Catholic world-system explained

Silver marks the change of an era

In the 970s, however, the input of Eastern silver into the Baltic Rim was dramatically reduced and came to a halt after a few years.In its place a steady flow of German and English silver coins poured

in. Many causes for this change have been suggested, but one thingis indisputable: the mutual exclusions and quick replacements of silvercurrencies clearly mark the shift of conjunctures. This shift in the970s ‘mirrors a change of position for the Nordic countries, that could only be called enormous’, wrote Bolin in 1945. He meant that the North thereby began to become a part of Catholic Europe. Whatever the details of the procedure, the silver wind had started to blow in the backs of the Westerners.

There are other ways of observing this rather sudden change.

The parallels with the quick breakthrough of Christianity around the North and Baltic Seas are obvious. To evaluate it, we must again remember that a Christian mission had been successfully started at the beginning of the 9th century or even earlier,29 but had then been given up. Thus, the build-up of a proto-urban nodal system, the great changes in conjunctures and the successes and failures of the Christian mission seem quite correlated. The visit of Archbishop Unni in 936 to a Birka flooded by Arabian coins, and his subsequent death there, looks like the extinction of a last flickering candle light.

But just 40 to 50 years later, the entire situation was changing.

Bohemia in 955/973,
Denmark in 960/980,
Poland in 966,
Hungary in 973, 
Russia in 988, 
Iceland in 1000,
Sweden in 1000/08, 
Norway in 1030. 
The traditional dates of the decisive and lasting conversions of entire nations make (especially if you display them on a map) a rather convincing impression of a quick expansion process. Some of these dates are no doubt unreliable and they tell hardly anything about the spiritual status of the respective people. But the years of conversion are not vastly mistaken, and what they reveal has more to do with Christianity getting the upper hand in the politico-ideological struggle than of full mental conversion.

However, eleventh-century history does not show any complete
change.

The western continent remained occupied with its inner struggles for a good century more. Influences from Byzantium were still balancing Western ones, although Arabian culture disappeared quite quickly over the eastern horizon. Baltic Rim polities remained relatively powerful. As late as 1040, Rome powers still controlled the northern seas from England to Novgorod. The Christian catholic mission remained fairly tolerant, and the converts quite syncretistic. In the sense that I use here, the Baltic was to remain undiscovered (i.e. by western catholic Europeans) all through the 11th century.