The World the Plague Made : : The Black Death and the Rise of Europe / / James Belich.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2022 English
• VerfasserIn: Belich, James,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (640 p.) :; 12 maps.

A groundbreaking history of how the Black Death unleashed revolutionary change across the medieval world and ushered in the modern ageIn 1346, a catastrophic plague beset Europe and its neighbours. The Black Death was a human tragedy that abruptly halved entire populations and caused untold suffering. but it also brought about a cultural and economic renewal on a scale never before witnessed. The World the Plague Made is a panoramic history of how the bubonic plague revolutionized labour, trade and technology and set the stage for Europe’s global expansion.James Belich takes readers across centuries and continents to shed new light on one of history’s greatest paradoxes. Why did Europe’s dramatic rise begin in the wake of the Black Death? Belich shows how plague doubled the per capita endowment of everything even as it decimated the population. Many more people had disposable incomes. Demand grew for silks, sugar, spices, furs, gold and slaves. Europe expanded to satisfy that demand—and plague provided the means. Labour scarcity drove more use of waterpower, wind power and gunpowder. Technologies like water-powered blast furnaces, heavily gunned galleons and musketry were fast-tracked by plague. A new “crew culture” of “disposable males” emerged to man the guns and galleons.Setting the rise of Western Europe in global context, Belich demonstrates how the mighty empires of the Middle East and Russia also flourished after the plague, and how European expansion was deeply entangled with the Chinese and other peoples throughout the world.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Maps -- Introduction: Plague Paradoxes -- Prologue: Globalising Europe -- Part I A Plague of Mysteries -- Introduction -- 1 The Black Death and the Plague Era -- 2 The Origins and Dynamics of the Black Death -- Part II Plague and Expansionism in Western Europe -- Introduction -- 3 A Golden Age? Economy and Society in the Ear ly Plague Er a -- 4 Expansive Trades -- 5 Plague Revolutions? -- 6 Expansive Labour: Castas, Race Mothers, and Disposable Males -- 7 States, Interstates, and the European Expansion Kit -- Part III Western Europe or West Eurasia? -- 8 Plague’s Impact in the Muslim South -- 9 Early Modern Ming-Muslim Globalisation -- 10 Entwined Empires: The Genoese Paradox and Iberian Expansion -- 11 The Ottomans and the Great Diversion -- 12 The Dutch Puzzle and the Mobilisation of Eastern Europe -- 13 Muslim Colonial Empires -- 14 Plague and Russian Expansion -- Part IV Expansion, Industry, and Empire -- Introduction -- 15 Empire? What Empire? European Expansion to 1800 -- 16 Plaguing Britain -- Conclusion -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index -- A NOTE ON THE TYPE