Transcript Natural Disasters of the 14th Century

Natural Disasters of the
Century
th
14
The Great Famine (1315-1317)
The Black Death (1346-1351)
14th Century Disasters:
Human and Natural
Avignon Papacy
 Great Schism
 Hundred Years War
 Great Famine
 Black Death

Consequences
Europe experiences tremendous strains
 Become aware of new vulnerabilities
 Famine and plague cause millions of
deaths
 Many challenge old institutions
 Many more doubt traditional values
 Calamities altered the path of European
development

The Great Famine of 1315
800 to 1300 AD - the total production
of Europe had increased steadily
 local food shortages - people did die of
starvation
 standard of living in Western Europe
had risen even while the population had
steadily increased

14th century
the population so large that the land
could provide enough resources only
under the best of conditions
 no margin for crop failures or harvest
shortfalls
 climate underwent a slight change,
cooler and wetter summers and earlier
autumn storms
 Wet spring 1315, 1316, 1317

Consequences
Europeans malnourished
 10-15% die of pneumonia, bronchitis,
tuberculosis, and other sicknesses
 Fewer mouths to feed
 Nobles and peasants alike suffer
 Recovery begins by 1325

What Fairy Tales Suggest
The Mouse Tower of Bingen
Hansel and Gretel
An Essay on Population
Thomas Malthus
(1766-1834),
 Arithmetic vs
geometric increase
 the population of a
region will eventually
increase until there
are not sufficient
resources to support it
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35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Productio
n
Populatio
n
The Black Death of 1347-1351
revival of commerce and trade = more
movement of people
 merchants travelled to regions from
which they could bring both profitable
wares and contagious disease
 hot water a luxury and personal
hygiene substandard

The Course of the Black Death
The Disease
transmitted primarily by fleas and rats
 three forms:

bubonic [infection of the lymph system
60% fatal]
 pneumonic [respiratory infection -- about
100% fatal]
 septicaemic [infection of the blood and
probably 100% fatal]

Impact on the Church
Church can’t protect Christians from the
ravages of the plague
 The Avignon Papacy “The Babylonian Captivity”
 The Great Schism
 Conciliarism
 Councils of Pisa (1409) and Constance(1415)

Personal Paths
Brethren of the Common Life
 Mystics
 Reforming Princes
 Heretics

Wycliffe who’s protected
 Jan Huss who’s NOT

Images and Rhymes
Ring around the rosie,
A pocketful of posie,
Ashes, ashes
All fall down!
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"How many valiant men, how many fair ladies,
breakfast with their kinfolk and the same night
supped with their ancestors in the next world!
The condition of the people was pitiable to
behold. They sickened by the thousands daily,
and died unattended and without help. Many died
in the open street, others dying in their houses,
made it known by the stench of their rotting
bodies. Consecrated churchyards did not suffice
for the burial of the vast multitude of bodies,
which were heaped by the hundreds in vast
trenches, like goods in a ships hold and covered
with a little earth."
Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron
The Effects of the Plague
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new attitudes toward death, the value of life,
and of one's self
growth of class conflict
loss of respect for the Church
emergence of a new pietism (personal
spirituality)
new cultural vigor in Europe
national languages, rather than Latin, were
the vehicle of expression
Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron,