CH. 11 The Later Middle Ages

Chapter 11: The Later Middle Ages

A time of troubles: Black Death and Social Crisis Famine and Population: Europe was entering a period called "little ice age". This resulted in a small drop in overall temperatures which led to shortened growing seasons and disastrous wether conditions. This caused serious food shortages, resulting in extreme hunger and starvation.  Some historians estimate that the famine killed 10 percent of the European population in the first half of the fourteenth century.  Europe had experienced a great increase in population in the High Middle Ages. It had reached the upper limit of its population, in the number of people who could be supported by existing agricultural production and technology.  There was also a movement from over populated areas to urban location. Europe seemed to have reached an upper limit to population growth, and the number of poor appeared to have increased noticeably.  Famine may lead to malnutrition, which in turn contributed to increased infant mortality, lower birthrates, and higher susceptibility to disease because malnourished people are less able to resist infection. This, is argued, that explains the high mortality of the great plague known as the Black Death. 

The Black Death The most devastating natural disaster in European history, raving Europe and causing economic, social, political, and cultural upheaval.  People were horrified by an evil force they could not understand. Bubonic plague, which was the most common and most important form of plague in the diffusion of the black death, was spread by black rats infested with fleas who were host to the deadly bacterium Yersinia pests.  Symptoms Bubonic Plague: high fever, aching joints, swelling of the lymph nodes, and dark blotches caused by bleeding beneath the skin. The Black Death was the first major epidemic disease to strike Europe since the 7th century, such absence helps explain the population growth.  The plague had originated in Asia, and once it had left europe, it was still hunting areas of China, especially isolated territories.  The arrival of the Mongol troops in this area became the means for the spread of the plague as flea-infested rats carrying the bacteria accompanied the Mongols into centric and northwestern China and Central Asia. From there, the trading caravans brought the plague to Caffa on the Black Sea.  The plague reached europe, when the Genoese merchants brought it from Caffa to the island of Sicily off the coast of southern Italy. It spread quickly, reaching southern italy and France and Spain.  Usually the diffusion of the Black Death followed commercial trade routes.  The plague spread through France and the Low Countries into Germany. By the end of the year, it had moved to England. Mortality rates were never as high in Eastern Europe as they were in central Europe.  Italy was specially hard hit. As the commercial center of the Mediterranean, italy possessed scores of ports where the plague could be introduced. Small cities such as Orvieto and Pistoia, suffered losses of 50 to 60%. France and England were also particularly devastated. In England and Germany, entire villages simply disappeared.  It has been estimated that the European population declined by 25 to 50 percent. 

Life and Death: Reactions to the Plague  Natural disasters of the magnitude of the great plague produce extreme psychological reactions. knowing they could be dead in a matter of days, people began living for the moment; some threw themselves into sexual and alcoholic orgies.  The 14th century italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio gave a classic description of this kind of reaction to the plague in florence in the preface to his famous Decameron. The attempt to explain the Black Death and mitigate its harshness led to extreme sorts of behavior. To many people the plague had either been sent by God as a punishment for humans' sins or been caused by the devil.  The flagellants resorted to extreme asceticism to cleanse themselves of sin and gain god's forgiveness. Their movement became popular especially in Germany. groups of flagellants wandered from town to town, flogging whipping themselves to gain God's forgiveness, whom they believed had sent the plague to punish humans for their sinful ways. The catholic church became alarmed when flagellant groups began to kill Jews and attack clergy who opposed them. Some even adapted to place their emphasis on the coming of the end of the world, the return of Jesus, and the establishment of a thousand-year kingdom under his governance. Pope Clement VI condemned the flagellants in October 1349 and urged the public authorities to crush them. by the end of 1350 most of the flagellant movement had been destroyed.  An outbreak of virulent anti-semitism also accompanied the Black Death. Jews were accused of causing the black plague by poisoning the town wells. Although Jews were persecuted in Spain, the greatest massacres or pogroms happened in Germany, therefore many Jews fled to Russia and Poland where the king granted them protection.  the prevalence of death because of the plague affected people in profound ways. Some came to treat life as cheap and passing, violence and violent death appeared to be more common after the plague. Postplague europe also  demonstrated a morbid preoccupation with death. 

Economic Dislocation and Social Upheaval The population collapse of the 14th century had dire economic and social consequences. Economic dislocation was accompanied by social upheaval. The division of society into the three estates of clergy (those who pray), nobility (those who fight), and laborers (those who work) had already begun to disintegrate  Noble Landlords and peasants: Both peasants and nobles were affected by the demographic crisis of the 14th century.   Europe experienced a serious labor shortage that caused a dramatic rise in the price of labor. Because landlords were having to pay more for labor at the same time that their rents or income were declining, they began to experience considerable adversity and lower standards of living. Aristocrats responded to adversity by seeking to lower the wage rate. The english parliament passed the Statue of Laborers, which attempted to limit wages to preplague levels and forbid the mobility of peasants as well. Such laws kept wages from rising as high as they might have in a free market. As the position of landlords deteriorated the position of peasants improved.  Peasants complaints led to the rise of rural revolts.  Peasants revolt:  A peasant revolt known as the Jacquerie, broke out in Northern france. the destruction of normal order by the Black Death and the subsequent economic dislocation were important factors in causing the revolt, but the ravages created by the hundred Years' War also affected the French peasantry. Both the french and the english forces followed a deliberate policy of laying waste to peasants lands while bands of mercenaries lived off the land by taking peasants' produce as well.  Peasants anger was also heightened by growing class tensions. Landed nobles were eager to hold on to their politically privileged position and felt increasingly threatened in the new postplague world of higher wages and lower prices. 

New Page