This excerpt is the opening of the Ordinance of Laborers, passed in 1349 in England. It was a reaction to the large number of deaths caused by the plague. [A] great part of the people, and especially of workmen and servants, late died of the pestilence [plague], many seeing the necessity of masters, and great scarcity of servants, will not serve unless they may receive excessive wages, and some rather willing to beg in idleness, than by labor to get their living; we, considering the grievous incommodities [problems], which of the lack especially of ploughmen and such laborers may hereafter come, have upon deliberation and treaty with the prelates and the nobles, and learned men assisting us, of their mutual counsel ordained: That every man and woman of our realm of England ... able in body, and within the age of threescore years [under 60], [who is not a landowner or engaged in a trade], be required to serve, ... and take only the wages...which were accustomed to be given in … the twentieth year of [King Edward III’s] reign of England [1347], or five or six other common years next before [the previous five or six years]. From: Albert Beebe White and Wallace Notestein, eds. Source Problems in English History (New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1915). What was the historical context that explains why the Ordinance of Labourers passed in 1349, specifically?

Read the following excerpt and answer the questions that follow. Pay attention to how the historical context of trade and military interaction affected how plague spread. The Tartars [Mongols of the Golden Horde] set on [attacked] a Genoese trading station in the city of Tana and chased the merchants to their redoubt [fort] at Caffa… a town on the Crimean coast which the Genoese had built and fortified as a base from which to trade with the [East]...Their plans were disastrously disturbed by the plague which was soon taking heavy toll of the besiegers…[F]ew places are so vulnerable to disease as a besieged city and it was not long before the plague was as active within the city as without… [The Genoese] took to their galleys and fled from the Black Sea towards the Mediterranean. With them travelled the plague. One of the main trade routes by which the spices and silks from the East reached the European market was by way of Baghdad and then along the Tigris [River] and through Armenia to the entrepot [trading] stations of the Italian merchants in the Crimea. Nothing is more likely than that the plague should travel with the great caravans and spread itself among the [Mongols] of the Crimea. From: Philip Ziegler, The Black Death (New York: Harper Perennial, 2009, 1969), 15-16. Which of the following claims connecting can be supported by evidence from this passage?

What effect did the bubonic plague have on Christianity throughout most of Europe?

How did Europeans directly contribute to the deaths of millions of indigenous Americans?

Why were diseases introduced from migrating Europeans so deadly to indigenous communities?

New zoonotic diseases are likely to be discovered in the future because...

Pretend you work for the CDC as an epidemiologist. You receive a phone call from Guinea and they tell you that they have seen a growing number of people initially exhibiting the following symptoms: fever, muscle pain, and headache, but those symptoms have started advancing to diarrhea, rash, blood oozing from the gums and internal bleeding. You fear this may mark the beginning of an Ebola outbreak so you advise them to...

After the Black Death, many Europeans found themselves feeling that the Catholic Church had let them down. This eventually led to revolutionary changes in the church including the Protestant Reformation. This is most strongly tied to which of our enduring issues?

When the Columbian Exchange occurred, new animals and crops were brought to the Americas. This led to the destruction of some species and ecosystems. Which of our enduring issues does this best represent?

During and after the smallpox epidemic arrived in North American Indigenous communities there was a rise in hostility between indigenous tribes. These confrontations have become known as the "mourning wars" and were an attempt at mitigating both the disease itself and the mental and spiritual toll the disease was taking on their communities. Which of our enduring issues does this situation best relate to?

Variolation, the most effective pre-vaccine mitigation technique for smallpox, was discovered in China in the 900s. The patient would be cut on the arm and pus from cowpox would be introduced into the wound. After a couple of days of mild illness, the person would recover and have long-term immunity to smallpox! This best fits which of our enduring issues?

During the Middle Ages, the average diet of a serf contained literal pounds of bread a day and famines were a somewhat regular occurrence. After the Columbian Exchange introduced staple crops like potatoes and corn to Afro-Eurasia, the old world experienced an uptick in both birth rate and life expectancy. This best represents which of our enduring issues?

The Silk Road, a trade route running through the Middle East bringing goods such as spices, silk, and porcelain to Europe had a more sinister side. While it was successful in bringing high-value luxury goods to Europe it also brought less desirable tagalongs such as fleas carrying the plague. Which of our enduring issues does this best represent.

There is evidence to suggest that both the Black Death and smallpox have been used as weapons of biological warfare. There are tales from early American history of settlers intentionally infecting indigenous people in hopes of taking control of their territories. Which of our enduring issues does this best represent?