Grade 7 Fall — The Medieval World c. 500-1500 CE: Byzantium, the Islamic Caliphates and Golden Age, Tang and Song China, West African Empires (Ghana/Mali/Songhai), Mesoamerica (Postclassic Toltec/Aztec) and the Inca, the Mongol Empire and Pax Mongolica, the Indian Ocean and Trans-Saharan Trade Networks, Medieval Europe as ONE Region Among Many — Whose Golden Age? Whose Crusade? Whose Trade Network?
History · ECO
G7
hist.g7.f.eco.black_death_eurasian_pandemic
Trace the Black Death 1346-1353 CE as an EURASIAN pandemic emerging from Yersinia pestis along Mongol-era Pax Mongolica trade routes — refusing the Eurocentric 'European plague' framing in favor of Egypt + Syria + Maghreb + Persia + China named as equal-victims per Monica H. Green 2014 scholarship
Identify Yersinia pestis origin in Central Asian rodent reservoirs; 1346 outbreak among Mongol forces at Caffa siege; 1347 diffusion via Genoese ships to Sicily, Marseille, and Egypt-Alexandria simultaneously; 1348-9 pan-Mediterranean peak; ~30-60% mortality estimates regionally; ibn Khaldun's autobiographical loss of family to plague 1349; ibn Khatima + ibn al-Khatib (Andalusi Muslim physicians) writing treatises on plague; Pope Clement VI in Avignon documenting flagellants and antisemitic-pogrom responses; the long-term Eurasian-systemic consequences (labor scarcity → wage increases → feudal-system erosion). Apply Green 2014 'rethinking the Black Death' framing.
Mastery threshold
90%
Min instances
12
Typical minutes
45
Spaced intervals (days)
1, 3, 7, 14, 30, 60
Prereqs
- Trace the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan 1206-1227 and successors — the four Khanates, the Pax Mongolica trade integration 1250-1350, the Sack of Baghdad 1258, the conquest of Song China completing 1279, and the transformation of Eurasian trade and cultural exchange
- Map and analyze the trans-Saharan caravan trade and Indian Ocean monsoon trade networks c. 800-1500 CE — goods, routes, intermediaries, monsoon-wind-seasonal-timing, and the integration of African + Asian + Middle Eastern + European economies BEFORE 1492
Common misconceptions
- Believing the Black Death was a European pandemic — it was a EURASIAN pandemic; Egypt, Syria, Maghreb, Persia, and China were equally devastated
- Missing the connection to Mongol trade integration — Pax Mongolica enabled the rapid Eurasian diffusion of Yersinia pestis
- Treating mortality estimates as precise — '30-60%' is a wide range reflecting genuine uncertainty about specific regional mortality