Problem
A. What accounts for the success of Genghis Khan and his successors? What circumstances enabled Marco Polo's travels to China? To what extent does the term Pax Mongolica describe this era in history?
B. How did seafaring communities such as Genoa and Catalonia rise to prominence in this era? Why were new navigational aids such as Portolan Charts necessary?
C. How do the paintings of Giotto capture the contemporary attitudes toward the world? How does Dante's artistry respond to the religious and political trends of the day?
D. What was at stake in the controversy between Boniface VIII and Philip IV? What was the papacy's residency at Avignon called the Babylonian captivity? What is a sacrament? Why were these rites so important?
E. In what different ways did Louis IX of France and Edward I of England contribute to the sovereignty of their respective kingdoms? What was the relationship between claims to sovereignty and the causes of the Hundred Years' War?
F. How did climate change contribute to the outbreak of the great famine?
G. What were the long-and short term causes of the Black Death?