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In 1346, a catastrophic plague beset Europe and its neighbours. The Black Death was a human tragedy that abruptly halved entire populations and caused untold suffering, but it also brought about a cultural and economic renewal on a scale never before witnessed. The World the Plague Made is a panoramic history of how the bubonic plague revolutionized labour, trade, and technology and set the stage for Europe's global expansion.0James Belich takes readers across centuries and continents to shed new light on one of history's greatest paradoxes. Why did Europe's dramatic rise begin in the wake of the Black Death? Belich shows how plague doubled the per capita endowment of everything even as it decimated the population. Many more people had disposable incomes. Demand grew for silks, sugar, spices, furs, gold, and slaves. Europe expanded to satisfy that demand-and plague provided the means. Labour scarcity drove more use of waterpower, wind power, and gunpowder. Technologies like water-powered blast furnaces, heavily gunned galleons, and musketry were fast-tracked by plague. A new "crew culture" of "disposable males" emerged to man the guns and galleons.0Setting the rise of Western Europe in global context, Belich demonstrates how the mighty empires of the Middle East and Russia also flourished after the plague, and how European expansion was deeply entangled with the Chinese and other peoples throughout the world.

Black Death. --- 476-1492. --- Europe --- Europe. --- History --- History of Europe --- anno 1300-1399 --- anno 1400-1499 --- anno 1500-1599 --- Epidemics --- Medicine, Medieval --- Plague --- Peste noire. --- 476-1492 --- Council of Europe countries --- Eastern Hemisphere --- Eurasia --- Northern Europe --- Southern Europe --- Western Europe --- Abolitionism. --- Adultery. --- Amor Vincit Omnia (Caravaggio). --- Antonine Plague. --- Black rat. --- Bribery. --- Bruges. --- Bubonic plague. --- Burnt Norton. --- Child mortality. --- Cinque Ports. --- Civil war. --- Colonialism. --- Communism. --- Contraband. --- Coromandel Coast. --- Corruption in India. --- Cossack host. --- Death. --- Debasement. --- Devaluation. --- Disaster. --- Disease. --- Edward VIII. --- Enfilade and defilade. --- Epidemic. --- Euboea. --- Eunuch. --- Eurasia. --- Extortion. --- Funeral Blues. --- Greek tragedy. --- Habitat destruction. --- Harry Ransom Center. --- Idiosyncrasy. --- Indian Ocean. --- Industrialisation. --- Infection. --- Inflation. --- Influenza. --- Institution. --- Journey to a War. --- London. --- Lübeck. --- Maghreb. --- Malaria. --- Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo). --- Mamluk. --- Marxism. --- Massacre of the Innocents. --- Measles. --- Mortal sin. --- Mughal Empire. --- Muhammad. --- Nawabs of Bengal and Murshidabad. --- Ottoman Empire. --- Outbreak. --- Pamphlet. --- Pandemic. --- Pathogen. --- Peasant. --- Persecution. --- Phrygia. --- Plague (disease). --- Plague of Justinian. --- Plague pit. --- Pneumonic plague. --- Poetry. --- Pogrom. --- Postal order. --- Privateer. --- Racism. --- Robin Skelton. --- Rodent. --- Safavid dynasty. --- Sapping. --- Second plague pandemic. --- Serfdom. --- Ship. --- Slash-and-burn. --- Smallpox. --- Smuggling. --- Spice trade. --- Stanza. --- Stephen Spender. --- Sumptuary law. --- Sylvatic plague. --- The Bacchae. --- Triangular trade. --- Typhoid fever. --- Typhus. --- Typographical error. --- War of succession. --- War. --- Warfare. --- World War I. --- World history. --- Yellow fever. --- Yersinia pestis.