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The __created a vast empire whose rule brought stability to the __, which, in turn, brought prosperity, as well as fleas that spread __. Signs of disintegration were everywhere: famine, economic depression, war, social upheaval, a rise in crime and violence, and a decline in Church power
Mongols
- Eurasian trade routes
- Black Death
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I. Famine and Population
a. End of thirteenth century
- End of thirteenth century: change in weather patternà little ice ageà shortened growing seasons and bad weather conditions, scuh as storms and constant rain
- i. 1315-1317: heavy rains destroyed harvests, causing food shortages and hunger and starvation
- 1. Extended from n. Europe to other parts
- a. Famile killed 10% of population in first half of 14th c.
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I. Famine and Population
Large Population in High Middle Ages
- i. All land farmed
- ii. Also movement from rural to urban areas (18%)
- 1. Did not improve conditions (17000/140,000 paupers)\
- iii. Individual acreage so small, it couldn’t support the population
- iv. This led to malnutritionà increased infant mortality and lower birthrates
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I. Black Death: From Asia to Europe
Means of Transmittance
and Origination
- a. Bubonic plague spread by black rats infested with infested fleas
- b. Originaiton:
- i. Although disappeared from Europe and Middle East in the Middle Ages, Mongol troops brought the rats that infected China
- 1. 90% of province in Beijing died; overall, china’s population: 120 million to 80 million by 1400
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I. Black Death: From Asia to Europe
a. Mongols
- i. Brought Eurasian landmass under single rule in 13th c.--> long-distance trade
- 1. Movement of people and goods helped spread plague
- b. 1330: Central Asiaà1339: Smarkandà Caffa (1346)àConstantinople and Europe (1347)à 1348: Egypt, Mecca, Damascus, Germany and FranceàEngland (1349) and by end, Scandinavia and northern Europeà Russia and e. Europe (1351)
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I. The Black Death in Europe
- a. Ravaged Euorpe’s population and caused economic, social, political, and cultural upheaval
- i. High fever, aching joints, swollen lymph nodes, dark blotches from bleeding
- b. Brought from merchants and spread to Italy, France, and Spain by end of 1347
- i. Followed commercial trade routes
- c. Mortality figures high, esp. in Italy due to ports where plague brought in
- i. Large cities suffered 50-60% loss
- d. France (farming villages suffered mortality of 30% and 40% in other areas); England and Germany lost entire villages: Germany 130,000/170,000 remained
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III. The Black Death in Europe
European Population
- a. European population declined by 25-50% between 1347-1351
- i. Outbreaks again in 1361-62, 1369 and repeatedly for five or six to ten and twenty years, depending on climate and ecology
- ii. Recovered around 1500
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Reactions to the Plague
- i. Some lived for the moment through sexual and alcoholic orgies
- ii. Wealthy and powerful fled
- iii. Some thought God was punishing them for their sins or caused by devil
- iv. Some resorted to extreme asceticism to cleanse their sins and gain forgiveness
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Flagellants
- 1. Flagellants flogged themselves too win God’s forgiveness
- a. Attracted attention and caused mass hysteria
- i. Some killed Jews and attacked clergy, scaring the Church
- b. Some also developed millenarian aspect, anticipating the end and return of Jesus
- c. Pope Clement VI condemned them in October 1349 and urged tehm to be crushed, ending their movement in 1350
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Anti-Seminsim
- 1. Jews accused of causing plague andpersucuted
- a. Germany organized massacres, pogroms, against them, destroying more than 60 major Jewish communities by 1351
- i. Jews fled to Russia and Poland under king’s protection
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Effects of Plague
- i. Some survivors treated life as cheap, increasing violence and nviolent deaths
- ii. Morbid preoccupations and reiminders of death
- iii. Tombstones decorated with macabre scenes of naked corpses decomposing and entwined with snakes and worms
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IV. Economic Dislocation and Social Upheaval
a. Population
- a. Population collapse+ economic dislocationà social upheaval
- i. 1000-1300: clergy (pray), nobility (fight), and laborers (work)à disintegrated in fourteenth century where urban and rural revolts occurred in Europe
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I. Economic Dislocation and Social Upheaval
a. Noble Landlords and Peasants
- i. Labor shortange that caused rise in price of labor
- ii. Decline in population held stable the demand for agricultural produce, resulting in stable or falling prices for output
- 1. Due to landlords paying more for labor while their rents or incomes were declining, their standards of living were being more difficult and lowly
- a. England: their income dropped 20%
- b. Responded by trying to lower wage rate
- i. English Parilament passed Statute of Laborers (1351):
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Statute of Laborers
- 1. tried to limit wages to preplague levels
- 2. forbid mobility of peasants
- ii. Law did not work, but did keep wages from rising as high as free market
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I. Economic Dislocation and Social Upheaval
Overall
Decline in Peasants
- i. Overall:
- 1. Landlords’ living deterioratedà peasant conditions improved
- ii. Decline in peasants after plague led to converstion of labor services to rents
- 1. Freed peasants from obligations of servile tenure and weakened Manorialism
- a. Still had limits of advancement
- i. Faced same economic hurdles as lords, but lords tried to impose wage restrictions, reinstate old forms of labor service, and create new obligations
- iii. New governmental taxes also hurt
- iv. Peasants complained and revolted
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Revolt in France
Factors
i. In 1358, one called Jacquerie, in northern France
1. Destruction of normal order by Black Death- 2. Subsequent economic dislocation
- 3. Ravages created by the Hundred Years’ War also affected French peasants
- 4. French and English policy of laying waste to peasants’ fields while bands of mercenaries lived off te land by taking their produce
- 5. Growing class tensions
- a. Landed nobles wanted to maintain politically privileged position and felt threatened after plague
- b. Peasants and nobles both held contempt
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Revolt in France Effects
- i. Effects
- 1. Peasants burned castles nad murdered nobles
- 2. Privileged classes massacred the rebels and ended the revolt
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Revolt in England
- i. English Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 was most prominent
- 1. Product of rising expectations
- ii. After Black Death, the condition of the English peasants had improved as they enjoyed greater freedom and higher wages or lower rents
- 1. Aristocratic landlords fought back with legislation to depress wages and attempted to reimpose old feudal dues
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Revolt in England Immediate Cause
- i. Immediate Cause: monarchy’s attempt to raise revenues by imposing a poll tax or a flat charge on each adult member of the population
- 1. Peasants refused to pay the tax and expelled the collectors forcibly from their villages
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Effects of Revolt in England
- i. Effect:
- 1. Rebellion of peasants and townspeople led by peasant Wat Tyler and a preacher named John Ball, who preached against the noble class
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Success of Revolt in England
- 1. Initially as rebels burned down manor houses of aristocrats, lawyers, and government officials and murdered several important officials
- a. After peasants marched on London, King Richard II (15) promised to accept the rebels’ demands if they returned home
- i. The accepted and the king broke the promise, arresting hundreds of htem with aristocratic help
- 1. Poll tax was eliminated
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Revolts in the Cities
- i. Commercial and industrial activity affected by Black Death
- 1. Oversupply of goods and immediate drop in demandà trade decline and industrial suffering
- ii. Bourgeois merchants and manufacturers attempted to restrict competition and resist demands of lower classes
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Revolts in the Cities: Urban Areas
- i. Urban areas, where capitalist industrialists paid low wages and managed to prevent workers from forming organizations to help themselves, experienced industrial revolts
- 1. Most famous was ciompi in Florence in 1378
- a. They were wool workers in Florence’s industry who saw wages decline when coinage debased
- i. Their revolt won them some concessions from the municipal government, including the right to form guilds and be represented in the government
- 1. Short-lived rights; aurhorities ended ciompi participation in government by 1382
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Revolts in the Cities
Reaction to Uprisings
- i. Uprisings were quickly crushed and gains lost
- 1. Established classes formed united front to end dissent
- ii. Effect: revolts led to social conflict
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