Author:
Belich, James, 1956- author.
ImprintPrinceton : Princeton University Press, [2022]
Imprint2022
Descriptionix, 622 pages : maps ; 24 cm
Note:Introduction: Plague paradoxes -- Prologue: Globalising Europe -- Part I. A plague of mysteries -- The Black Death and the plague era -- The origins and dynamics of the Black Death -- Part II. Plauge and expansionism in western Europe -- A golden age? Economy and society in the early plague era -- Expansive trades -- Plague revolutions? -- Expansive labour: castas, race mothers and disposable males -- States, interstates, and the European expansion kit -- Part III. Western Europe or West Eurasia? -- 8. Plague's impact in the Muslim south -- Early modern Ming-Muslim globalisation -- Entwined empires: the Genoese paradox and Iberian expansion -- The Ottomans and the Great Diversion -- The Dutch puzzle and the mobilisation of eastern Europe -- Muslim colonial empires -- Plague and Russian expansionism -- Part IV. Expansion, industry and empire -- Empire? What empire? European expansion to 1800 -- Plaguing Britain -- Conclusion.
Bibliography Note:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Note:"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. James 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. Setting 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."-- Front jacket flap.
