At the beginning of the fourteenth century, declining agricultural productivity and bad weather combined to bring famine to Europe, checking population growth and driving people from their lands in search of food. This tragedy was followed by a terrible plague, the Black Death, which arrived in Europe via the trade that had flourished in the Mediterranean in the preceding century. This disease took the lives of over a third of the population. People reacted to the disaster with fear and despair, and in the case of peasants and urban workers, with revolt. The church was criticized for not bringing comfort and order, but it was absorbed in an internal crisis, as disputed papal elections led to controversy and the simultaneous rule of several popes. England and France engaged in a violent war, the Hundred Years' War, which devastated the lives of civilians and transformed the feudal order. Finally, in the east, new empires arose and threatened the borders of Europe. These disasters undermined the feudal order, bringing fears of the world ending, but instead the structures of social, political, economic, and cultural life would be transformed once again.

In Chapter 9, students learn

the impact on demography, society, economy, and politics of the crises of the fourteenth century

the psychological and medical responses to the plague

how some employers and landlords incited worker and peasant revolts by resisting demands for higher wages after the Black Death

how the continued struggle between church and state was manifested in the conflict between king Philip IV of France and pope Boniface VIII over the issues of legal jurisdiction and taxation

how the Great Schism led to the rise of conciliarism, which permanently lessened papal independence

about the technological advances that proved decisive in the Hundred Years' War

how the outcome of the Hundred Years' War proved revolutionary, making mounted, heavily armored feudal warriors obsolete and promoting the use of mercenary troops

how the Mongol empire was created under Genghis Khan and how, under his successors, its unity and merchandise attracted western traders and travelers

that the Russian empire expanded at the expense of the Mongol empire by the fifteenth century, with the Russian ruler taking the title of "tsar"