WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The Black Death left in its wake a period of defiance and turmoil between the upper classes and the peasantry. The dispute regarding wages led to the peasants’ triumph over the manorial economic system and ultimately ended in the breakdown of feudalism in England.

Detailed explanation-2: -With so many free tenant farmers, laborers, and craftsmen killed off, those who survived began to demand lower farmland rents, higher wages, and higher prices for their handmade goods. Serfs, also reduced in large numbers, demanded reductions of feudal duties they owed to their manor lords.

Detailed explanation-3: -In the aftermath of the plague, the richest 10% of the population lost their grip on between 15% and 20% of overall wealth. This decline in inequality was long-lasting, as the richest 10% did not reach again the pre-Black Death level of control on overall wealth before the second half of the seventeenth century.

Detailed explanation-4: -Among the most immediate consequences of the Black Death in England was a shortage of farm labour, and a corresponding rise in wages. The medieval world-view was unable to interpret these changes in terms of socio-economic development, and it became common to blame degrading morals instead.

Detailed explanation-5: -The Black Death was the largest demographic shock in European history, killing approximately 40% of the region’s population between 1347 and 1352. Some regions and cities were spared, but others were severely hit: England, France, Italy and Spain lost between 50% and 60% of their populations in two years.