The Black Death
Investigating the Black Death
Contents
Investigating the Black Death .............................................................................................................................. 1
Introduction to the Black Death .......................................................................................................................... 2
Activity 1: KWL ................................................................................................................................................. 2
Activity 2: Map Interpretation ......................................................................................................................... 2
Big Idea One ........................................................................................................................................................ 3
Activity 1: Societies in Asia, Africa and Europe ............................................................................................... 3
Activity 2: Growing Trade Routes .................................................................................................................... 4
Activity 3: Medieval Towns.............................................................................................................................. 5
Big Idea Two ........................................................................................................................................................ 7
Activity One: Map Interpretation .................................................................................................................... 7
Activity Two: Primary Source Interpretation................................................................................................... 8
Activity Three: Researching the cause and symptoms of the Black Death ................................................... 10
Big Idea Three .................................................................................................................................................... 11
Short-term impacts of the Black Death ......................................................................................................... 11
Long-term impacts......................................................................................................................................... 11
Activity 1: What if? ........................................................................................................................................ 11
Activity 2: Examining the long-term impacts ................................................................................................ 13
Student Name: _____________________________
Introduction to the Black Death
Activity 1: KWL
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
Create a KWL chart:
o What do you already know about the Black Death: what was it, where did it occur, how did it
affect the history of the world, and who did it affect?
o What do you want to know about this topic?
o What have you learnt?
Watch the video “Black Death: the Worst Plague in History”
Complete the third column of the KWL chart.
What I know
What I want to know
What I learned
Activity 2: Map Interpretation


Look at the timeline on page 259 of the Retroactive textbook.
What events happened before and after the Black Death? Where did these events take place? Mark each
event on the timeline on a map.
Big Idea One
How were societies organised at the time of Black Death?
Learning Intentions:
1. To identify and examine the structure of society during the Middle Ages, including the systems of
government, trade routes, and living conditions.
***
In order to understand how and why the Black Death spread across Asia, Europe and Africa, it is necessary to
look at how societies in these parts of the world were organised at the time, and what living and working
conditions were like for the people there.
Activity 1: Societies in Asia, Africa and Europe
Divide into groups of three. Each student is responsible for read a short extract about societies in Asia, Africa
or Europe during the Middle Ages. Complete the table below to describe the type of society in your continent
during the Middle Ages. Be prepare to teach your two group members about what you have learned!
Asia
Describe the
system of
government
commonly used
(e.g. feudalism)
Outline any
trade routes or
connections to
other
continents
Discuss any
conflict or wars
involving your
continent that
occurred during
the Middle Ages
Outline one
more important
point of
information
Africa
Europe
Activity 2: Growing Trade Routes
From the middle of the 11th century, European explorers such as Marco Polo opened up the ‘world of the East’
to Europe. Trade was also beginning to boom between European towns and places such as Constantinople
(now Istanbul in Turkey), Moscow in Russia and Alexandria in North Africa. Goods were carried back and forth
along a network of land and sea trade routes, often be sold in huge open-air markets.
Growing trade routes
Much early medieval trade between the West and the East took place along the Silk Road. By the mid-1200s,
the Mongol Empire controlled most of the Silk Road. However, by the late 1400s and beyond European sailors
from Portugal and Spain began to create new sea routes for trade. These sea routes were faster than land
travel and made it possible to transport larger volumes of cargo.
Trade was the key link between medieval societies. It encouraged people to think differently, and to share
knowledge. However, it was also the trigger cause of the spread of the Black Death in Europe and beyond.
Many merchants unknowingly carried the disease, spreading it from China, through the Mongol Empire and
eventually into Europe and Africa.
Instructions:
1. List two trade routes that rely on travel. Use the scale on the map to estimate the distance of some of
these journeys.
Trade Route
Start Point
End Point
Distance
Goods likely sold
on the route
2. Some cities, such as Vienna, grew and flourished during medieval times because they were located on
a trading route. Those towns and cities that were located at the junction of several trading routes
became especially prosperous. List the three cities that you believe would have been the most
prosperous and explain your reasoning.
Town / City
1.
2.
3.
Why do you believe this town was very prosperous?
3. Locate a modern atlas or Google Maps, which shows the physical features of Europe. Consider why
trade routes were developed in some regions but not others. Answer the following questions:
a. What mountain barrier did traders have to cross between Toledo and Paris?
b. Why was there no trade route between Vienna and Venice?
Source 1: Key Medieval Trade Routes and Goods Traded
Activity 3: Medieval Towns
During the early part of the medieval period, societies and economies of Europe were based around
agriculture and land ownership. The people were governed through feudalism. Feudalism means that people
gained land in return for duties and responsibilities that they owed to people who were higher up on the social
scale than they were. However, from about 900 CE people began to live in towns which centred around a
castle or manor house. As trade increased so did the size and populations of these towns.
Living conditions in towns
Homes for the poor in medieval towns were often just one or two rooms in one of the shabby multi-storeyed
buildings clustered around the market area. Floors on the upper levels were often covered with straw. Over
time this straw became a stinking squashed mat of rotting food, bones, bodily wastes and grease! Peasants
bathed only once or twice a year. The poor and rich alike lived with lice, fleas and scurrying rats.
Life expectancy was very low. If an infant survived, on average they could only expect to live to be about 35
years old if they were male and about 31 years old if they were female.
Source 2: A modern artist’s impression of a medieval European town around the mid-1400s. Note the busy
marketplace.
Instructions:
Answer the following questions with a partner.
1. Why do you think the average life expectancy was lower for women than men?
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2. Draw a concept map exploring some of the hardships you think that those living in early medieval
towns might have faced. Think how these hardships might have affected family life, health, lifestyle,
employment and life span. You can draw a concept map or create one on https://bubbl.us/mindmap
Big Idea Two
How did the Black Death spread and what were its effects?
Learning Intentions:
1. To examine the characteristics and course of the Black Death.
2. To relate the spread of the Black Death to historical conditions at the time.
3. To analyze ways that the characteristics of their culture constrain the choices available to members
of a society.
4. To practice drawing inferences from information given on a map and in original sources, and to
assess their reliability as historical evidence.
***
Activity One: Map Interpretation
Working with a partner, answer two of the following questions:
1. Given the information about the route and dates of arrival of the Black Death on the map, information in
the Table of Dates (above), and what you already know about medieval history and society, do you think
that, overall, the infection was most likely to have been carried by armies, lords visiting their various manors,
merchants, or pilgrims? For each possibility, suggest the area on the map where it was most likely to have
been at least a contributory factor in transmission. What other methods of transmission might have played a
part? What evidence can you give to support your hypotheses?
2. What information on the map would support a connection between population density and the presence
of plague? What information would contradict this hypothesis?
3. What explanations might be given for the fact that it took the plague as much as sixteen years to move
from China to the northern shore of the Black Sea but only a year or so from there to Italy and Egypt and
another year to England? What evidence can you give to support your explanations?
4. How certain can you be that areas on the map to which the plague is not shown to have been transmitted
(such as West Africa, East Africa, and India) were in fact spared? Explain your reasoning.
5. If you were a textbook editor with a tight budget and if maps were expensive to print, would you include
this map in your textbook? Why or why not?
Activity Two: Primary Source Interpretation
Read source 1 and 2 and then respond to the discussion questions below.
About the authors of Source 1 and Source 2
Boccaccio was the illegitimate son of a merchant family. Although poetry was his love from an early age, his
father made him serve an apprenticeship in commerce. He was not in Florence in 1348 when the Black Death
struck the city, though he described it in his masterpiece, the book called The Decameron. It is a book of stories
in which seven young women and three young men of Florence leave the city for the hills. They are fleeing the
plague which, according to Boccaccio, killed upwards of 100,000 people during its height from March to July.
Agnolo di Tura was a chronicler in Siena, a city of about 60,000 some 30 miles south of Florence. In 1348, it
was a great banking center and wealthy enough to be building what the citizens intended to be the greatest
church in Christendom. But in that year, Siena was hit very hard by the Black Death. Di Tura, who survived it
though all his family died, claimed that after the plague had passed, only 10,000 people remained alive.
Discussion Questions:
1. Besides the fact of death itself, what other problems caused by the Black Death did Boccaccio and di Tura
identify?
2. What characteristics of the Black Death were emphasized by the contemporary observers read so far
(including those in the Dramatic Moment)?
3. From the evidence of the map and the original sources, what inferences could you draw about the influence
of geography on the spread of the plague? About the influence of human activities on the spread of plague?
If you were a historian, what kinds of additional evidence would you try to find in order to support your
inferences?
4. Given fourteenth-century conditions, what additional actions could have been taken to cope with the plague
besides those described by the contemporary observers you have read so far?
5. What reasons can you give for accepting, and what reasons for doubting, the information given by Boccaccio
and di Tura?
6. In your reaction to Boccaccio’s and di Tura’s accounts, what difference, if any, does it make that the two
authors’ outlook and purpose were different? That Boccaccio’s account is part of a book that is fiction, and he
did not speak from personal experience, while di Tura’s is a chronicle by an eyewitness? How acceptable is
hearsay as historical evidence? How acceptable is fiction as historical evidence—what could novels, say, reveal
about the historical period in which they were written? Defend your point of view.
Source 1: Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron, translated and edited by Mark Musa and Peter Bondanella
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1977), 3-4, 6-9.
Into the distinguished city of Florence there came the deadly pestilence. It started in the East, because of God’s
just wrath as a punishment to mortals for our wicked deeds, and it killed an infinite number of people. Without
pause it spread from one place and it stretched its miserable length over the West. And against the pestilence
no human wisdom or foresight was of any benefit; quantities of filth were removed from the city by officials
charged with this task; the entry of any sick person into the city was prohibited; and many directives were
issued concerning the maintenance of good health. …
It began with swellings either in the groin or under the armpits, some of which grew to the size of a normal
apple and others to the size of an egg, and the people called them gavoccioli. And within a brief space of time,
the deadly gavoccioli began to spread indiscriminately over every part of the body; and after this, the
symptoms of the illness changed to black or livid spots appearing on every part of the body. …
Neither a doctor’s advice nor the strength of medicine could do anything to cure this illness. Few of the sick
were ever cured, and almost all died after the third day of the appearance of the previously described
symptoms, and most of them died without fever or any other side-effects.
The evil of the plague went even further: not only did talking to or being around the sick bring infection and a
common death, but also touching the clothes of the sick or anything touched or used by them seemed to
communicate this very disease to the person involved. …
Everyone felt he was doomed to die and, as a result, abandoned his property, so that most of the houses had
become common property, and any stranger who came upon them used them as if he were their rightful
owner. In the scattered villages and in the fields the poor, miserable peasants and their families, without any
medical assistance or aid of servants died on the roads and in the fields and in their homes, as many by day as
by night, and they died not like men but more like wild animals.
Reflecting upon so many miseries makes me very sad.
Source 2: Agnolo di Tura, in Robert S. Gottfried, The Black Death: Natural and Human Disaster in Medieval
Europe (New York: Free Press, 1983), 45. T
The mortality in Siena began in May. It was a cruel and horrible thing. And it is impossible for the human
tongue to recount the awful truth. Indeed, one who did not see such horribleness can be called blessed. The
victims died almost immediately. They would swell beneath the armpits and in the groin and fall over while
talking.
Father abandoned child, wife husband, one brother another; for this illness seemed to strike through breath
and sight. And so they died. And none could be found to bury the dead for money or friendship. Members of
a household brought their dead to a ditch as best they could without priest, without divine offices. Nor did the
death bell sound.
And in many places in Siena great pits were dug and piled deep with the multitude of dead. And they died by
the hundreds, both day and night and all were thrown in those ditches and covered with earth. And as soon
as those ditches were filled, more were dug.
And I Agnolo di Tura … buried my five children with my own hands. … And so many died that all believed it
was the end of the world.
Activity Three: Researching the cause and symptoms of the Black Death
Investigate the cause and symptoms of the Black Death and complete the following table. You can use either
the Internet or pages 266 to 269 of the Retroactive textbook.
Describe the three
main type of plague.
(The first has been
completed as an
example)
1. Bubonic Plague: Contracted when a rodent or flea bites the patient. It infects
the immune system and causes inflammation.
2. Septicemic Plague:
3. Pneumonic Plague:
What were the main
symptoms of the
Black Death?
Why did the disease
become known as the
Black Death?
What caused the
Black Death?
What methods of
treatment were used?
Were any of the
methods of treatment
successful?
Big Idea Three
How did the immediate and long-term effects of the Black Death change medieval society in Europe?
Short-term impacts of the Black Death
1. Depopulation
It is difficult to give an exact figure for the number of people who died from the Black Death because
the event occurred a long time ago and not many records were made.
The most recent estimates suggest the following approximate number of deaths:
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
30 – 50% of the population of Europe (approx.. 25-30 million people)
40% of the population in China (approx.. 35 million people)
40% of Egypt’s population.
Not all areas lost people at the same rate. In southern Europe, the death toll was as high as 75% of the
population, whereas in Germany and England it was around 20%.
2. Effect on towns
Rubbish and raw sewage in the streets of medieval towns was a common sight, even before the plague,
but once the plague struck this filthy situation became even worse. There were few people to tend to
the disrepair, even if they had wanted to.
3. Impact on religion
Many monks, nuns and priests died as a result of the Black Death. Some others in the general
population saw this as proof that the lifestyles of these religious people had displeased God.
4. Economic impact
The Black Death resulted in huge economic losses since there was a huge shortage of workers; animals
had no-one to care for them; fields and crops lay abandoned; there was a significant disruption of trade;
and tax earnings declined significantly.
5. Impact on attitudes
People’s interests and attitudes changed markedly as they lived in constant fear that they or their loved
ones would die; their lives focused on survival; the old rules and structures of society no longer seemed
important.
Long-term impacts
1.
2.
3.
4.
Breakdown of feudalism
New wealth for survivors
Improved hygiene and medical services
Loss of church power
Activity 1: What if?
Respond to the following “what if?” questions, predicting what would have happened during the time of
the Black Death if a variable was changed.
1. What if hardly any royal or noble people had died?
2. What if there was no trade route between East Asia and Europe? What would have happened to
Europe?
3. What would the following town look 20 years after the Black Death arrived?
Activity 2: Examining the long-term impacts
Use pages 280 to 281 of the Retroactive textbook to assist you with the following questions:
1. Explain why some Europeans lost their religious beliefs, or their confidence in the Church, as a result
of the Black Death pandemic.
2. Why would massive depopulation impact a society so heavily?
3. Answer with a or b:
a. Research: In March 2011, many parts of Japanese society were destroyed by a tsunami. Like
the Black Death, this disaster caused great loss of life and economic and psychological
problems. Conduct some research to find out how this disaster affected Japanese society.
Then, with a partner, construct a Venn diagram on an A3 sheet to compare and contrast its
effects with those of the medieval Black Death
b. Concept Map: Below is the start of a concept map detailing some of the impacts of the
plague on the residents of a medieval town. In your notebook, copy and complete it, adding
at least 8 new entries.