Medieval Stasis

Over the past 300 or so years, technological growth has happened at a rapid pace. Seventy years ago, the first programmable computers were built. They were the size of houses and had a few kilobytes worth of memory. Before the Age of Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution, things was on the whole much slower. Even so, if one was to compare either Europe, the Middle East or East Asia of 1500 CE with Europe, The Middle East or East Asia of 1500 BCE, one would soon be aware of the differences. In the earlier times weapons would be made of bronze instead of iron, architecture would typically on a much smaller scale, ships and boats would be far cruder affairs, Firearms and other black powder weapons would be absent, literacy would be rarer, cities would be smaller and less areas would have cities. One would notice that there were various, though typically less pronounced improvements in the middle ages between 1000 and 1500, such as the rise of windmills and plate armor.

Despite this, most fantasy writers tend to ignore this fact. Usually they settle their lands at a level of development comprable around 1000-1400CE. A Knight's great great great etc, grandfather five thousand years ago fought against Orcs on the back of a great warsteed with sword and lance with in plate and a greathelm, just as he does at present. At most, some groups will be more advanced than others. This sort of thing got started with Tolkien, who was not the keenest person when it came to progress and described Middle Earth as being on the Decline.

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