the black death and overview

Instructions: Fill in the cloze passage by using the words in the box. The first letter of each word has been given
to you.

Societies in Asia

Crop, Trade, Famine, Plague, Silk, Mongol, food, failures, Road, farming, contact, Empire
The expansion of the M______________ E______________ across Asia between the early 13th century and mid-
14th century had significant impacts on the societies that it conquered. The Mongols introduced positive changes,
such as religious freedom. They also helped to keep travellers safe on the network of trade routes known as the
S______________ R_____________. This increased c_____________ and t________________ among
societies in the East and West. Not all elements of Mongol rule in Asia were quite so positive though. Their
conquests of new regions often resulted in the deaths of many people and disrupted vital activities such as
f_____________ and f_______________ production. In addition to this, a series of civil wars and natural disasters
across Asia led to c____________ f____________ in the early 1330s. This in turn caused widespread
f_____________ across the region. Weakened and malnourished, many people were no match for the
p________________ outbreak that followed.

Societies in Africa

Centres, Traded, Black, routes, Death, trade

Most of what is known about in Africa in the 14th century relates to North Africa, including Egypt. In this period, a
number of powerful Islamic nations were dominant – the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and powerful dynasties across
North Africa. Despite conflicts between these nations, sea trade and commerce thrived. Port cities along the north
coast of Africa, such as Tunis and Tripoli, t_______________ with European societies, particularly those on the
Italian peninsula. There were also busy trade routes between Alexandria in Egypt and Constantinople, as well as
other ports around the Black Sea. When the B______________ D______________ broke out, all these
t___________ r___________ and c_______________ helped it to spread.

Societies in Europe

Crusades, Asia, Barbarians, prepared, trade, feudalism, enough, Africa

From the 10th century onwards, the system of f______________that had organised society and provided
protection and stability began to weaken. B______________ raids that had taken place in Europe from around AD
500 to 1000 had largely ended by the middle of the 11th century. Many towns and cities were growing quickly. By
the early 13th century, there were about 600 cities in Europe – three times as many as 50 years earlier. New ideas
and products brought back to Europe from the holy wars, known as the C_____________, between the 10th and
12th centuries also had an impact on the rapid growth of towns and cities. It led to a large increase in
t_______________ with societies across A________________ and A________________. The resulting increase

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in prosperity led to a large increase in the birth rate, as well as extremely overcrowded and unhealthy living
conditions. Farming methods had remained inefficient and farmers struggled to grow e____________ food to feed
the growing population. From around 1250 onwards, the weather also became unusually cold and wet. This caused
a series of crop failures that led to a number of famines across Europe. Many people died of starvation. Just like
those living in Asia and Africa, the people of Europe were not p________________ for what they were to face with
the first outbreak of the Black Death.

Review Questions:

Instructions: Answer the following questions in the space provided.

1. What were the positive and negative effects of Mongol conquest in Asia?

_________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Which were some of the trading routes between North Africa and Europe?
.
_________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________

3. What factors led to the growth of towns and cities in medieval Europe?

_________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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 life expectancy

Europe, Mortality, life expectancy, medieval, famine, living, conditions.

Life expectancy during the 11th and 12th centuries was very low compared to today. Life expectancy in
M_____________ E_____________ became worse from about 1300 (even before the Black Death) as a result of
f______________ and the dirty, overcrowded l_____________________ c_____________ in cities. Infant
m________________ rates were very high and many people died when they were in their teens or early 20s. Many
women died during childbirth, whereas many more males died as children before the age of 10.

Although people commonly lived to be 60 or 70 years old, the early deaths of so many other people meant that the
average l_______________ e__________________ was about 35 years for men and 31 years for women. To
calculate the average life expectancy of a child who died at 2 years of age and a man who died at 65, add their ages
(2 and 65) together and divide by two (the number of people). Their average is therefore 33.5 years.

medieval medicine

died, illness, monks, women, “folk”, older, herbal, nuns

Medieval medical care was very primitive. There were some university rained doctors in Europe, but only the wealthiest
people in society could afford to visit them. Poor people received medical attention from m__________ or
n__________, or o___________ w________________ in the community who were respected for their knowledge of
i__________________ and h______________treatments. People relied on herbal and ‘f____________’ medicines
handed down through the generations. There were no antibiotics to cure infections, no anaesthetics to stop pain, no
X-rays, no vaccinations, no blood transfusions. If you were really ill in the 14th century, you probably d_____________

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 the four humours

Yellow bile, Bleeding, phlegm humours, leeches, blood, black bile

Doctors believed that sickness was caused when the four basic elements, known as ‘h_________’ that make up the
body were out of balance. The four humours were b_______, p_________ (mucus), b________ b_______ and
y________ b______. The purpose of medical treatment was to restore their natural balance in the body. Medical
treatments included forcing a patient to vomit, or bringing on severe sweating or diarrhoea. If you were cold or shivering,
you could be given something hot to drink, or kept in a warm room. To reduce fevers, a sign that your body was
overheated, you could be given a cucumber to eat (a ‘cooling’ vegetable). Or you could be bled because it was believed
that too much blood
led to excessive heat. B___________ was done in several ways – by cutting a vein (see Source15.16), by cupping
(done by placing a heated cup over a cut in the skin to draw out a small amount of blood), or by attaching bloodsucking
l____________ to various parts of the patient’s body. This procedure was done in a barber’s shop, by the barber-
surgeon
surgery in the 14th century

Anaesthetics, Infection, bloodletting, amputated, shedding, barbers, antiseptics, blood

In 1215, a decree from the Pope ruled that priests could not be involved in s______________ b_____________.
Surgery and other medical treatments became the responsibilities of b______________, who were presumed to know
how to use sharp instruments. In the 14th century –and even up to the 19th century – barber-surgeons performed
b__________l___________, extracted teeth, set broken bones and a_________________ (cut off) diseased or
damaged limbs.

If the patient was to survive a major operation, the surgeon needed strength (to cut through the tissues and bone with
his saw) and speed (so that the operation was over quickly before the patient died of shock). Though some surgeons
experimented with potions to drug their patients into a kind of sleep, there were no effective a_______________. There
were also no a________________. This means that a patient who did not die of shock or blood loss on the operating
table often died of i_________________ afterwards. Frequent wars during the medieval period gave surgeons plenty
of experience in treating wounds. The picture on the right is the ‘wound man’, a picture from a medieval book. It shows
the wounds that surgeons felt able to treat successfully – as long as the man did not have all the wounds at the same
time!

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