Chapter 12 Pastoral Peoples on the Global Stage

Chapter 12 is mostly about pastoral peoples on the global stage. There are many different topics about the mongols and the different countries.

The topic in this chapter that I thought was the most interesting would probably be the the plague which was a Eurasian Pandemic. The plague was later called the “Black Death” for many reasons. It was a real big issue of pestilence and originated somewhere in Central Asia. Bacteria spread throughout trade routes of the Mongol Empire and spread rapidly. This disease was carried by rodents and soon was transferred over to human beings. This plague began in 1331 and by 1347 it reached Western Europe. This disease was associated with the lymph nodes coming to swell, horrible headaches, internal bleeding, and high fever. These symptoms were inevitable to stop and most likely died within just a few days. This plague affected the entire world and fifty to ninety percent  were affected by death. Some countries like India and Sub-Saharan Africa were not affected as badly, but most countries were wiped out.

This is very scary because imagine a disease that travels so fast, you cannot run from it? Imagine something that is inevitable to beat yet you still fail in trying. Sanitary issues were horrible in these times, and it is a shame that so many millions of people had to die because of the unawareness of being clean. It is heartbreaking because technology was not as advanced as it was today, therefore many people had to pay for those facts. Human beings and rodents are never associated in times now. There are rules and regulations to all health and safety issues which is one of the best things that our society could ever develop. People know what it means to shower every day and brush your teeth every day. The basic necessities to keep clean and to stick by living in a fresh and clean environment. This shows much of a change times have come because the cleanliness from then to now is a huge difference. Its not only beneficial to ourselves but our worlds at that. Technology has come far, and only begins to advance more and more each and every day.