Tartars Essay

The Tartars were Prester John's slaves prior to having their own monarch, Un-khan. They were cattle breeders and resided on plains in the nations of Jorza and Bargu. Additionally, they annually donated the tenth portion of these livestock as a tribute to Prester John. Tartars ultimately migrated further north and stopped paying tribute because Prester John was not just to them and attempted to divide them. Tartars chose Chingis-khan as their new leader in 1162 after they left. All Tartars adored him and submitted to him without question during his wise and just reign. So Chingis-khan decided to do something great and he sent a letter to Prester John demanding to marry his daughter. Prester John predictably denied Chingis-khan’s request, so Chingis-khan collected a great army of his followers and went on to the war with Prester John. Before the battle was abut to begin, Chingis-khan consulted with his oracles and asked them about the results of a battle. He assembled his army to observe the actions of oracles. Since oracles predicted Chingis-khan’s victory, his whole army was very inspired allowing them to defeat their enemy. This is how Tartars defeated their former usurper and created a large empire of their own. In the following years all the khans after Chingis-khan continued on conquering the world, making their empire the largest in the history. But even though they became so powerful, they did not change their nomadic style of life.

Question 2

The Black Plague in Florence had a horrifying and immediate effect on its victims. It all began with swellings of different sizes and shapes in the groin and armpits. These swellings then began to spread throughout the whole body. The next step was the appearance of dark spots all over the diseased body. These symptoms were indicating an imminent death, which then occurred within a few days. This disease was highly contagious. It would spread through air and touch, and it would even be spread by animals that made contact with the diseased. For that reason it was almost impossible to avoid contamination. All healthy people divided in two groups in their behavior. One would enclose themselves in their homes and limit all their contact with the outside world, consuming small amounts of good food. Others would behave themselves as there were no tomorrow, drinking and rejoicing all day long. There were of course some other men, who would think that the only way to avoid a disease is to flee the city. The custom of gathering around the dead person and mourning was forsaken; instead all the people were afraid to come near dead bodies, so most of the people died alone. There were also no fine funerals; instead the bodies were thrown in the closest pits without any honor. There were so many dead bodies on the streets, that they would be placed in great numbers on the biers and carried to the graveyards, or just thrown in large pits. People in villages had no more concerns for their belongings, and so all their cattle would also die and their crops would be abandoned.