Mastering the Technology. In many respects, the European Middle Ages was a period of technological change and mastery, inasmuch as many of the techniques for improving agriculture, large-scale textile manufacturing and shipping, controlling water flow in order to flood moats, and fortifying towns were developed well before the Renaissance. The medieval world was a world of specialists, whose tools and techniques were brought to a high level of accomplishment and guarded by guilds and secrecy. However, in many cases, medieval innovations were not fully deployed until the Renaissance, when they were stimulated by the expansion of European markets, discovery of New World crops, nascent capitalism, and new methods for extracting, refining, and working metals and industrial chemicals.

Military Innovations. The Renaissance deployment of medieval innovations is evident in military technology. Gunpowder was introduced to Europe in the Middle Ages, and the...