The Late Middle Ages, Essay Example

Weber says sheep ate men, instead of the other way around.  What he is referring to is the fact that Sheep farming was more profitable than food growing. Men ate each other due to the fact that there was less need for workers to tend to sheep farms, so there were more people looking for work. Because this was the development of the capitalistic society, social conflicts started to develop between the poor and authority.

Revolts by peasants and townspeople as a result of the plague happened across the European countryside. As the text notes, “desperate lords tried to increase their customary—and already excessive—labor requirements in an effort to farm their lands. Free laborers, detecting an opportunity, began to demand higher wages, prompting some countries to pass laws freezing earnings (Sherman & Salisbury,  280).” This act of freezing earnings enraged peasants and motivated them to roam the countryside and burn manors and slaughtering occupants.

 The Mongols Establish the Yuan Dynasty in China

The Mongols’ desire to preserve their identity benefited Western travelers. As the text notes, “The ruling Mongols faced the problem of how to control this vast populous land while maintaining their Mongol identity (Sherman & Salisbury, 296).” They were able to rule the Chinese majority by moving the capital from Karakorum in Mongolia to a newly built city near modern Beijing. The name of the city was Ta-Tu or “Great Capital.” It served as a tourist attraction. The other change made by the Chinese leader Kublai was to call the new dynasty the Yuan dynasty, which meant “the origin (Sherman & Salisbury, 296).”

Symptoms of the Disease

During this period of time, the black death, or bubonic plague became a major issue. As the text notes, victims “would swell beneath their armpits and in their groins, and fall over dead while talking (Sherman & Salisbury, 279).” The devastation broke down traditional social ties and rituals in that no one was willing to bury the dead, not for money or friendship. The text notes that, “Members of a household brought their dead to a ditch as best they could, without priest, without divine offices. Nor did the death bell sound. And in many places in Siena great pits were dug and piled deep with the multitude of dead (Sherman & Salisbury, 279).”

 The survivors reacted with a run of exhibitionism, in that people sought after joy and pleasure more aggressively, due to the fact that they had survived the plague.  The text notes that, “when the pestilence abated, all who survived gave themselves over to pleasures: monks, priests, nuns, and lay men and women all enjoyed themselves, and none worried about spending and gambling. And everyone thought him-self rich because he had escaped and regained the world, and no one knew how to allow himself to do nothing (Sherman & Salisbury, 279).”