Crises of the 14th Century Flashcards
Great Famine 1315 - 1322
series of repeating cold and wet weather
continuous crop failures
cattle plague loses 90% of cattle - impact of ploughing
tree rings show rainfall 10% higher
hits northern europe then southern europe
food prices skyrocket and wages fall
mass starvation - mortality rates 10-15%
religious and social response - processions, bread riots
was famine due to climate or human actions?
not a distribution problem like modern famines
people generally much closer to subsistence levels
fewer communication/distribution networks
monocausal explanation - everything to do with climate - move away from this
environmental factors of famine
end of medieval warm period little ice age around 1450 great transition - cooling of earth variation in temperature/precipitation unpredictability
problems of land usage
population increase - people on marginal land
exhaustion of soil and reduced amounts of fertiliser
therefore decrease in yields
proportion of land per person becomes smaller
therefore no room for error in small holdings
pushing of people into manufacturing trade- lowering of wages in sector
famine particularly bad in cities
war
more fragmented, violent landscape
partly to do with mongol expansion then fragmentation
therefore increased transaction cost for merchants trading with asia
fall of acre 1291
hundred years war in europe - trade with flanders affected
this conflict involves much of europe eg navarre and iberia
stimulated some economies, devastating for others
fiscal burden of problems
increased war=increased taxation beginning of individual taxation sales taxes on salt etc states forces to debase coinage most popular revolts about taxation and who was taxed europes silver supply also running out
1st wave of the Black Death
1436-52
comes from italian trading post on black sea
came from mongols- attacked the trading post
goes through constantinople, france, britain etc
bubonic form of disease
mortality about 80% - some recovery
killed roughly 30-50% of population
discriminated socially - obviously
some areas less affected, eg leper colonies
becomes endemic, repeated every so often
the childrens plague
1360-63
may have been neumatic (respiratory, almost 100% mortality)
talked about by sources hitting young, weird as no previous exposure
baby boom after last plague
killing of replacement population made effects irreversible
origin and transmission of plague
idea of being tibet- central asia
transmitted by rats bitten by fleas
also transferred onto reservoir populations,not just rats
travels roughly 1km a day
moves with humans, most important vector
organism may have undergone serious change to make it more contagious, or could have encountered weaker human population
movement of plague
trade - silk roads
warfare - mongol expansions
trade also made easier because of mongol dominance
mongol army beseiged Caffa 1346
dead bodies hurled over walls and infected italians
however length of time plague means that thihs was not how italy got the plague
effects of the plague
european malthusian stalemate
quality of life for survivors was probably a lot better
rise in wages, existing infrastructure, more land
not clear until 2nd generation post-plague
immediate aftermath - starvation and breakdown of economy
fiscal/political change post plague
fewer people to bear fiscal burden
took tole on elites who lived off of taxes
imbalance of classes as more poor died
lordship more violent, taxation forcible
licensed pillage of country in france
peasants revolt 1381 - poll tax huge player
psychological effect
mortuary culture - obsessed with death
ars moriendi - the art of dying well
Sources
Decameron - frame narrative background to fictional text
tree rings - show 10% more rainfall
