Eight
Catastrophe and Creativity (c.1350–c.1500)
STRUCK BY A PLAGUE that carried off between a fifth and a half of its
population, shaken by Ottoman Turks who conquered Constantinople and moved
into the Balkans, buffeted by internal wars that threatened the very foundations of its
political life, Europe shuddered. Soon, however, it shrugged and forged ahead. Those
who survived war and disease enjoyed a higher standard of living than before; new-
style political entities gained powers that the old had never had; and new-rigged
sailing ships, manned by hopeful adventurers and financed by rich patrons, plied the
seas east- and westwards. By 1500, Europe was poised to conquer the globe.
Crises and Consolidations
In the 1340s, the first pandemic since the Plague of Justinian (see p. 29) made swift
inroads into Europe even while France and England were waging a long and
debilitating Hundred Years’ War. Popular revolts and insurrections, the bitter harvest
of war and economic contraction, rocked both town and countryside. Meanwhile a
schism within the church—setting first two, then three popes against one another—
shattered all illusions of harmony within Christendom. At the same time, however,
smaller units gained apparent cohesion under new-style princes.
THE BLACK DEATH
The Black Death (1346–1353), so named by later historians looking back on the
disease, was caused by Yersinia pestis, the bacterium of the plague. Its symptoms, as
an eye witness reported, included “tumorous outgrowths at the roots of thighs and
arms and simultaneously bleeding ulcerations, which, sometimes the same day,
carried the infected rapidly out of this present life.”^1
New research on the DNA of the microbe suggests that the disease began in
China, arriving in the West along well-worn routes of trade with the Mongols. Caffa,
the Genoese trading post on the northern shore of the Black Sea, was hit in 1347.
From there the plague traveled to Europe and the Middle East, immediately striking