Warm -up
Copy HW
Please grab a handout and packet from the front desk-pages 29-32
Begin your handout by listing three emotions evoked by the painting below
Essential Questions
What happens when different cultures interact with
each other?
How can societies use what they learn from the past?
What happens when societies are confronted with
change?
How does religion impact social and political
institutions?
The Black Death
The Triumph of Death by Pieter Bruegel
What do you see?
Describe the landscape.
What kinds of things are
people doing?
What elements of the picture
seem unrealistic?
What elements of the picture
seem realistic?
What feelings does this
painting evoke?
What kind of story do you think
the artist is trying to tell?
What was the Black Death?
• Deadly plague in Europe 13461352
• Plague-disease that spreads quickly
and kills many people
• Caused by form of bacteria carried
by fleas
How did the Black Death spread to
Europe?
• Began in Gobi Desert and spread
over trade routes along the
Silk Road
• Mongols attack Caffa on the
Black Sea
– Caffa trades with Genoa merchants
– They carry the plague to Sicily
• Merchants brought rats to Europe with trade goods
• 1st appeared in Italy and spread for 6 years
Why might an area in green have been
spared the Black Death?
Yersinia pestis
This bacterium, carried and spread by fleas, is generally
thought to have been the cause of millions of deaths
Appeared in three forms
• Pneumonic-attacked lungs and caused coughing
and sneezing fits
• Septicemic- traveled in bloodstream causing black
spots under the skin
•Bubonic- most common which caused
egg-sized swellings
How did the Black Death change life
in Europe?
• 38 million people
may have died in
Europe
• 200-250 million
world -wide
• 33%-everywhere
• 50% -cities
Economic Effects
Labor shortage
Money lenders –their business was ruined
Wages-up
prices- down
Social Effects
• Breakdown of Feudalism
• People were ignorant of its causes- blamed
stars, infected clothing, God’s anger at sinners
or Jewish people
• Tried ineffective cures- pomanders,
flagellation (whipping one’s self), repentance
of sins, and killing Jews
• No cure worked
Political
• Courts disbanded
• Increased power of Kings
Cultural
• Art represented death
• Questioning church/prayer
SO WHAT?????
• The black death helped lead to the end of the
Middle Ages and it led to…
•Wealth
•A more secular outlook
•The RENAISSANCE
Is the plague still around today?
•Who wants to
see a music
video?
Closure
• Please draw a political cartoon about the
Black Death
• Develop one main idea as the theme for your
cartoon
• Include at least 3 key facts you learned today