Black Death Dbq

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The Black Death. . . . . An epidemic that claimed a third of Europe’s population was a calamitous disease called The Black Death. The disease spread through fleas carried by rats that traveled on boats going on trade routes to the major boat docks. It hit Europe at weak state when famine was common, over-population, harvest failures, and constant war. It happened between the late 1340s to the early 1350s. The plague originated in Eastern Asia, killing millions on its way to Western Europe. The Black Death was able to spread quite rapidly because the lack of people not knowing the cause. Many went to the religious conclusion that it was a punishment from god for the sins of the people. “Some people took more extreme measures. Lamenting their …show more content…

The people, who didn’t think it was a punishment from god, blamed the Jesuits. The Jews were accused of contaminating the drinking water with poison. “Jews planned to wipeout all the Christians with poison….many Jews confessed as much under torture (source 258).” “In Germany, thousands of Jews were slaughtered(text 401).” Again, this was caused because of ignorance to what was the actual reason as to why the plague was spreading. Today, we know that the disease was carried in the bloodstream of rodents and was transmitted to humans through fleas. The unsanitary conditions and open trade routes caused this infectious disease to kill over 20 million people. That’s the population of the state of New …show more content…

This came off as an embarrassment to doctors for not being able to help their patients. Most people had no confidence in doctors. The rich simply fled from the plague, but most could not. In the modern world, doctors would be able to isolate themselves from the disease while trying to find a cure via a hazmat suit. With today’s technology, if an outbreak similar to the Black Death was to happen, a lot less people would die of the disease. In comparison to the Plague of Medieval Europe, today we have the Ebola virus. In West Africa where 3rd world countries are common the virus has killed thousands of people, but in America, where technology and medicine is more advance, not many people have died from the virus. The victims were able to be treated and therefore not spread the virus among the

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