Fourth class in our six-part Lyceum series A History of the World in Six Weeks. Tonight's class is Disease, Slaves, and Worldwide Trade: The Rise of Capitalist Europe. As famine and the Black Death swept across Europe in the 14th century it caused a crisis in agricultural production and the existing feudal society. The growing conflict between slavery and feudalism on the one hand, and the rising capitalist classes in Amsterdam, London and other major European cities on the other, marked the period from the 15th through the 18th centuries. 

Suggested Reading for this class:
After Tamerlane: The Rise and Fall of Global Empires 1400-2000 by John Darwin

Classes presented by Andrew Buchanan, lecturer in global and military history at the University of Vermont.

$5 per lecture, $25 for series. Students under 18, free.

Paris in mid-16th century