Post on 18-Jul-2015
transcript
The Black Death The Plague started in Italy
33% of people who contracted the disease died
Black Death---really Bubonic Plague (as opposed to Pneumonic Plague)
The Black Death was spread by fleas on rats
Yersinia pestis
Epidemic---outbreak of a rapid-spreading disease
At it’s height, the Black Death was killing 7,000 people per day in Cairo, Egypt (more than the entire population of Minersville per day)
The Black Death The Black Death made society turn to magic and witchcraft
to try to cope with what was happening to them…Why???
Eventually, Europeans began to blame Jewish people for the outbreak of the Black Death (obviously this is ridiculous!!!)
The Italian poet Boccaccio wrote The Decameron in which he described the social decay he saw in Florence, Italy during the Black Death…”and scarcely to be believed, fathers and mothers were found to abandon their own children…as if they had been strangers”
The Black Death Within hours of getting bitten, victims developed egg-
sized lumps under their arms (buboes)
Black spots then appeared on their skin
Spitting blood usually signified death was near
Unsanitary conditions in towns and cities helped lead to the quick spread of the plague (people threw garbage and human waste into the streets)
So many people were dying that gravediggers used carts to collect all the corpses and buried victims in mass graves…”Bring out your dead” was often called out
Death and the Economy The Black Death greatly affected the medieval economy As both workers and employers died, production began to
decline People who survived the Black Death demanded to be paid more
money to work This rise for labor led to inflation in the price of goods To stem the rise in wages, farmers converted croplands to sheep
raising Guilds limited apprenticeships, refused to accept new members,
and denied journeymen the chance to become masters Revolts sprung up all of Europe The plague spread both death and social unrest and it took
Western Europe 100+ years to fully recover from it
Upheaval in the Church Pope Clement V moved the papal court to Avignon
Critics spoke out against the worldly, pleasure-loving papacy and anticlergy feelings grew
For a period of time, there were two popes---one in Avignon in southern France and one in Rome
This caused a schism in the Church
Problem was not resolved 1417 when a Church council at Constance finally ended the crisis
Upheaval in the Church John Wycliffe, an Oxford professor, began to attack
Church corruption
Wycliffe said that the Bible not the Church was the source of truth for Christians
His followers began translating the Bible into English so that people could read it for themselves and not have to rely on the clergy to read it
Upheaval in the Church Wycliffe’s ideas spread to Bohemia (today’s Czech
Republic) where Jan Hus began leading calls for reforming the Church
The Church got angry and began persecuting Wycliffe and suppressing the Hussites
Hus ended up getting but on trial for preaching heresy and was burned at the stake in 1415
The Hundred Years’ War War fought by England against France between 1337
and 1453
3 causes for the long conflict---
English rulers holding onto French land
French kings extending their own power
Economic rivalry and national pride
The Hundred Years’ War At first the English claimed a string of victories that
made it seem like they were going to bring all of France under their control
This success was made possible by the English longbow---powerful new weapon (its arrows could pierce all but the heaviest armor) six feet long that could shoot 3 arrows in the same time a French archer could fire 1 with his crossbow
Soon the tide would turn in France’s favor
The Hundred Years’ War Joan of Arc was a 17-year old peasant woman when she
began inspiring the French troops to fight and leading them to several victories
She ended up being taken captive by allies of the British, turned over to the British, put on trial for witchcraft, convicted, and burned at the stake
The Church later declared her a saint
The death of Joan of Arc rallied the French and with this motivation along with their powerful new weapon, the cannon, they pushed the English back all the way to Calais, a port in northwestern France
The Hundred Years’ War Changes in France--- increased sense of national pride
and allowed French kings to expand their power
Changes in England--- Parliament gets “power of the purse”, dreams of an English continental empire snuffed out, future rulers look for trading opportunities overseas
Changes in military strategy---common soldiers gain new importance on battlefield due to the longbow and cannon, castles and knights become obsolete due to superior firepower, kings realize they need large armies and not feudal vassals to fight wars