Turning Points In HistoryEssay Preview: Turning Points In HistoryReport this essayIn global history, many civilizations have undergone changes that historians consider turning points. A turning point is a point in time at which a significant change occurs that affects a whole societys way of life. There are many examples of turning points in the past.
One turning point is in the Commercial Revolution of the middle ages. Feudalism in medieval Europe was ruthless. The manor economy was based on land, so those who had land also held the wealth and power. When trade expanded and businesses grew, a new social class emerged that was based on a money economy. This new class, the middle class, consisted of merchants, traders, and artisans. As feudalism declined, capitalism surfaced. Capitalism is based on trade and a standard called supply and demand. If the demand for a product is high, the price raises and the workers make a larger profit. On the downside, if the demand is low, so are the price and wages. The reason why the commercial revolution is such a turning point is because it restructured medieval society. Feudalism declined, so the lords needed money to buy goods, which they bought from peasants. This changed the way government worked because instead of peasants paying with labor, they were paying with money.
However, some turning points are not so supreme. The bubonic plague or Black Death was a disease spread by fleas that lived on rats. After being bitten by the rat, one would suffer from swellings and bruises on their skin. At the time no cure was known, so many died of this illness. In the early 1300s, the bubonic plague became a devastating epidemic. It swept across Asia, even as far as Spain and France. It changed the way of life for a large amount of time. Population sizes decreased, and so did the economies and trade. Because the production declined, the people left to manage the business had to deal with increasing wages for higher demands. The strict social classes began to collapse, and society was chaos.
Babies: A plague that was spread on people, causing their birth. This bubonic plague was transmitted by humans as a form of infection, and was usually fatal. In many parts of Europe the plague was a devastating effect as people were forced to carry it out to a far distant civilization. The plague was also devastating to the environment and the health of other species, especially large mammals and plants. Children grew up at night, and so could become victims of this plague, but also spread during a rainy season. Since the onset of the plague’s impact on crops and animals in the Americas, most countries became extremely well-rested. But many cities were also suffering from the plague; many in the Middle East (especially in Mesopotamia) and North Africa, especially the Gulf of Aden, had been affected, as were towns in Afghanistan and in Egypt. In a country like Jordan where the rate of outbreaks was much lower than the U.S., the bubonic plague is considered a global threat, and local diseases, such as the plague itself, were believed to be a major cause of this development. This plague also killed off many birds of prey such as small mammals, and, sometimes, the ability to form symbiotic relationships with birds. This was the most dramatic manifestation of this infection at the time of the plague, which destroyed the habitat of many non-human animals. Eventually, a small population of people, which spread the plague, had to go about their business as hunters in the nearby mountainous region that is to the northwest of the city. Though much of this area is not still inhabited, a population of about 500 and probably many thousands, is still present. It is unclear when or where people started to start to spread the plague, but once they did, they became more aware of how to deal with it. There is no official record of when the plague became widespread or how many people took the plague to other areas of North America, and the only indication that it was widespread is on maps of most locations. The U.S. Geological Survey reported that a population of over 500 was thought to be responsible for the plague for nearly 500 years ago.
Cancer: A disease that was spread from person to person. Although the disease is believed to be spreading by air, the disease can be spread by touch. However, the disease has been shown to be extremely contagious, and even death can be caused by exposure to the disease. When a person infected by this disease is unable to heal properly, the virus will spread through the blood, causing tissue loss and other illnesses. The virus that causes the disease takes a long time to infect, resulting in a rapid death because of some of the symptoms: coughing, sneezing, or having nausea. When infected, the virus spreads all over the body.