1. Chapter 12 Climate Change and Famine

2.   The end of the Middle Ages & the beginning of the early modern era  Horrific disasters  Significant changes in econ & social structures  Significant changes in people’s ideas  Societal tensions  Changing attitudes toward the religious institution  The Catholic Church  “fur collar” crimes  Relationships and sexuality  Ethnic consciousness  A time preoccupied with death – European life reshaped & reborn The 14 th C

3.  Key Concepts  Climate change and epidemic  About ½ the population of Eur. died within a few years  Significant and long lasting impact

4.  Climate Change & Famine  Historical geographers conclude 1300-1450 was a “little Ice Age”  Colder & wetter  Scarcity due to destroyed crops  Great Famine 1315- 1322  Reduced population (Burgundy 1/3 pop. Died)

5.   Epidemics  Reduced human & animal pop.  Homesteads abandoned  Vagabonds (wandering homeless)  Marriages delayed  Smaller pop. less demand in markets – urban unemployment Climate Change & Famine

6.   Government response  Ineffective  Tried to control speculation  Estab. price controls  Encouraged long- distance trade  Particularly with Italy  Improved sailing ships  Opened new routes  Discontent vented on  Wealthy  Jews  lepers

7.   International Trade – Spread of disease  Rats & insects  The Black Death  Origin – China  Arrived – Genoese ships 1347  Spread by fleas on rats – bubonic  Spread by air - Pneumonic form  Cities – poor sanitary condition  Attempts to prevent  Quarantine  Improving sanitation  Eradicating “the poisons” in the air  Treatment lancing & bloodletting Climate Change & Famine

9.   death by plague is horrible and rapid  the disease is caused by a bacterium, Yersinia pestis  after infection, once a fever has started, the patient may be dead within 12-15 hours  the disintegration of bodily functions leads to massive necrosis (death) of tissues  the fingers and toes literally turn black and large painful buboes (swellings) form in the lymph glands of neck, groin and armpit The Biology of the Plague

11.  Transmission of plague  under the unsanitary conditions of the middle ages it is not surprising that disease was rampant  plague virus became endemic in the rat population of Europe  fleas that bit the rat and then a man would transmit the bacterium  the rats acted as a reservoir, maintaining the bacterial population  the flea was the vector that transmitted the Yersinia from rat to man  the bacterium actually grows in the flea and blocks its digestive tract  the flea gets very hungry, but when it bites its next host, it can't swallow the blood and regurgitates back into the host  once in the animals blood, the bacterium moves to the lymph nodes and survives in phagocytes  an overwhelming infection ensues  the victim is often dead within a week

12.  The flea

13.  Climate Change & Famine  The blame belongs to –  Jews  1000s were murdered in mob violence  Human sinfulness  Punishment from God  The clergy’s role  Ministered to the ill  High death rate among clergy  Loss of clergy led bishops to permit lay administration of the sacraments.

14.  Climate Change & Famine  Religion and the Plague – Seeds of Change  Many questioned their faith  The bishops decision to allow lay administration of the sacraments will have consequences during the Reformation

15.   The Economic Consequences  Aristocratic prosperity was disrupted – temporarily  Florence – new members to the guild accepted  General inflation  Shortage of labor  Rise in real wages  Laws sought to prevent rise is wages  English Statute of Laborers  Standard of living in towns went up  Per capita wealth increased  Peasants even had greater mobility Climate Change & Famine

16.   Labor & the Plague – Seeds of Change  The Shortage of labor meant urban workers and peasants could negotiate better terms for themselves  Rare situation in European history  Improvement in econ. conditions led to stabilization of pop.  Employers and nobles tried to revert to lower wages and higher manorial obligations…they only partially succeeded Climate Change & Famine