What were the major causes of population decline in the fourteenth century, and what results did this have in social, economic, and political terms?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

ANSWER:
The major demographic change in the fourteenth-century Latin West was the mortality of the Black Death, which historians put at somewhere between one-third to one-half of the European population (the text argues for approximately one-third). However, at the same time, there were significant population declines due to crop failure exacerbated by the increased population and shortages of land, as well as a famine in 1315-1321 and the long-term effects of the Hundred Years War. Students should be able to identify the population boom prior to the fourteenth century as a significant lead-up, and therefore a cause, of this change: during this "warm period" significant technological advancements promoted a better standard of living. The high mortality rates of the century had significant social, political, and economic effects and changed people's day-to-day views: while the mortality of famine and war were generally class-based, the plague was the first event that killed indiscriminately elite, middle class, and peasants alike. Students should be able to identify the argument that the plague ended serfdom by creating more economic opportunities for serfs and that it made people either more religious (zealots) or irreligious, a factor that historians have linked to the growth of humanism's emphasis on the here and now. Students should be able to identify the Jacquerie, Wat Tyler's rebellion, and the ongoing Hundred Years War as a manifestation of political and military issues.