The Late Middle Ages : The Age Of Discovery And Innovation

Even though the late middles ages saw unprecedented chaos, it was now becoming a time of creative fragmentation and rebirth of the view of human creativity and individuality. In addition Europe was recovering from the demographic and political crisis that it faced. There was also a unprecedented scholarly renaissance. Especially in educational and cultural reforms. Also, social engineering and political planning also began as centralized new governments put long-range economic policies into practice.

The Black Death was the worst epidemic in the history of the world to date. The plague killed off more than a third of the total European population during the mid-1300’s. Several people believed that the plague was punishment from God for the sins of man, while others believed it was brought about by natural causes, and there were yet others who did not care where or why the plague came but only how they could better their own lives.

In a time of political failure, economic disintegration, and constant religious disagreement, Europe was already entering the Dark Ages. Then, in the 14th century, the Black Death struck. A disease transmitted through infected flea carrying rats, the Bubonic Plague was devastating to European society not only because it was highly contagious and very lethal, but also because it had unknown origins.

History reveals the mid-14th century as a very unfortunate time for Europe. It was during this period when the continent became afflicted by a terrible plague. The source of the pathogen is known today as bubonic but was colloquially known as “The Black Death” to Europeans of the day. The plague caused a tremendous number of deaths and was a catalyst of change, severely impacting Europe’s cultural, political and religious institutions.

The Black Death in the 1300s was a widespread epidemic that caused countless deaths, fear and panic, and a decreasement of the church’s power. To begin, the black death(bubonic plague) was the first plague powerful enough to wipe out entire civilizations and leave villages as ghost towns. “It was estimated that a third of England died from the plague, as well as many other countries“(source 3 paragraph 20). With this drastic decrease in population, a need for more people to work began to rise which in turn made salaries, the price for food, and even the demand for slaves rise. Furthermore all these deaths made it nearly impossible to keep up with all the land causing many important fields to be left uncultivated, reducing the amount of much needed food.

The Black Death, now considered the biggest epidemic of the 16th Century, exterminated half of the earth’s population. Europe was left devastated and in ruins following the countless deaths, pillages of barbarians, and loss of morality. Those who came down with the plague endured innumerable tribulations and those who were lucky enough to not contract the illness stayed indoors and made little contact with the outside world. This led to many becoming petulant and restless. Due to the plague, fear ran rampant throughout Europe and caused fallacious theories explaining the illness, violence, and the desensitization of many.

The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in history. Many Western Europeans were living with this disease for nearly four hundred years. The disease was able to spread rapidly and affected Europe in many ways. Since this disease was rapidly spreading throughout Europe it scared many of the people during this time. Many historians considered the Black Death in the fourteenth century a turning point in Western European history. According to Streissguth, “Before the epidemic of bubonic and pneumonic plague died out three years later, it would kill more than one-third of the continent’s population.” Hundreds of thousand people died from this horrific disease which changed Europe forever. Near the end of the fourteenth century it was obvious to the people living during that time that the plague had become a regular and destructive aspect of life. The plague had left many rural areas untouched after the late 1300’s but the epidemic began almost every decade. When the Black Death began to spread across Europe it caused unimaginable fear, panic, and chaos for the people. The Black Death was an important turning point in Europe, where the economics, politics, and society would never be the same. The Black Death spread rapidly across Europe causing many people to become ill and die which resulted in social, economic, and religious upheavals.

The disastrous plague called the Black Death had monumental, long lasting effects that would ultimately change the fate of the entire continent of Europe. The mid-1300s in Europe were part of the Dark Ages. Human populations were near over-crowding, and the land was stretched to produce food. Mother Nature created a drastic solution. The world lifted a bleak shadow of death and chaos over the people of Europe in the form of plague. It originated from fleas, but rats carried the fleas with this plague across seaward trading routes from Asia. Humans were oblivious to the deadly fleas disguised in the familiar sight of the rats aboard their trading ships. The plague was an airborne disease, and it was transmittable to humans. Once one was infected, no escape option was available. The plague was characterized by black cysts on the skin, which influenced humans to later dub the plague “The Black Death”. Europe was previously suffering during the Dark Ages, but what were the Black Death’s effects on Europe? The staggering effects of the Black Death were outlined clearly in the fragility of religion, the floundering population and education, and oddly enough, a recovered and thriving economy.

The black plague took thirty to fifty percent of Europe’s population from the years 1347 to 1351. For many people, it was a devastating loss for Europe’s population and Europe would never be the same after this tragic disaster. Many people roamed the streets of Europe delirious from unbearable pain, unable to keep food down, and overcome with fever. Citizens of Europe were covered in black, oozing boils that were unbelievably painful. These black, painful boils are where the plague got its name, “The Black Plague”. The Black Plague spread through Europe, killed half of the population, and had terrifying symptoms.

The Black Death was one of the worst pandemics in history. The disease ravaged Europe, Western Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa between 1346 and 1353 (Horrox 1994). It is difficult to understand the reality of such a devastating event, especially given the fact that science during the middle ages was severely underdeveloped. No one knew about bacteria, viruses, or other microbial agents of disease (Benedictow 2004). They had no way of protecting themselves during that time and no one was safe from the effects of the plague. Those who wrote chronicles claimed that only a tenth of the population had survived, while others claimed that half to a third of the population was left alive (Horrox 1994). In 1351, agents for Pope Clement VI predicted the number of deaths in Europe to be 23,840,000 (Gottfried 1983). Obviously, not all regions experienced the same mortality rates, but modern estimates of the death rate in England give the first outbreak a mortality rate of about forty-eight percent (Horrox 1994). That is, England lost half of its population in about a year and a half. Clearly the chroniclers ' who claimed that ninety percent of the population had died were overstating the magnitude of the plague, but this overemphasis demonstrates how terrifying the pandemic was to those who experienced it (Horrox 1994). The Black Death had huge consequences on the lives of those who were impacted directly, as well as major religious and cultural effects that came afterward.

The Western Roman Empire was once at the pinnacle of civilisation, widely regarded as one of the largest empires in history. Their extreme wealth made them the pioneers in warfare, medicine, architecture, politics, culture and philosophy. At its peak in 117 AD, it spanned over 5,000,000 square kilometres, and had a population of almost 57,000,000 people. In spite of its sheer power and level of innovation, The Western Roman Empire fell in 476 AD. The fall of the Western Roman Empire can be accredited mainly to the major economic, military and political factors which lead to the decline and eventual collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD. The first major factor which led to the downfall of the Western Empire, was the extreme political instability and widespread corruption which plagued the Roman Government.

The people who are affected by unrealistic body images deserve to have relief from these unfair ideologies being forced upon them. Social media and society in general need to stop being over expectant of how people should look and what size they are. The people who struggles with self image do not deserve to feel so negatively, and other people shouldn’t force those ideas on them. Although campaigns have started to promote self love and respect there are still millions of individuals who struggle with self image. It is completely unfair to expect people to look a certain way, especially when those people look perfect the way they are.

The Middle Ages, often referred to as the Dark Ages, was regarded to be a time of despair, disease, and death. Just as the name the “Dark Ages” suggests, this period of European history seemed to be surrounded by darkness and hopelessness. Unfortunately, the majority of people only see this side of the Middle Ages when, in fact, the Middle Ages was a much more important era. Especially during the late Middle Ages, one can find a change in orthodox social structure, political instability mostly concerned with succession to the throne, and economic changes and how those changes went hand in hand with the change in society. After certain demographical changes and turning points such as the Hundred Years’ War, Europe began to transform

According to the First Amendment Center, located at Vanderbilt University and at Washington, D.C.’s Newseum, there are twelve categories of speech that are not protected by First Amendment rights. These are: “obscenity, fighting words, defamation (libel, slander), child pornography, perjury, blackmail, incitement to imminent lawless action, true threats, solicitations to commit crimes, and plagiarism of copyrighted material” (para. 2). The center also adds that “some experts also would add treason, if committed verbally” (para. 2). Nowhere in this list is included “things we don’t like.” Public schools, including public colleges and universities, by law, have to extend first amendment rights to their students, since they are an

Personally, when thinking of the middle Ages, I tend to have the misconception that it is a period of darkness with no progress. However, R.W. Southern’s book, ‘The Making of the Middle Ages’, offers an in depth study of the development of history in the world today. Observing that this book was published during the 1950s, Mr. Southern’s interpretation of the ‘Middle Ages’ was very distinctive in comparison to other historians of his time. He explores the significance of the Middle Ages as a separate sector in the study of history by which the audience will notice that previous categories of studied history is set aside, as we are no longer focusing on the usual ‘Classical Greece’ and ‘Rome’