How Did The Printing Press Affect The Medieval World

In 1445, a man in Germany called Gutenberg changed the course of human history through a simple innovative technological advancement: the printing press. The impact of the printing press had huge consequences on the economic, social and political spheres of the medieval world and far-reaching in the change across human evolution. Until then, books were expensive and laborious to make. After Gutenberg’s invention, books could be easily and cheaply reproduced which spread literacy, education ideas across Western Europe.

But, if we look back at history and the pivotal printing press, we can see evidence of the reluctance of people to adopt new technologies, which ultimately hindered development in different ways. Although the importance of the printing press was recognised across Western Europe, with the technology spreading to France, then Italy and by 1476 it had arrived in London, not everyone saw it as a desirable innovation (Acemoglu YEAR: 230). The Ottoman sultan, Bayezid II issued an edict that Muslims were expressly forbidden from printing in Arabic and it was not until 1727 that the first printing press was allowed in Ottoman lands (Acemoglu YEAR: 230). This restriction to the new
In 2004, the proportion of Internet users in high-income economies was 5.8 and 19.4 times those of middle-income and low-income countries, respectively (Billion et al, 2009). This uneven distribution of ICT between developed and developing countries may have a very different impact on economic development, and therefore on wealth and affluence. As technology progresses at a faster rate in the developed economies, other countries will lag behind and forever be playing catch