One elemental cause may have been climate change. Between around 950 and 1250 global temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere rose, and although this rise was by no means evenly felt across the globe, it provided the longest sustained period of benign climate conditions in the west since the Roman Climate Optimum.24 Although, as we shall see, the so-called Medieval Warm Period would not last throughout the Middle Ages, it made conditions in Europe relatively favorable to agriculture. This natural advantage coincided with the development of new horse harnesses and large iron plows (“heavy”
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