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Crises In The Late Middle Ages

Decent Essays

During the Late Middle Ages, Europe endured several calamities which led to an overwhelming sense of crisis. Three specific types of crises will be discussed in order to better examine our main idea—those being crises in the physical world, society and government, and the Church. In understanding the problems people in the Late Middle Ages faced, we can better understand their downfall and hope to improve upon how we recognize problems in our own society. A clear crisis people in the Late Middle Ages faced happened in the physical world, namely, plague and famine contributed greatly to the general difficulty and decline of civilization. Despite advancements in agriculture like the three-field system, things like soil-exhaustion and a changing climate led to a shortage of food and an inevitable devastating famine.1 However, even worse troubles came for the people of the Late Middle Ages when the bubonic plague began to spread and bring pain to an already struggling population.2 Estimations range from a quarter to a third Europe being killed by the disease.3 The plague not only killed many people, but it also caused many others to turn on one …show more content…

Government and society also underwent a process of breakdown during the time. The deadly Hundred Years’ War (which lasted longer than one-hundred years) only contributed to the perilous conditions that people of the time faced.6 The Late Middle Ages also dealt with severe social unrest as urban poor classes began to rise up against the ruling class, despite being stopped, they still contributed to the disorder.7 Without a doubt, situations like war and insurrection led to the eventual discontent of society and collapse of government. We cannot properly examine the crisis of the Late Middle Ages without noticing the troubles of society and government and the effects those problems had on how people saw their lives while living in that

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