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→Different Impacts of the Black Death
==Different Impacts of the Black Death==
The Black Death had substantially different impact on populations and exacerbated social change in many regions. In Western Europe, where populations were generally higher prior to the Black Death, the reduction of population made the remaining peasants and workers better able to negotiate higher wages(Figure 1). Revolts and rebellions occurred after the plague, but it uliatemly helped lead to major social changes. It also led to the death of some of the nobility. Law changes to inheritance, allowing women in particular to inherit, led to gradual gender changes and increasing power for women in Europe in particular. Greater power to serfs as their wages went up also helped, in the long-term, to finally finish serfdom in Western Europe. In the immediate sense, serfs and nobility often fought in the years after the Black Death, but the lack of productivity in farms did help to give more powers to peasants in Western Europe. In effect, the Black Death helped to liberate societies that helped to set the stage for the Renaissance revival that occurred in Europe in the century after the Black Death.<ref>For more on Western Europe after the Black Death, see: Herlihy, David, and Samuel Kline Cohn. 1997. <i>The Black Death and the Transformation of the West.</i> Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.</ref>
In Eastern Europe, it had the opposite effect of strengthening serfdom. In this case, population densities were much lower, thus revolts that followed the Black Death were less common. Upper classes simply reinforced their power through laws that tied workers to land and limited their wages and power. Revolts by the peasants only became a major problem in the 16th through the 19th centuries, where only during the 1800s was serfdom removed in Eastern Europe.<ref>For more on the effects in Eastern Europe, see: Ziegler, Philip. 2010. <i>The Black Death.</i> Stroud: The History Press Ltd, pg. 85</ref>
In India, the Delhi Sultanate collapsed soon after the plague, suggesting the uproar caused may have catalyzed this collapse. In Russia, the Golden Horde of the Mongols diminished in power, although it did rise briefly again in the late 1300s. In effect, it also allowed a long-term weakening that eventually allowed Russian-based dynasties to arise that eventually led to the succession of the Romanov dynasty to rule Russia.<ref>For more on the rulers of India and Russia after the Black Death, see: Benedictow, Ole Jørgen. 2006. <i>The Black Death: 1346 - 1353 ; the Complete History.</i> Repr. in paperback. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, pg. 51.</ref>
The Black Death also caused many changes to society, including people challenging religious authorities. This could have led to the beginning of questioning of the Catholic Church that help lead to the reformation in the 16th century (Figu re 2). Key social changes included an increased understanding of quarantine and its importance in medicine. This now began to be a common practice after the rise of the Black Death plague. Genetic diversity may have also diminished in parts of Asia and Europe, where it could have helped surviving populations develop better immunity (through genetic adaptation).<ref>For more on population changes after the Black Death, see: Meneely, Philip. 2017. Genetics: Genes, Genomes, and Evolution. New York, NY: Oxford University Press., pg. 172.</ref> [[File:2000px-Bubonic plague-en.svg.png|thumbnail|FIgure 1. Spread of the Black Death in Europe.]] [[File:The flagellants at Doornik in 1349.jpg|thumbnail|Figure 2. People began to question religious authority more openly after the Black Death.]]
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