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9th grade · Social Studies · Unit 13 of 16

Crusades & the Black Death

Conflict and disease in the postclassical world

What your child practices

Disputes between popes, emperors and churches, the causes and effects of the Crusades and the Reconquista, and how the Black Death spread along trade routes and changed society, the economy and the Church.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 9.6; 9.6a; 9.6b · conflicts over religious and political authority, the Crusades, and how the Black Death spread along trade networks and changed societies

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. The Crusades were wars over the Holy Land; Venice and Genoa grew rich shipping crusaders and trading.
  2. The Reconquista was Christian kingdoms taking back Iberia from Muslim rulers.
  3. The Black Death reached Europe in 1347 by trade routes, carried by fleas on rats. Cities used quarantine (40 days apart) to slow it.

Example: What was the Reconquista? Muslim rulers had held much of Spain and Portugal. Christian kingdoms fought to take it back. Answer: the effort by Christian kingdoms to take back the Iberian Peninsula

Crusades & the Black Death in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 13 of 16 in 9th grade Social Studies, after Belief Systems Compared and before Ottoman & Ming Empires.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    About how much of Europe's population died in the Black Death?

    • between one-third and one-half
    • about 1 in 100
    • about 1 in 1,000
    • nearly no one

  2. Question 2

    During the Black Death, Jewish communities in parts of Europe were…

    • untouched by the plague
    • made rulers of France
    • falsely blamed for the disease and attacked
    • put in charge of all hospitals

  3. Question 3

    In 1054, the Christian church split into…

    • the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church
    • Hindus and Buddhists
    • Sunni and Shia
    • Catholics and Lutherans

  4. Question 4

    The Muslim leader Saladin is known for…

    • founding the Ming dynasty
    • retaking Jerusalem from the crusaders in 1187
    • writing the Magna Carta
    • building the Great Wall

  5. Question 5

    After the Black Death, peasants could often demand higher wages because…

    • there were far fewer workers
    • kings paid them all
    • there were too many workers
    • money was banned

  6. Question 6

    How did the Mongol Empire help the plague spread?

    • It banned all travel
    • It sailed to the Americas
    • It closed every trade route
    • Its peace and safe roads made long-distance trade and travel busier

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