Crusades, Trade, and the Plague

-List and explain some of the major events that affected Europe in the late Middle Ages.

-Explain who issued the call for the Crusades and why.-List and describe some of the major trade goods that

traveled over trade routes, such as the Silk Road, in the Middle Ages.

-Explain what a bubonic plague is and how it affects humans.-Explain what the different theories are regarding how the

Plague reached Europe.

The Crusades

• During the time of the 1000s, a group of Muslim Seljuk Turks from Central Asia rose up and defeated a Byzantine Army.

• This group of Turks also began to take over many lands including Palestine.

• Christians often made pilgrimages to this land and thousands of them were killed by the Turks.– This caused the Christians to get very angry.

Pope Urban II

• I speak to those present, I send word to those not here…go forth against the Turks in a battle worthy to be undertaken now and to be finished in victory!

• When the Christians heard this, they began to cry out “It is the will of God!”

• Thus began the Crusades or holy wars.

The Crusades

• For the next 200 years, waves of crusaders, kings, queens, knights, monks, nuns and serfs set out to recapture the Holy Land.

• The Crusaders were a great failure for the Church.– The Christians did not capture the Holy Land.– Many innocent people – Christian and Muslim died.– The Crusades increased trade between the East

and the West.

Trade Grows

• During the early middle ages, people had what they needed – food, clothing, and shelter.

• Soon, they began to need and want goods that were not on the manor.– Serfs needed iron.– Lords wanted furs and fine wool.

• Merchants began to set up tents to display their goods.

Trade Grows

• A network of trade routes soon developed where people could sell their goods at fairs.

• Local and foreign goods were exchanged along these routes.

• Rather than travel from Asia, goods would reach the trader through a series of middlemen, similar to a relay race.

• Trade routes delivered goods from Africa, Asia, China and the Far East.

The Silk Road

• We know about The Silk Road from travels of Marco Polo.

• The Silk Road was several different routes and branches that passed through different settlements.

• All routes set out from the Chinese Capital, Chang’an under the Hun Dynasty.

• They all reached Dunhuang on the edge of the Taklimakan Desert.

The Silk Road

• Caravans to China carried gold, ivory and precious stones.

• Caravans from China bought silk, furs, ceramics, jade, bronze objects, lacquer, and iron.

• Ideas traveled both ways – Buddhism came to China via the Silk Road.

• The Silk Road was physically difficult to travel on.– Bandits also made it dangerous to travel.– Defense walls were built along the road for protection.

The Silk Road

The Plague

• When medieval culture was at its greatest strength, the Plague hit Europe.

• The Plague was a bubonic plague, a very aggressive epidemic, or the rapid spread of disease over a wide area.

• It is caused when fleas infest rodents and then the rats infect humans. – The humans and rats die, but the fleas live.

• In the fourteenth century, nobody knew how it spread and how to stop it.

• Some people thought they could get the plague from looking at another person.

• The plague killed about one fourth to one third of Europe’s population.

The Spread of the Plague

Effects of the Plague

• 23 – 33% Population loss in Europe.

• Businesses go bankrupt.

• Deaths cause labor shortages.

• Trade declines and towns disappear.

• Construction and building projects stop.

• Food supply decreases and people starve.

The Plague

Summary

• Trade began in Europe.

• Pope Urban II called for the Crusades.

• Marco Polo traveled to China along the Silk Road.

• The Plague reached Europe.