Guilds were the association of craftsmen or merchants who followed same craft and profession. Guilds usually existed in the medieval period. The main aim of forming guilds was to protect the interests of the members.

The term ‘Renaissance’ literally means rebirth or revival. It was a complex transitional movement which took place in Europe between 14^th to 17^th centuries. It stressed on rational thinking and humanism. During Renaissance, many developments took place in literature, art, architecture, science and technology. It marked the beginning of the modern era in Europe.

1. Christians had believed that the earth was a sinful place and the heavy burden of sin made it immobile. The earth stood at the centre of the universe around which moved the celestial planets.

2. Copernicus asserted that the planets, including the earth, rotate around the sun. A devout Christian, Copernicus was afraid of the possible reaction to his theory by traditionalist clergymen. For this reason, he did not want his manuscript, De revolutionibus (the Rotation) to be printed. On his deathbed, he gave it to his follower, Joachim Rheticus.

3. It took time for people to accept this idea. It was much later - more than half a century later, in fact - that the difference between ‘heaven’ and earth was bridged through the writings of astronomers like Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) and Galileo Galilei (1564-1642).

4. The theory of the earth as part of a sun-centred system was made popular by Kepler's Cosmographical Mystery, which demonstrated that the planets move around the sun not in circles but in ellipses. Galileo confirmed the notion of the dynamic world in his work The Motion. This revolution in science reached its climax with Isaac Newton's theory of gravitation.

Women in France did not avail respectable status in society. They were considered much inferior to men before the Revolution. Most of them of the third estate had to work for a living. 

They worked as seamstresses or laundresses, sold flowers, fruits and vegetables at the market or were employed as domestic servants in the houses of wealthy people. 

Most women did not have access to education or job training. Only daughters of nobles or weathier members of the third estate could get education. 

Working women had to take care of their families. They had to cook, fetch water, queue up for bread and look after the children. Their wages were always lower than those of men.

Agriculture in the Middle Ages describes the farming practices, crops, technology, and agricultural society and economy of Europe from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 to approximately 1500. The Middle Ages are sometimes called the Medieval Age or Period. The Middle Ages are also divided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages. The early modern period followed the Middle Ages.

Farming in the Middle Ages

Epidemics and climatic cooling caused a large decrease in the European population in the 6th century. Compared to the Roman period, agriculture in the Middle Ages in Western Europe became more focused on self-sufficiency. The Feudal period began about 1000. The agricultural population under feudalism in Northern Europe was typically organized into manors consisting of several hundred or more acres of land presided over by a Lord of the manor, with a Roman Catholic church and priest. Most of the people living on the manor were peasant farmers or serfs who grew crops for themselves, and either labored for the lord and church or paid rent for their land. Barley and wheat were the most important crops in most European regions; oats and rye were also grown, along with a variety of vegetables and fruits. Oxen and horses were used as draft animals. Sheep were raised for wool and pigs were raised for meat.

Crop failures due to bad weather were frequent throughout the Middle Ages and famine was often the result. Despite the hardships, there is anthropometric evidence that medieval European men were taller (and therefore presumably better fed) than the men of the preceding Roman Empire and the subsequent early modern era.

The medieval system of agriculture began to break down in the 14th century with the development of more intensive agricultural methods in the Low Countries and after the population losses of the Black Death in 1347–1351 made more land available to a diminished number of farmers. Medieval farming practices, however, continued with little change in the Slavic regions and some other areas until the mid-19th century.

1. Arab's Contribution in the Field of Science :

(i) The Arabs produced great physicians like Al-Razi and Ibn-Sina who respectively discovered the true nature of smallpox and tuberculosis. They organised hospitals, for the treatment of the infectious diseases.

ii). In Mathematics the Arabs spread the knowledge of numbers and trigonometry in the other regions of the world Omar-Khayyam a great Mathematicians of Arab devised a calendar which is more accurate than the present Christian Calendar.

iii). The Arab astronomers believed that the earth revolves round the sun.

Humanism was a restoration of true civilization after the Dark Age that had set in after the fall of the Roman Empire.

1. Humanism stressed on the individual skills. A person with many skills and interests have been referred to as the Renaissance man. The emerging belief in individual potential helped to identify a town by its citizens.

2. The Humanist thought had a very different idea of history. According to this thought only humanism could revive the long past true civilisation. This revival would enable to end the Dark Age that Europe was then passing through.

3. The establishment of the New Age would mark an end to the period of the supremacy of the Church. The basis of humanism is naturalism, which is antithetical to the beliefs of Christianity.

4. Humanism revived the classical Greek literature. The works of Aristotle and Plato were translated. Along with these subjects modern faculties such as chemistry, mathematics, natural science and astronomy also became a part of the college curriculum.

5. Not only formal education but also art, architecture and books were effective mediums of transmitting humanist ideas. Drawing realistic paintings and sculpting perfectly proportioned figures of men and women were expressions of humanism. Painters and sculptors started to rely on anatomy, geometry and physics to recreate reality.

The Italian city-states were a political phenomenon of small independent states mostly in the central and northern Italian Peninsula between the 9th and the 15th centuries.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, urban settlements in Italy generally enjoyed a greater continuity than in the rest of western Europe. Many of these towns were survivors of earlier Etruscan, Umbrian and Roman towns which had existed within the Roman Empire. The republican institutions of Rome had also survived. Some feudal lords existed with a servile labour force and huge tracts of land, but by the 11th century, many cities, including Venice, Milan, Florence, Genoa, Pisa, Lucca, Cremona, Siena, Città di Castello, Perugia, and many others, had become large trading metropoles, able to obtain independence from their formal sovereigns.

Invention of Machines in Cotton Industry:

•  The flying shuttle loom invented by John Kay in 1733 revolutionsed the textile industry.
•  The spinning jenny
•  The water frame
•  The mule
•  Powerloom

The Mesopotamian tablets contained only symbols and numbers. These tablets contained the signs/symbols of fish, bread, leaves and were written around 3200 BCE.

Early settlers began to build temples at selected spots in their villages. The earliest known temple was a small shrine made of unbaked bricks. These early temples were much like a house because they were small in size. There used to be an open courtyard around which rooms were constructed. Temples were the residence of various gods. Temples also had their outer wall going in and out at regular intervals, which no ordinary building ever had.

Mesopotamia important to Europeans because:

• Mesopotamia has good fertile land and it is considered to be ancestors' land.

• It is very important to Europeans because many inventions and developments started from here only.

• Mesopotamia is important to Europeans because it has Tigris and Euphrates rivers that's why Mesopotamia land is a fertile crescent and the soil is also nutrient-rich.

• This is one of the important reason Mesopotamia is so valuable to Europeans.

Mesopotamia important to Europeans because:

• Mesopotamia has good fertile land and it is considered to be ancestors' land.

• It is very important to Europeans because many inventions and developments started from here only.

• Mesopotamia is important to Europeans because it has Tigris and Euphrates rivers that's why Mesopotamia land is a fertile crescent and the soil is also nutrient-rich.

• This is one of the important reason Mesopotamia is so valuable to Europeans.