Grade 7 Lesson at a Glance: Chapter 12, Lesson 1

Houghton Mifflin Social Studies
Across the Centuries

Lesson at a Glance
Chapter 12, Lesson 1, Europe at the End of the Middle Ages (pp. 310-315)

The Big Idea
Framework Concept: Change During the late Middle Ages, famine, plague, and war changed the European way of life. Among the effects were: centralized governments, increased trade and commerce, and the new respect given to individualism.

Ask students to think about their city or town. What would happen if one-third of all the people disappeared during the coming two years? One third of the shopkeepers, one third of the students, one third of the farmers, bankers, police, firefighters, and so on. How could employers fill these jobs? Tell students that something like this happened in Europe in the 1300s when the plague struck. The death of so many people meant there weren't enough people to harvest crops. For the first time, peasants were in a position to demand better wages and lower rents. Many moved to towns. The undermining of feudal society set the stage for great social changes.

Lesson Outline
Use the Lesson Outline to preview the content of the lesson. You may wish to print it for your students as a guide during reading.

Check for Understanding

Have students review the lesson and write a paragraph analyzing how the plague, the changes in warfare, and the increase in commerce undermined feudalism.
Have students create a mural showing the problems Europeans faced in the late Middle Ages.

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