Effects Of The Black Death

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Throughout time there have been events that have opened the eyes of many people, horrific events. Earthquakes, famine, and other tragic acts of nature have shaped the outcome of society and made a difference which had a toll on society.

“The most memorable example of what has been advanced is afforded by a great pestilence of the fourteenth century, which desolated Asia, Europe, and Africa, and of which the people yet preserve the remembrance in gloomy traditions.” (Hecker, 1832)

The Black Death caused many economic and social hardships during the fourteenth century that brought about change which affects the way society lives today. Deaths ranging in the millions over a three hundred time period set in motion, events that helped to shape the events that led to many major situations such as the Holocaust and the rise of industrialism and capitalism. Although horrifying, the Black Death brought for change.

Black Death

The Black Death is considered the most well-known of all pandemics that swept through Asia and Europe. The bacterial infection, thought to mainly be found in rodents and their fleas, remained for centuries due to the lack of medicine and understanding, for the most part in highly populated areas. According to Katherine Richard, in 1855 the cause of the was finally discovered in Hong Kong when researchers were able isolate the bacillus responsible, Yersinia pestis. Doctors were able to see very similar symptoms of the plague in both people and rodents that were victims of a fleabite. The bacterium, Yersinia pestis is considered extremely potent because it is of a mutant variety of the bacterium which causes the Bubonic plague. These bacteria could not survive outside of the animal hosts it infected and could n...

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...spread by PEOPLE’, Mailonline.com http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2027347/Black-Death-backtrack-Dont-blame-rats-plague-spread-PEOPLE.html

Byrne, J. P. (2006) Daily life during the Black Death (The Greenwood Press “Daily life through history” series, ISSN 1080-4749)

Medieval England: The Black Death of 1348 to 1350: (n.d.) History Learning Site http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/black_death_of_1348_to_1350.htm

Plague: The Black Death: (n.d.) National Geographic http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-diseases/plague-article/

Richard, K.S. (2011, April) The Global Impacts of the Black Death http://geography.about.com/od/culturalgeography/a/Impacts-Of-The-Black-Death.htm

Zapotoczny, W.S (2006), The Political and Social Consequences of the Black Death, 1348 -1351 http://www.wzaponline.com/BlackDeath.pdf

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