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| Roman Empire |
After reading chapters one and two
in Germany: A New History I found it interesting how long it took for the area
now known as Germany to be named, that and the large influence given from the
Roman Empire. In chapter two the author wrote briefly about the Black Death
also known as the bubonic plague. It was the most devastating pandemic in human history killing an estimated 50% of Europe's population. By 1350 it swept across Germany. The lack of food and good hygiene resulted in
famines that weakened people, making them vulnerable to epidemic diseases. The
Germans reacted a lot like the Americans did during the great depression. Riots
broke out; struggles against the government, thievery, starvation and people
doing whatever it took to survive. In a lot of ways it shows that it
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| Black Death |
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| Church Taxes |
doesn’t
matter where you come from, we all have the same basic human instincts. The
loss of life resulting from this plague is important to the history books not
only because it serves as a population count but as a reminder of what war and
disease can do. Both the church and empire were tested during this event.
They were able to co-exist until that point where even the Pope was forced to
leave Rome for Avignon. Between 1378 and 1415 there were two Popes and because
of their conflicting claims thy divided western Christianity and left the
reputation of the papacy badly tarnished.
It became a domino effect from illness, to the splitting of the church,
to a weakened government, to the churches greedy taxing, which in no way helped
with the over-all illness and death. Because
of the greed and corruption within both the empire and church the German’s
began to envy France, England, and Spain for their modernized institutions of
governments. The United States has gone through many similar situations; it was
because of England’s unfair taxes among other things that we became independent
of England. Both the German’s and American’s have gone through difficult
leaders, civil wars, religious and political corruption, illness and famine but
we’ve survived and evolved. Germany is now considered one of the most
economically powerful countries in the world. I’d say it’s evolved from the time of the Roman Empire, even surpassed it. I mean which one is still standing?
