Q: I have a question about an oily film that has been covering the trees in our area. I have 36 acres of poplar forest and it is covered! This sticky oil is all over trees, shrubs, vehicles, etc.Some tree leaves (eg. saskatoons) have been turning black where the sticky oil is.: I found your column on the Web and am hoping you can answer a question for me. I have six hybrid poplar trees in my backyard about 25 to 30 feet from my foundation. After eight years, the trees are quite large (more height than width).
Effects of the Crusades. advertisement. advertisement. Although the crusades failed to capture Jerusalem, they had several major impacts on Western Europe. They increased the authority of the king: Sometimes nobles died in battle without leaving an heir in which case the king got their land. Kings passed taxes to pay for the crusades. To pay this tax some nobles had to sell some of their land. Other nobles used the sale of land to offer serfs a chance to buy their freedom. Without as much land, nobles did not need as many serfs. As for the peasants, they were free to leave.
The nobility became richer and the peasants were better placed to purchase goods that the merchants came with from other countries. The main merchant traders were the Genoese and Venetians. Merchants in the middle ages engaged in fierce confrontations over trade routes, through which they brought in good such as silk, perfumes, foods and spices. The Crusades, some of the bloodiest wars of the middle ages were not just about religion, they were also about different groups of merchants seeking to gain control of the major trade routes. Merchants earned a position as those who worked, but their social standing was certainly much higher than that of the peasants. As the peasants toiled in the field and the lords made merry in their castles, the merchants in the middle ages were busy travelling across the Mediterranean and Europe. They went as far as Spain, England, France, Russia and Scandinavia as well as Asia.