Transcript Crusades, Trade, and the Plague

Crusades, Trade, and the
Plague
-List and explain some of the major events that affected
Europe in the late Middle Ages.
-Explain who issued the call for the Crusades and why.
-List and describe some of the major trade goods that traveled
over trade routes, such as the Silk Road, in the Middle Ages.
-Explain what a bubonic plague is and how it affects humans.
-Explain what the different theories are regarding how the
Plague reached Europe.
The Crusades
• During the time of the 1000s, a group of
Muslim Seljuk Turks from Central Asia
rose up and defeated a Byzantine Army.
• This group of Turks also began to take
over many lands including Palestine.
• Christians often made pilgrimages to this
land and thousands of them were killed by
the Turks.
– This caused the Christians to get very angry.
Pope Urban II
• I speak to those present, I send word to
those not here…go forth against the Turks
in a battle worthy to be undertaken now
and to be finished in victory!
• When the Christians heard this, they
began to cry out “It is the will of God!”
• Thus began the Crusades or holy wars.
The Crusades
• For the next 200 years, waves of crusaders,
kings, queens, knights, monks, nuns and serfs
set out to recapture the Holy Land.
• The Crusaders were a great failure for the
Church.
– The Christians did not capture the Holy Land.
– Many innocent people – Christian and Muslim died.
– The Crusades increased trade between the East
and the West.
Trade Grows
• During the early middle ages, people had
what they needed – food, clothing, and
shelter.
• Soon, they began to need and want goods
that were not on the manor.
– Serfs needed iron.
– Lords wanted furs and fine wool.
• Merchants began to set up tents to display
their goods.
Trade Grows
• A network of trade routes soon developed where
people could sell their goods at fairs.
• Local and foreign goods were exchanged along
these routes.
• Rather than travel from Asia, goods would reach
the trader through a series of middlemen, similar
to a relay race.
• Trade routes delivered goods from Africa, Asia,
China and the Far East.
The Silk Road
• We know about The Silk Road from travels of
Marco Polo.
• The Silk Road was several different routes and
branches that passed through different
settlements.
• All routes set out from the Chinese Capital,
Chang’an under the Hun Dynasty.
• They all reached Dunhuang on the edge of the
Taklimakan Desert.
The Silk Road
• Caravans to China carried gold, ivory and
precious stones.
• Caravans from China bought silk, furs, ceramics,
jade, bronze objects, lacquer, and iron.
• Ideas traveled both ways – Buddhism came to
China via the Silk Road.
• The Silk Road was physically difficult to travel
on.
– Bandits also made it dangerous to travel.
– Defense walls were built along the road for protection.
The Silk Road
The Plague
• When medieval culture was at its greatest strength, the
Plague hit Europe.
• The Plague was a bubonic plague, a very aggressive
epidemic, or the rapid spread of disease over a wide
area.
• It is caused when fleas infest rodents and then the rats
infect humans.
– The humans and rats die, but the fleas live.
• In the fourteenth century, nobody knew how it spread
and how to stop it.
• Some people thought they could get the plague from
looking at another person.
• The plague killed about one fourth to one third of
Europe’s population.
The Spread of the Plague
Effects of the Plague
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23 – 33% Population loss in Europe.
Businesses go bankrupt.
Deaths cause labor shortages.
Trade declines and towns disappear.
Construction and building projects stop.
Food supply decreases and people starve.
The Plague
Summary
• Trade began in Europe.
• Pope Urban II called for the Crusades.
• Marco Polo traveled to China along the
Silk Road.
• The Plague reached Europe.