1. Aim: How did the Black Plague impact the world?
Do Now: Do remember the childhood game “Ring around the Rosies”? If so please write down the lyrics.
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2. Sometimes a disease changes everything.
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3. In Western Europe, it all started with fleas on rats.
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4. Life was already hard in Western Europe
during the 1300s. Food prices had risen
and hunger and starvation increased.
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5. And then, a terrible disease entered Western Europe along trade
routes from
Asia. In a few
years, this disease
led to the deaths
of one-third of
Western Europe’s
population.
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6. The disease’s formal name was Bubonic Plague but people called it the
Black Death.
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7. In 1348, Bubonic Plague entered Western Europe. Buboes or swellings
and black spots formed on victims.
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8. Infected people
usually
died within a
few days.
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9. Merchants and travelers spread the disease.
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10. Infected fleas on rats bit people and these infected people spread
the disease through coughing and
breathing.
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11. There were fewer people left to work and pay taxes. As the population
decreased, other
changes occurred.
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12. A decrease in population led to decreases in food prices and
increases in wages. Can you figure
out why?
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13. The plague changed everything. It was one of the factors that led
to the decline of the Middle Ages
and a new era in Western Europe.
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14. As the population declined, serfs were given greater rights and
eventually serfdom ended in
Western Europe.

15. After all this death, people wanted
life again.
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16. What was the Bubonic Plague? Why was it called the Black Death?
The Big Seven:
What was the Bubonic Plague?
Why was it called the Black Death?
Where did the disease originate?
How did the disease enter Europe?
What percentage of the population died?
How did the disease affect food prices?
How did the disease affect wages?
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17. Mini-Project
A. Historical Research: The Plague was the epidemic of the Middle Ages, are there any world epidemics facing the world today?
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