Gateway Essay:
Colonial America and Medieval Technology

Introduction | Medieval | Mill | Forge | Problems&Solutions | Continuations

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Benjamin Hudson, Penn State University History Department

What have colonial America and medieval Europe in common? More than is popularly believed. Early America was a cultural and technological extension of the Middle Ages. Most of the farming and metal working methods used in colonial America were from the scientific revolution that had taken place in the twelfth century. Medieval Europeans had been forced to new inventions, because the farming and metallurgical techniques practiced in the Roman Empire were unsuited for Europe north of the Alps. By the year 1000, there were new methods to grow crops, process food, and make metal. The last refinements came about during the period 1100-1200, at the same time that the population began to grow rapidly, traditional energy sources (wood) were depleted, and there was a demand for a better standard of living. At that time, North America was a part of medieval Europe. Viking settlements along the Atlantic coast of North America, made by colonists from Greenland, brought medieval technology to the Americas.

Moving ahead six centuries, there were later, and more successful, colonies. Once again, colonial society in North America was an extension of medieval European culture and technology. As immigrants adapted familiar forms and industries to the realities of life in a new land, they faced problems that had been addressed in the Middle Ages: land reclamation, transportation, and food supply. Their solutions involved the two crucial industries of food processing and metalworking or, more simply, the mill and the forge. As had been true in medieval Europe, Early Americans had to find sources of energy to power their machines, and this dictated how they lived. How successful they were depended on an idea: freedom. Individual self-reliance and the freedom to choose their own course of life was important for the ability to adapt to new conditions and to develop beyond earlier machines. Colonial adaptation of this technology flourished in those parts of the new world where individual freedom and self-determination were encouraged.