Lecture 10 : Medieval Period Overview

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Lecture 10 Medieval PeriodOverview

• DARK AGES
• Europe
• China
• Mesopotamia
• India
• MEDIEVAL RECOVERY
• HEALTH AND DISEASE
• The Black Death

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The Dark Ages (Europe)

• Population decline meant fewer food producers,
  therefore less food surplus.
• Urban life went into decline.
• Centralised authority collapsed.
• Long distance trade vanished.
• Arts and sciences went into decline.
• Epidemics were frequent but became less virulent
  as humans adapted.
• Population slowly began to increase arount
  1000AD.

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China

• 30-40 per cent of the army at the north-west
  frontier killed by epidemic in 161-162.
• 98 per cent of the population in Shaanxi province
  in north-west killed by epidemic 310-312 20-30
  per cent killed 10 years later over a wider area.
  Probably smallpox or measles hitting a virgin
  population.
• Bubonic plague not mentioned until 610. By 642 it
  was common in coastal areas in Guangdong,
  suggesting ship origin.
• By 8th century Chinese population had declined to
  three quarters what it had been.
• Mercenaries had to be hired to defend frontiers.

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India Mesopotamia

• India degenerated into petty warring states in
  the 7th century captured by Moslems around 1000
  AD.
• Mesopotamia does not appear to have been too
  badly affected by diseases before 600, suggesting
  it was the source for the epidemics in other
  areas.
• Population declined from about 600 onwards. May
  have been due to bubonic plague.
• Captured by Moslem Arabs in 651.

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Medieval Recovery

• Population numbers began to increase about 1000
  AD as epidemic diseases became less virulent.
• People outside the main civilisations would also
  seem to have adpated, possibly due to Christian
  and Moslem missionary contacts.
• Recovery was delayed in Britain/Ireland and Japan
  populations too small to support endemic
  diseases.

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Feudalism

• Hierarchical system based on landholding
  vassals held land from lords in return for
  services.
• At lowest level serfs provided labour in return
  for land.
• At top level stonger kings carved out kingdoms
  for themselves.
• Stability and a food surplus supported the
  re-emergence of urban life.
• Craft industries and trades controlled by guilds.
• Urban dwellers (bourgeoisie) emerged as a new
  middle class.
• Population numbers increased until disease
  intervened again in the mid 14th century.

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Other Developments

• Mongols (Genghis Kahn) established a massive
  empire running from Eastern Europe, through
  Mesopotamia, across central Europe to China. Silk
  road re-opened and other routes through steppes
  opened.
• Genoese opened the Straits of Gibraltar to
  Christian shipping in 1291. Mediterranean was
  connected by ship to northern Europe.

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The Black Death (1)

• The Black Death is thought to have entered Europe
  via a siege at Kaffa in the Crimea in 1347.
• Supposedly transmitted by Geonoese to
  Constantinople and on to Italy.
• Impact geographically uneven (cf. Milan and
  Rome).
• Further epidemics in 1360s and 1370s.
  Intermittent for next 300 years.

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Black Death (2)

• The Black Death is widely assumed to have been
  bubonic plague (2nd pandemic).
• One theory suggests that Mongol troops who
  invaded the Himalayan source in 1253 brought it
  back to Mongolia, from where it spread
  underground across the steppes.
• However, there is no evidence of plague amongst
  Mongols in 13th century.
• Chinese records record no plague before 1331.
  Believed that this outbreak was transmitted by
  Mongols across Asia.
• There is suggestive evidence of 14th population
  losses amongst Mongols e.g. driven out of
  China steppes depopulated by C16.

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Scott and Duncan (1)

• Scott and Duncan argue Black Death could not have
  been bubonic plague. Several reasons (see Ch.
  11)
• Contemporary accounts all reported the plague was
  person to person no reports of a die off of rats
  reported during plague
• Black rat (Rattus rattus) likes warm conditions
  in Britain did not spread inland to rural areas.
  Brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) only arrived in the
  18th century.
• No rats in Iceland, yet the plague spread there.
• Plague moved too quick for rats 100 miles in a
  few days bubonic plagues spreads very slowly.
• Weather in England was not warm enough for
  Xenopsylla cheopis fleas to hatch (require 18oC)

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Scott and Duncan (2)

• Bubonic plague is not transmitted person to
  person - it requires rats pneumonic plague does
  not require rats - but it does not produce buboes
  (one of the reported symptoms).
• Incubation period of Black Death was 32 days,
  latent period 10-12 days, infectious for 20-22
  days without symptoms. Incubation for bubonic
  plague is ca. 5-6 days.
• Bubonic plague has a much lower death rate than
  the Black Death.
• The ship from Constantinople that was supposed to
  have carried the Black Death had no reported
  cases its arrival was probably just a
  coincidence.

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Scott and Duncan (3)

• Scott and Duncan say Black Death was caused by an
  unidentified air-borne disease, which they refer
  to as haemorrhagic plague.
• Similar to modern African haemorrhagic fevers
  (e.g. Marbug, Ebola), suggesting an African
  origin.
• Suggest that the Plague of Athens and the
  Justinian Plague may also have been earlier
  episodes of haemorrhagic plague.

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Impact

• Chinese population declined from 123 million in
  1200 to 65 million 1393. 1/3 in 14th century died
  from plague.
• In Europe the Black Death killed an estimated 25
  million people, reducing the total population by
  25-40 per cent.
• England, Italy, France, Poland, Russia and the
  Balkans are said to have lost 50 per cent of
  their populations.
• Labour shortages hit food production wage labour
  was introduced to attract workers wages
  increased.
• Cities became more important - growth of the
  bourgeoisie.
• Net effect collapse of feudalism, beginnings of
  capitalism arguably the growth of Protestantism.