World History 1

39614The year is 1385. The Black Death continues to ravage Eurasia and a smallpox epidemic is spreading westward from Japan, killing as many as 1/3 of the population in Korea and China. Tamerlane’s armies have crushed the Delhi Sultanate, sacked the Abbasid capital of Bagdad, and now move against the Mongol “Golden Horde” in Russia. In Europe, there is a schism in the Church with three men claiming to be Pope, and the Hundred Years War drags on, each year producing new atrocities and death tolls. The Italian Wars have begun, pitting Castile against Florence, Venice, and Modena. The Poles are attacking the Cossacks in the Ukraine. And to top it all off, the Klingons have invaded! (If you’re unsure of what a Klingon is, you’ve been living in a cave for your entire life, now go rent an episode of Star Trek, preferably “Heart of Glory”). Three hundred thousand Klingon warriors, in small scout ships (capable of warp travel between star systems) possessing electromagnetic weaponry (disruptors—it’s a super laser), and photon torpedoes (it’s a nuclear weapon) and swords (bat’leths) have landed in western Ukraine and have spread massacre and destruction.

The Question: You are Pope Boniface IX, and have consulted with your counterparts, Pope Clement VII and Benedict XIII. Although helplessly outmatched against an enemy whose technology is a millennium ahead of your own, you have suggested to your counterparts to raise an army and fight. You have three candidates as commanders of this force: Edward the Black Prince of England, who is a superb military leader and is also ruthless and brutal, Charles IV Wenceslaus, who added Silesia to the Holy Roman Empire and was known as “Good King Wenceslaus”, and Charles III of Navarre, called “Charles the Bad”, who conquered Sardinia, Sicily, and crushed peasant revolts in France, where his armies captured Paris as allies of the English. You are writing a letter to your fellow Popes, telling them what happened in the war. Who would win? Why would they win? Take into account the biological, ecological, technological, and military considerations. A weapon is anything that you have at your disposal. Remember to address your fellow popes as “Your Holiness” and refer to kings and princes as “His Grace.”