Western_Society

Arielle Yamada Miss Stoker AP European History 27 August 2013 Sources in Western Society reading assignments The Middle Ages can be viewed as two things either bad or good. The Middle Ages was known mostly for the leading up to the Renaissance period or the Black Plague. During the time of the later middle ages, many were faced with trouble which had drastic changes to society. The overall themes of these documents are simply, cause and effect. In the first document, it talks about the Black Plague (or Black death as some refer to it). The cause of how this came about would be through the expanded trade routes, which now could be done by with boat allowing rats and other vermin to carry disease to the people. Before the people even realized it, they already started the disease without knowing. Simply, this would be the cause which leads to the problem that most of Europe faces for a long period of time. The effect would then be that the people would try then to “get rid of” the disease. Though most believed that by spraying the air it would help “uncontaminate” the disease, while some tried by creating an early quarrenting system for themselves. As you begin to read what Boccaccio has wrote, you notice that in a sense, he believes that the reason the plague began was God cursing the people for their sins. Personally I believe that most of the people during this time viewed this as one of the reasons why the plague did come about. In the second document it is about the Peasant revolt, more specifically the English Peasants’ Revolt. The reason why people revolt is that they are unhappy with how they are being treated and that they want to see a change in their life. If you take away most people’s freedom they are, at most time, going to try and get as close as they can to having as much freedom as the person above them. For example, the peasant revolt came about because the peasants were tired about how much taxes they kept getting piled up on them, while let alone they could barely pay off the ones they had before. Also another thing is that they were tired of being told promises by the King that never happened which only made things worse. This would happen to be the cause of this time. The effect would then be how the peasants revolted because they were unhappy. When I read over the third document, I noticed that this document did not really have the same theme as the others, being as though it was just an introduction, it really did have a deeper meaning. The artist who made the picture viewed society as a tree. The pope and emperor were depicted as being the highest branches and the peasants being as the roots. The artist was viewing society as though a support system in a sense. And like the tree, the roots and trunk, being the peasants followed by the craftsmen and merchants, are more of a support system while the higher branches or what would be the leaves, being the king and nobles, left as being the part you admire. In the last two documents, they are letters being written from women- Catherine of Siena and Joan of Arc. During this time the letters are being written around the time of the 100 year’s war and also around the time when the popes are living in Avignon. The letters almost tie together. Though they are not addressing the same person or have to deal with the same issue, they both want the addressee of the letter to do something which is the cause of the documents. The letters both end with a threatening type of tone which then leads to the effect of the letters.