Internal Colonization in Medieval Europe

Around the year 1000 Rodulfus Glaber described France as being in the throes of a building boom. He may have been the first writer to perceive the early medieval period as a Dark Age that was ending to be replaced by a better world. In the articles gathered here distinguished medieval historians discuss the ways in which this transformation took place. European society was becoming more stable, the climate was improving, and the population increasing so that it was necessary to increase foo...