| A | B |
|---|
| Palestine | a Roman province on the eastern coast on the Mediterranean Sea |
| Rome | a city near the middle of the western coast of Italy |
| Chang'an | a capital city in Central Asia on the Silk Road |
| Genoa | a seaport town in Italy |
| Alexius Comnenus | Byzantine emperor who appealed to the pope for Christian knights to fight against the Turks (1048 -1118) |
| Urban II | Pope who issued a plea to free the Holy Land (Palestine) from the Turks, by launching the Crusades |
| Marco Polo | a Venetian merchant, world traveler, and writer who remained in China as a guest for 17 years |
| epidemic | a disease that spreads quickly |
| Crusades | major militay expeditions by Christains to win back control of Palestine (Holy Land) and to protect the Byzantine Empire |
| Silk Road | a trading route that connected Europe and lands of the former Roman Empire with China |
| Plague | an attack of bubonic plague that killed about 15-30 percent of Euroep's population from 1347 to 1352 |
| Bubonic plague | an epidemic spread to humans by fleas from rats |
