Success Homeschool

Year 8 History · The Black Death

Name: ______________________

Date: ____________

1. What caused the Black Death, according to modern science?
- ☐ (a) Bad air
- ☐ (b) The planets
- ☐ (c) The bacterium Yersinia pestis
- ☐ (d) A virus spread by mosquitoes
2. How did plague mainly reach Europe?
- ☐ (a) Along trade routes and by ship
- ☐ (b) By aeroplane
- ☐ (c) Through the internet
- ☐ (d) It started in Australia
3. Which was a long-term consequence of the Black Death in Western Europe?
- ☐ (a) Serfdom became stronger everywhere
- ☐ (b) Labour shortages helped raise wages
- ☐ (c) Population doubled immediately
- ☐ (d) Trade stopped forever
4. What is a scapegoat?
- ☐ (a) A farm animal
- ☐ (b) A doctor
- ☐ (c) A type of ship
- ☐ (d) A person or group unfairly blamed
5. Why are death toll figures for the Black Death given as estimates?
- ☐ (a) Records from the time are incomplete
- ☐ (b) Nobody died
- ☐ (c) Historians refuse to count
- ☐ (d) The plague happened last year
6. In what year did the plague reach Sicily?
7. Isolating people to stop disease spreading is called ____.
8. A village of 900 people lost half its population. How many people died?

Answer sheet

1. The bacterium Yersinia pestis — The bacterium Yersinia pestis caused plague.
2. Along trade routes and by ship — Trade routes and ships spread the disease.
3. Labour shortages helped raise wages — Fewer workers meant labour was more valuable.
4. A person or group unfairly blamed — Some communities were wrongly blamed and attacked.
5. Records from the time are incomplete — Medieval records were incomplete and inconsistent.
6. 1347 — Plague arrived in Sicily by ship in 1347.
7. quarantine — Quarantine was used by some medieval cities.
8. 450 — 900 ÷ 2 = 450.