Early modern economy: Members of the painters' guild in Haarlem (1670s) Guild system develops In the Renaissance, as cities grew all over Europe and more people began to buy things in stores instead [...]
Kids in a spinning mill in England During the 1700s AD, the first modern factories opened. At first these were spinning factories to make thread for clothing, blankets, and sheets. Because most adults [...]
Italian peasant, about 1850 (by Pierre Louis Dubourcq) At the very end of the 1700s AD, the invention of the cotton gin meant that the new country of the United States of America could produce [...]
India cotton (1600s AD) In the early 1600s AD, traders began to bring cotton cloth to Europe on sailing ships from India. People thought this cotton cloth was very convenient - it was pretty, [...]
French women wearing pants (Paris, 1922) Even though European men had started wearing pants in the early 1800s, women in Europe didn't really start to wear pants until about 100 years later, [...]
Republic of Genoa: Medieval drawing of the city of Genoa, Italy (1493) Genoa in the Early Middle Ages Around 900 AD, the Holy Roman Empire began to lose control of Italy, and Genoa was [...]
Medieval economy: A carpenter works in his shop. Collapse of trade After the fall of Rome, people in Europe used money less than they had before. Instead they mostly lived on what they [...]
Bedouin tents today in the Arabian peninsula: Islamic environment Early medieval environment We can divide the environmental history of the medieval Islamic Empire into three different phases. The early phase, [...]
Turkomen on the Silk Road with camels Just like under Persian or Sassanian rule, the economy of West Asia during the Islamic period depended very heavily on trade. The Silk Road ran right across the Islamic Empire. It [...]
Medieval Islamic clothing: women covered their heads with veils, and men wore hats or turbans. Why did people cover up their bodies? It was hot in the Islamic Empire. So people [...]
