Notes

Prelude to Disaster

A. Climate Change and Famine

1.

About 1300 the climate in Europe became colder and wetter, beginning a period that

historical geographers refer to as a “little ice age.”

2.

An unusual number of storms ruined wheat, oat, and hay crops, resulting in poor harvests that

led to scarcity and starvation.

3.

Almost all of northern Europe suffered a “Great Famine”​ the years 1315 to 1322.

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4.

Even in non-famine years, the cost of grain, livestock, and dairy products rose sharply,

meaning fewer people could afford to eat.

5.

Reduced caloric intake meant increased susceptibility to disease, especially for infants,

children, and the elderly.

6.

Epidemics of typhoid fever carried away thousands.

7.

Workers on reduced diets had less energy, which in turn meant lower productivity, lower

output, and higher grain prices.

B. Social Consequences

1.

The changing climate and resulting agrarian crisis of the fourteenth century led to the

abandonment of homesteads and even entire villages as many people became vagabonds,

wandering in search of food and work.

2.

Some peasants were forced to mortgage, sublease, or sell their holdings to richer farmers in

order to buy food.

3.

Overall, the population declined because of the deaths caused by famine and disease, though

the postponement of marriages as young men and women sought work in the towns and the

resulting decline in offspring were also factors.

4.

As the subsistence crisis deepened, starving people focused their anger on Jews, who were

often targeted as creditors fleecing the poor through pawnbroking.

5.

The international character of trade and commerce meant that a disaster in one country had

serious implications elsewhere.

6.

For example, an infection attacked English sheep in 1318, resulting in a sharp decline in wool

exports that put Flemish weavers out of work and thus hurt the businesses of Flemish,

Hanseatic, and Italian merchants.

7.

Unemployment encouraged people to turn to...