes to show how historical conditions can make or break a society.