Black Death Pandemics

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The Black Death: The Mother of All Pandemics
Jordan Gentile
Garland B Block

The Black Death was one of the most deadly pandemics to ever occur, and it changed Europe forever. The Black Death originated from Mongolia and China, from marmots. The Black Death decimated Europe, leaving death in its wake Most of the treatments and rules set in place to ‘stop’ the plague only made it worse. The Black Death shifted the course of European society, and sparked the Renaissance.
Mongolian marmots served as a breeding ground for the Black Death. The Black Death was caused by a disease in fleas that would clog a flea’s stomach lining. When the flea would feed, it would draw blood from its victim, it would vomit some blood back into its victim, giving them the plague. These fleas would be driven into a feeding frenzy when they contracted this disease, trying to feed off as many things as possible. Because of this, when they ran out of rats or marmots, which they preferred to humans, they would feed off of humans out of desperation. A group of Chinese merchants found a large herd of Mongolian marmots that were dying, and looked to make a quick profit from selling the fur. When they started selling the fur to people, the Black Death started to spread because infected fleas were all over the fur. During their war mongering, Mongols were sieging Caffa, and started dying form the Plague. They started to throw their dead infected bodies over the walls as a last ditch effort to get them to surrender, but they had to retreat first. However, the city became infected, and people tried to flee before they would become infected. But it was too late because the rats that carried the infected fleas were already on board the ships. When...

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The Black Death was a terrifying and destructive pandemic that ravaged Europe and changed how it would be in the future. It started in Mongolia, made its way to Europe, raged there for 5 years, causing death almost everywhere, and changed how Europe would evolve forever. It made the Church lose power and gave some to the peasants and the serfs, allowing for the Renaissance to start. If the Black Death had not come through Europe, then there may have not even been a Renaissance at all. An author who survived through the Black Plague, Giovanni Boccaccio, wrote this about the Black Death: “How many valiant men, lovely ladies and handsome youths whom even Galen, Hippocrates, and Aesculapius would have judged to be in perfect health, dined with their family, companions and friends in the morning and then in the evening with their ancestors in the other world?”

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