Middle Agesaka the DARK ages

500-1200

What was life like?

• Literally dark? Not quite….

• Poverty • No learning• No communication• Fighting, War, Barbarians • Disease

Art from the Middle Ages

What do you think it looked like?

Middle Age Society

• Medieval hierarchy- feudalism-

KINGCHURCH/NOBLES

LORDS

KNIGHTS

PEASANTS- SERFS

Social Class

• Inherited- could not move up

• Determined your prestige and power

• You were either someone who fought, someone who prayed, or someone who worked.

Peasants and Serfs

• Vast majority of the people during the Middle Ages

• Serfs- could not lawfully leave the place where they were born-Bound to the land

• So were they slaves? Almost, but they could not be bought or sold.

Peasant Life on the Manor

• Paid high taxes to Lords

• Tithe- church tax • Warmed cottages by

bringing the pigs inside

• Slept on straw• Ate vegetables and

grains

Can things suck more during the Middle Ages……..?

YES, they can!!!!!!

The History Channel- The Black Death

Start-16:30

1. What news and images were brought back from traders traveling in the far east?

2. How did people get rid of the dead bodies?

3. What were three of the symptoms of the plague?

4. What did people fear more then death from the plague?

5. What were some ways that physicians tried to treat those suffering from the plague?

The Bubonic Plague1300s

• The plague originated in Asia• Traveling trade routes

allowed the plague to travel across Asia into Europe

• The disease swept through Italy, and then followed trade routes to Spain, France, Germany, England, and many other parts of Europe and Africa.

Black Death

• The disease was caused by a bacteria that was carried by fleas which lived on black rats.

• Most people in those days had fleas and lice from not bathing.

• Garbage and sewage was thrown into the streets which became breeding grounds for the rats.

No one knew how to cure the disease and often blamed God or Jews

Black Death Symptoms

• Painful swellings called buboes many around your armpits and groin.

• Purplish and blackish spots on skin• High fever, chills, delirium, and in most cases

DEATH.

Plague

• “This scourge had implanted so great a terror in the hearts of men and women that brothers abandoned brothers, uncles their nephews, sisters their brothers, and in many cases wives deserted their husbands. But even worse, …fathers and mothers refused to nurse and assist their own children.”

-Giovanni Boccaccio, Italian writer of the time

Effects of the Plague

• Death tolls:– Western Europe- 20-25 million– China, India, other Asian areas- 25 million– Europe lost approximately 1/3rd of its population

• Towns populations fell• Trade declined. Prices rose.• Serfs left manors for better wages• Peasant revolts, reduced power of feudal lords• Jews were blamed for bringing the plague, so many

were driven from homes or massacred.• Church suffered because prayer could not stop plague• Europe was demoralized