LESSON 3.16 How did the Black Death change society?
LEARNING INTENTION By the end of this lesson you should be able to: • identify the impacts of the Black Death on Europe in the Middle Ages • describe the ways society changed in the Middle Ages as a result of the Black Death.
Tune in Disaster has always had an impact on daily life, either from need (people filling in vacant roles, infrastructure change or new social practices) or from a desire from populations to avoid situations such as this again. SOURCE1 Ibn Khaldun, who lived through the plague, wrote about the changes that he observed in societies both Christian and Islamic. Civilization both in the East and the West was visited by a destructive plague which devastated nations and caused populations to vanish. It swallowed up many of the good things of civilization and wiped them out. It overtook the dynasties at the time of their senility, when they had reached the limit of their duration. It lessened their power and curtailed their influence. It weakened their authority. Their situation approached the point of annihilation and dissolution. Civilization decreased with the decrease of mankind. Cities and buildings were laid waste, roads and way signs were obliterated, settlements and mansions became empty, and dynasties and tribes grew weak. The entire inhabited world changed. The East, it seems, was similarly visited, though in accordance with and in proportion to [the East’s more affluent] civilization.
1. Read SOURCE 1. Identify the ways in which the lives of average people would have been affected. 2. This author is a Muslim from Tunisia — would a medieval monk have written in the same way about this crisis? Discuss. 3. How does Ibn Khaldun describe the impact of the plague on civilisations in both the East and the West, and what might this suggest about the social and political consequences of the Black Death in medieval times?
3.16.1 Social changes Between 1347 and 1351, the Black Death had a brutal effect on life in Europe and the area surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. Despite all the devastation, there were also some positive changes in the following years, many of which occurred as a direct response to the horrors of the plague (see SOURCE2 ). Growth of medicine SkillBuilder discussion Using historical sources 1. What are the specific details in the image at SOURCE2 that give you information about what they are doing here? Look carefully at their clothing, actions, and any objects around them. 2. Prior to this change that allowed human dissections, the Church had banned it for religious reasons. Can you think of reasons that it was previously forbidden?
104 Jacaranda Humanities Alive 8 Victorian Curriculum Third Edition
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