1. PRELUDE TO THE RENAISSANCE:
( 1100 – 1350 )
THE DARK AGES
THE PLAGUE

2. THE DARK AGES
(1100 – 1350)
The "Dark Ages" is a historical period that saw cultural and economic deterioration in Western Europe following the decline of the Roman Empire.
A tumultuous period (wars and starvation) in the 10th,11th,12th, centuries ( ), a time of intellectual darkness between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance.
The concept of a "Dark Age" originated in the 1330s with the Italian scholar Petrarch, who regarded the post-Roman centuries as "dark" compared to the light of classical ages. The Italian Scholar, Francesco Petrarch, was the first to coin the phrase.
Many modern scholars avoid the term "Dark Ages" due to its negative connotations, finding it depicting a time of backwardness.

3. THE PLAGUE – “BLACK DEATH”
one of the most devastating pandemics (whole country or world wide) in human history resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia and peaking in Europe from 1346 to 1353.
The Black Death is thought to have originated in the dry plains of Central Asia, where it then travelled along the Silk Road, reaching Crimea by 1343.
The plague disease, caused by the bacterium: Yersinia pestis, resulting in several forms of plague. Due to climate change in Asia, rodents began to flee the dried out grasslands to more populated areas, spreading the disease.

4. THE PLAGUE – “BLACK DEATH”
Carried by fleas living on rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships, spreading throughout the Mediterranean and Europe.
The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60% of Europe's total population. In total, the plague may have reduced the world population from an estimated 450 million down to 350– 375 million in the 14th century.
The plague created a series of religious, social, and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history.

5. THE PLAGUE – “BLACK DEATH”
Long before the development of microscopes and antibiotics, many cultures associated outbreaks of plague with rats -- specifically, dead rats.
This is because plague is an epizootic disease (disease that jumps from animals to humans), or a disease that lives primarily in nonhuman animals. The animals that typically carry plague include prairie dogs, voles, wild gerbils and other rodents. Rats, however, are the most common.
When plague-infected rats die, their fleas look for new hosts. Fleas generally prefer to feed off of specific animals, but they will turn to other food sources when necessary.
So when an outbreak of plague kills lots of rats, their fleas jump to the nearest source of blood. When people are that source, plague becomes an epizootic disease (disease that jumps from animals to humans).
Many epizootic diseases, including avian flu, are particularly lethal to humans, who have no natural resistance.

6. SPREAD OF THE PLAGUE

7. THE PLAGUE – “BLACK DEATH”

12. Renaissance and Reformation: 1350-1650
Changes in Society:
The Dark Ages and The PLAGUE (Black Death), there was a time of starvation, and warfare that had overtaken Europe about 1300.
These catastrophic events and the enormous loss of life may have led to some of the changes of the 1300s… The Renaissance (“rebirth”)