The Black Death

Imagery of the Black Death ravaging cities of medieval Europe is burned into the popular imagination. However, there wasn’t just one outbreak of Bubonic plague, the pestilence that has haunted humanity as far back as the Bronze Age. It’s time to reveal the true stories of the Black Plagues and see what they can tell us about today.

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Featured Materials

Source Collection – The Black Death
Saint Sebastian Interceding for the Plague Stricken. Fifteenth-century painting by Josse Lieferinxe.
Article

Source Collection – The Black Death

The primary and secondary sources in this collection help us understand the origins and spread of the Black Death.

Causation – The Black Death
Causation
Activity

Causation – The Black Death

Students will use their causation skills to examine how the causes and consequences of the Black Death.

Trade Networks and the Black Death
Flagellants, known as the Brothers of the Cross, scourging themselves as they walk through the streets to free the world from the Black Death (Bubonic Plague)
Article

Trade Networks and the Black Death

One of the biggest epidemics in world history was started by one tiny animal. It spread through trade networks across large portions of Afro-Eurasia.

Contagion!
Activity

Contagion!

This activity allows students to see how networks of exchange can be both beneficial and detrimental to society.

Disease! Crash Course World History #203
Disease banner featuring a "plague doctor": a person wearing a bird mask and brimmed hat.
Video

Disease! Crash Course World History #203

Disease has always existed in human history—and may have helped define it. John Green explores the world historical effects of disease, asking: Who is really in charge?

Explore the lesson plans

Old World Webs
Lesson 5.2
Origins to Present
The First Global Age
Old World Webs
The Afro-Eurasian trade system of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was successful and far-reaching. Its success, however, had a devastating consequence: with the help of this network of exchange, a deadly plague—the Black Death—was unleashed.
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Consequences of Connectivity
Lesson 2.4
1200 to Present
The Global Tapestry
Consequences of Connectivity
Through networks of exchange, humans share goods, beliefs, ideas, and innovations. But the fourteenth century’s Black Death teaches us that increasing connections can also result in disaster.
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Consequences of Connectivity
Lesson 2.3
AP®
Networks of Exchange
Consequences of Connectivity
The increased connectivity that enabled an unprecedented trade of goods and ideas across Afro-Eurasia also facilitated the spread of the Black Death, one of the deadliest of the unintended consequences of human networks of exchange.
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