One could only imagine the fear the people in Europe experienced after learning of so many deaths across the land. Hearing of an illness heading towards you, a plague so severe, that it would end up causing a third of the population in Europe to parish. Originating in China in 1347 making its way to Europe in 1348, The Black Death is one of the worlds’ deadliest occurrences in history. The researcher will cover how the illness made its way to Europe, how the Church was effected, and what the doctors thought to be the blame for the illness and their frugal attempts for a cure. The social and economic ramifications of the plague will also be addressed.
During the timeframe of 1333-1345, there were droughts followed by famine in China where numerous deaths occurred. Not only were there crop eating locust but a number of natural disasters were taking place. Both humans and animals suffered together. The rats there, having nothing to eat started moving south into India and stowed away in materials going to market in the Crimea. People died from a mysterious illness there (Martin, S.).
Muslim traders blamed the Christian traders for the deaths. They attacked the trading station at Tama and the Christians retreated to their trading station Kaffa. The Muslims were dying in great numbers and the commanders thought the Christians should suffer too so they began to catapult dead bodies over the walls of Kaffa. The Christian traders would carry the bodies as quickly as they could and throw them into the sea. It became a daunting task and after a couple of days of enduring this, they boarded their ships and sailed away. Unbeknownst to them, they were carrying The Plague with them (Martin, S.).
The Black D...
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The years 1348 through 1350 had been an extremely gruesome and miserable time in our world’s history. During this time period, one of the most devastating pandemics in history had struck half the world with an intensifying and deadly blow. It had been responsible for over 75 million deaths and 20 million of these deaths were from Europe alone. Out of the countries that were hit hardest in Europe from mortality rates and economic downturns, England was one of them. This grave disease that marked the end of the middle ages and the start of the modern age is known as the Black Plague.
In 1347, Europe began to perceive what the Plague had in store. Terrible outcomes arose when the citizens caught the Plague from fleas. The transfer of fleas to humans caused the outbreak of the Black Death. Infections that rodents caught were passed on to fleas, which would find a host to bite, spreading the terrible disease (“Plague the Black Death” n.pag.). When Genoese ships arrived back to Europe from China, with dead sailors and...
The Black Death: Natural and Human Disaster in Medieval Europe written by Robert Steven Gottfried is a narrative style book that goes over the environmental and human effects the Black Death had in 12th Century Europe. Gottfried’s thesis is that the Black Death is the greatest biological and environmental event in European history. When the Black Death came to pass, the amount of mortality surrounding the European people pushed them to think harder, and to think deeper about the sanctity of life, and that new mindset triggered some of the major changes in Europe that followed after that, which would eventually lead Europe out of the Medieval Age. Gottfried successfully conveys the historical significance of the Black Death the way he uses the
The Black Death discusses the causes and results of the plague that devastated medieval Europe. It focuses on the many effects it had on the culture of medieval Europe and the possibility that it expedited cultural change. I found that Robert S. Gottfried had two main theses in the book. He argued that rodent and insect life cycles, as well as the changing of weather systems affect plague. He claimed that the devastation plague causes is partly due to its perpetual recurrences. Plague ravaged Europe in cycles, devastated the people when they were recuperating. As can be later discovered in the book, the cycles of plague consumed the European population. A second thesis, which he described in greater detail, was that the plagues expedited the process of cultural change. The plagues killed a large percentage of each generation, leaving room for change. The Black Death covers the affects that numerous plagues had on the culture. The cycle of the plagues struck each generation. After a plague ravaged Europe from 599-699, plague killed in 608, 618, 628, 640, 654, 684-686, 694-700, 718, and 740-750. In the early stages of the above series, intervals are apparent. These intervals demonstrate the cycles of the rodent and insect life. Robert S. Gottfried also argues, rightfully so, that plague may have hastened cultural change. Along with plagues came the need for a cure. Plague destroyed the existing medical systems, and was replaced by a modern heir. Previous to the plague, scientists based their knowledge on early scientists such as Hippocrates and Galen. Scientists knew little about what they were doing. The medical community was divided into five parts. These divisions were physicians, surgeons, barber-...
The Asian island Cyprus broke out in an Earthquake leaving it a desolate. The earthquake released a poisonous odor which over powered the people of Cyprus practically exterminating the population. This odor is believed to be the beginnings of the Black Plague (Hecker, pg 13). Due to the fact that China was one of the busiest trading centers in the world it was only a matter of time before the bacteria found its way to Europe. In October 1347, Italian sea merchants were traveling from Asia back to Italy. Arriving in Sicily the crew found itself suffering from an indescribable disease.
No other epidemic reaches the level of the Black Death which took place from 1348 to 1350. The epidemic, better regarded as a pandemic, shook Europe, Asia, and North Africa; therefore it deems as the one of the most devastating events in world history. In The Black Death: The Great Mortality of 1348-1350, John Aberth, compiles primary sources in order to examine the origins and outcomes of this deadly disease. The author, a history professor and associate academic dean at Vermont’s Castleton State College, specializes in medieval history and the Black Death. He wrote the book in order to provide multiple perspectives of the plague’s impact. Primarily, pathogens started the whole phenomenon; however, geological, economic, and social conditions
The Black Death was one of the deadliest pandemic that hit Europe in history. The Black Death first emerged in the shores of Italy in the spring of 1348 (Gottfried,1). The plague came from several Italian merchant ships which were returning to Messina. Several sailors on board were dying of an unknown disease and a few days after arriving in Messina, several residents within and outside of Messina were dying as well (Poland 1). The Black Death was as deadly as it was because it was not limited by gender, age, or species. The Black Death was also very deadly because it could attack in three different forms: the bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic plague.
During the Middle Ages, trade flourished across Europe. Thousands of people would gather at various ports to wait for ships to return from foreign places carrying an assortment of exotic foods and goods. “In October 1347, trading ships docked at the Sicilian port of Messina after a long journey through the Black Sea” (Roos, 41). Greeters and spectators, who were waiting anxiously for exotic goods, discovered something horrid instead. A majority of the sailors on board were deceased and the small remainder who had survived the trip were quickly dying as well. The ships brought back more than just goods and food items from China. They hosted flea-infested rats, which is the primary source of the bubonic plague. The bubonic plague, or ‘The Black Death’ forever altered the course of European history. The horrific plague encited a sequence of social, religious, and economic devastation, and ultimately killed over a third of Europe’s population.
In Robert S. Gottfried’s book titled “The Black Death”, he analyzes the 14th century outbreak from an epidemiological perspective. The book is written as a historical account of one of the greatest epidemics on record. Gottfried is a well renowned Professor of History as well as the Director of Medieval Studies at Rutgers University. Another one of his books titled, "Epidemic Disease in Fifteenth Century England” focuses on the additional outbreaks that occurred in Europe after the Black Death plague. The Black Death also called the Great Pestilence the was the second of three pandemic plagues known and is considered one of the most damaging pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 25-50% of the Europe's population in the years 1348 to 1350. The origins of the plague began with east-west trade. In 1347 the Black Death entered Constantinople and spread throughout Byzantium and the Eastern Mediterranean, it is theorized that foreign rats migrating with the eastern trade carried the disease called Y. pestis to the west, fleas that were feeding on those rats then transmitted the infection to livestock and humans. The epidemic spread at an alarming rate and had devastating effects once contracted, at its peak the plague is said to have taken up to 1000 lives a day.
In the beginning, the Italian town of Genoa was one of the busiest ports in Europe. Ships sailed from there to trade all over the Mediterranean Sea. In October of 1347, 12 merchant ships sailed from Caffa to Italy. A strange disease had infected the crew of these ships. Dying bodies lay aboard the ships. City officials, afraid that the disease might spread, issued an order that no person or piece of merchandise was to leave the ships. They even forbade medical treatment for the sick sailors and passengers. The disease still spread. The officials had not considered that the rats from the ships were able to leave the ships by crawling along the ropes that were tied to the ships. From Italy, the disease spread all over Europe, traveling along the major trade routes. The rats were responsible for carrying the disease, which was transmitted by fleas from infected rats. The fleas drank the rats' blood that carried the bacteria. The bacteria multiplied in the flea's gut. While the fleas gut was clogged with bacteria, the flea bit the human and regurgitated blood into the wound.
Around 1347-1348 the most well-known epidemic struck the European world. The bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death or the Black Plague, rained sickness over millions; for most people, death was the only end to the sickness. The Black Death is known as one of the most depressing occurrences in history. It attacked the three most important aspects of a person’s well-being, their mental, emotional and physical health. While the plague impacted early society, authors, Jean de Venette and Giovanni Boccaccio, described the epidemic in their own words. Modern author, Charles L. Mee Jr., describes the plague with the scientific knowledge he has living in today’s society. These three authors wrote about the bubonic plague with their own voice’s and reasoning’s but many of the accounts they mention are similar to one another. Jean de Venette, Giovanni Boccaccio and Charles L. Mee Jr. explain the symptoms, the causes and the way people acted because of the black plague.
In 1346, the second and most devastating case of Bubonic plague erupted. (Janis 1) This specific case of plague originated in Kaffa, a cathedral town on the Crimean Coast and spread to China then quickly westward to India. Soon traders from India sailed to Europe and infected almost the entire continent. (Ziegler 121) This case was the most famous because of the large number of deaths affiliated with its outbreak. An estimated twenty five million people, one third of Europe’s population, perished during the plague’s four years of existence. (Janis 1) Government, trade, and commerce in Europe almost came to a halt. The Black Death caused the depopulation of about 1,000 villages in England. (Janis 2) In one case, in Alexandria, Egypt, the first two weeks of the plague 100-200 people died each day. Soon after, as many as 2,000 people died each day and the number increased each week. During this time, the Roman Catholic Church lost some influence on its people.
Gottfried, Robert S. The Black Death: Natural and Human Disaster in Medieval Europe. New York:
The Black Death plagues had disastrous consequences for Europe in the 14th century. After the initial outbreak in Europe, 1347, it continued for around five years and then mysteriously disappeared. However it broke out again in the 1360s and every few decades thereafter till around 1700. The European epidemic was an outbreak of the bubonic plague, which began in Asia and spread across trade routes. When it reached Europe, a path of destruction began to emerge. Medieval society was tossed into disarray, economies were fractured, the face of culture and religion changed forever. However the plagues devastation was not all chaotic, there were benefits too, such as modern labour movements, improvements in medicine and a new outlook on life. Therefore in order to analyse the impact the Black Death had on societies in the 14th century, this essay will consider the social, economic, cultural and religious factors in order to reach an overall conclusion.
The Black Death is now known to be spread by a flea. However, this flea was not the cause as it was the bacterium which lay in the stomach of the flea. This bacterium’s scientific name is Yersinia pestis. The main host of the flea is a rat, scientifically called Rattus rattus. Humans caught the disease because when the rats bred rapidly, it would lead to a population invasion. When the rat died, the flea would have to find another warm-blooded host to feed on, and next to them are humans. The flea bites the human and infects them. The unhygienic living conditions in the Middle Ages led to a faster spread of the disease, as a result creating a better environment for rats to live in. The lack of knowledge in the fourteenth century led to even worse remedies.