After the Black Death: Europe 1348-1789

In 1348 a horrific pandemic struck the Eurasian landmass. The Black Death killed between one-third and one-half of the European population and threatened the collapse of Western Europe's glittering medieval civilization. This unit explores what happened next. Over the next four-and-one-half centuries, Europe experienced a period of dramatic and enduring change, out which many features of the modern, western world emerged. Beginning with the horrors of the Black Death, this era witnessed the splendour of the Renaissance, violent religious disputes and changes, the challenge of the new world of the Americas, the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, and closed with the bloodshed and upheaval of the French Revolution. Students will analyse the multiple and contradictory impulses that shaped Europe and it engagement with the wider world between 1350 and 1800.