Humanities Essay

Special Report Section #1 Option #1

The Late Middle Ages were a time during the 14th century in which three catastrophic events happened. The three events included the Black Death, Great Schism, and Hundred Years War. These three events changed the arts and culture of Europe drastically. Even though the 14th century was a great time for Europe, this time period was also quickly given another name. It became known as the “Crisis of the Late Middle Ages”.
First of the three devastating events was the Black Death, otherwise known as the Black Plague. Around the 1340s the Plague came and put a stop to any development in art and culture in Europe. After the 7th year of existence the plague begin to spread to Sicily by fleas and lice. Soon a few weeks elapsed and it was all over northern Italy. Then a couple months passed, but by then it traveled all the way to Northwest Europe including France, Spain, Portugal, and England. The plague was everywhere and was so destructive because it spread so quickly and there was no medical help available. The Black Death was one of the most disastrous pandemics in history wiping out almost a third of Europe’s total population of 70 million. Citizens were usually dead in three days after realizing they had the disease. Growing famine condition in the European continent fueled the plague. The agriculture harvests failed which weakened the people and made them more susceptible to the plague. The chain reaction from the plague took Europe over 150 years to recover. This definitely caused a social, religious, and economic disaster for Europe to deal with.
After the plague there was another really important event that happened and it was called the Great Schism. The Great Schism, also known, as the Great Divide was a split within the Catholic Church. This happened because several men claimed to be the real Pope. In 1377 when the papacy had returned to Rome, the cardinals elected a new Italian pope after Gregory died. The French on the other hand did not approve of this pope and decided to elect their own new pope to rule in Avignon. This literally divided the Western Christendom into two areas with two popes. France, Sicily, Scotland, Castile, Aragon, and Portugal were all supporters of the new Avignon pope. Furthermore England, Flanders, Poland, Hungary, Germany, and most of Italy supported the original pope in Rome. Things became more complicated when both sides of cardinals summoned a church council in Pisa to fix everything. Instead the new council elected a new pope and told the other two to resign. They rejected the offer and now there were technically three popes. Eventually a new Council by the name of “Council of Constance” put and end to this predicament by choosing a new pope named Martin V. The great divide added to the rough times in Europe by destroying the unity of the Catholic Church during this time period.
Lastly, the Hundred Years war was another important reason why the arts and culture of Europe was affected in such a negative way. The Hundred Years War was a series of battles between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of France. They call it the Hundred Years War because it literally almost lasted one hundred years and both sides fought for the control of the French throne. Many allies on both sides of the war were dragged into it causing a lot of financial trouble. France and England exhausted their economy with this wasteful war. The war was fought on French soil only destroying farmland and setting them back further. The French did end up winning the Hundred Years War but at a large cost. Both the Plague and the War took such on toll on the French that they were economically and politically till the late 15th century.
In conclusion, the three cataclysmic events of the 14th century changed the arts and culture of Europe dramatically. From the Black Plague killing an enormous amount of the European population and causing social unrest. To the Great divide splitting the Catholic Church and destroying any unity in religion during that time period. Lastly the Hundred Years War was another crises that set back both England and France from prospering economically. Before these three events Europe was in a state of growth and prosperity but as soon as these events happened it all stopped and it was not until after that Europe began to thrive again.