Justin Bower
Period 1
9-18-2014
2008 Peasants’ Revolt DBQ In the year 1524, peasants formed their own armies and pillaged throughout a large area of the Holy Roman Empire. The rebels were angry because since so many people died due to the Black Death, the workers that remained ended up having to do twice the amount of work as before, but still receive the same amount of money. The workers wanted twice the amount of money because they were doing twice the amount of work, but the king wouldn’t allow it causing the peasants’ revolt. The revolt caused massive amounts of chaos throughout the Holy Roman Empire and it resulted in over 100,000 rebels and others being killed. The power of serfdom and the want for equality amongst peasants occurred during the peasants’ revolt and the results were devastating to many.

Serfdom was extremely powerful during the times of the peasants’ revolution. The peasants of the Holy Roman Empire did not intend to reject authority prior to the revolt broke out, they wanted to get equality from the king and be paid more because they were doing more work (D.3). The council tried to compromise with the peasants by saying that they could be released from serfdom if they paid a large sum of money, but the peasants did not like this deal (D.4). Peasants decided to take matters into their own hands by scaling the walls of the castle, capture numerous children, destroy the castle, and the peasants got the help from townsfolk who supported them and opened the gates for them to let them in (D.5). Peasants did not mess around about this issue and gathered an army together in the Black Forest that had 3,000 members (D.6). People became scared of how violent these rebellions got, including robbing many people and raging like mad dogs (D.7). Serfdom was very powerful in rebelling against the city and fighting for what they wanted by bringing the Holy Roman Empire into a battle zone.

The thing that the peasants were fighting for was equality and wanting to become more than just a serf who had to do twice the amount of work and got paid the same amount of money. The rebellion was taken on to repress the prices and the nobility, which was accomplished by the destruction of many things throughout the Holy Roman Empire (D.1). Peasants were tired of allowing themselves to be oppressed by their lords, only wanting for the lords to demand proper things that peasants and lords both agreed on (D.2). Many of the peasants requested that the rich would share their wealth with the poor, especially if the rich acquired their money through trades. This seemed very reasonable for the rich to share some of the money with