The Black Death
Slides:
Lecture:
- November 20th at 10:30 am
- Optional Reading: World History, Chapter 12, pages 465-467
Optional Recorded Lecture: Spices, the First Global Commodity
Note: This lecture was originally recorded in November 2021 when I taught HIST 190 online. There are breaks for questions from students via Zoom and Zoom polls. I did remove any aspects of the video that specifically referred to the course that year.
If you have any questions about the content, please post them in our “questions” channel on the chatboard.
Africa and Americas in the 15th century
Slides:
#21-Africa and the Americas in the 15th century
Lecture:
- November 22nd at 10:30 am
- Optional Lecture Reading, World History, Chapter 9 pages 336-345; 354-366; Chapter 10, pages 369-372; 379-380.
Tutorials this week
Tutorials this week will focus on “The Mongol Empire” and “Vikings and Climate Change”.
Readings:
- Ibn Fadlan, “The Viking Rus” (Chapter 11, Reading 2)
- Saxo Grammaticus, “Erik the Evergood’s Pilgrimage” (Chapter 11, Reading 3)
- Yvo of Narbona, “The Mongols” (Chapter 11, Reading 4)
- “the Secret History of the Mongols” (Chapter 11, Reading 5)
Questions to think about:
- The documents featuring the Vikings and the Mongols in Chapter 11 come from both internal and external viewpoints. The internal documents present a more positive view whereas the external ones present a more negative perspective. The authors’ perspectives therefore greatly colour what we read. Does this mean all of these documents are useless in helping us understand the Vikings and Mongols? If not, what can we learn from them?
- “The Secret History of the Mongols” is an invaluable historical source as it provides us with one of the few written documents that relates to the early history of the Mongols from their perspective. How are the Mongols represented in this document? What values do they seem to hold important in their society? How are women represented?