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.
Richard A. Lanham in the essay “Superposed Plays” maintains that no other English tragedy has generated the literary comment which this play has produced: “Hamlet is one of the great tragedies. It has generated more comment than any other written document in English literature, one would guess, reverent, serious comment on it as a serious play” (91).
By 1400, the Black death killed forty percent of the population of Europe. To estimate that, that’s around twenty-five million people. They think the Black Death came from central Asia. The disease had reached the black sea port of Feodosiya, Ukraine. By 1347 it then spread along trade routes to western Asia, North Africa, and southern Europe.
The bubonic plague in the 14th century was known to be one of the most horrendous events that took place in Europe. A common name for this time period was the ‘Black Death’, however this term was not coined until the 17th century. The Black Death claimed an estimated 75 to 200 million people’s lives in all of Europe. The plague started from central Asia where it made it’s way through the Silk Road in 1346, reaching a place called Crimea, close to the black sea. It was here, most likely, where the rats then went on board the merchant ships.
4. The Black Death, 1348," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2001). http://www.the-orb.net/textbooks/westciv/blackdeath.html 5. "The black death: a plague that brought change to Europe." Calliope May-June 2011: 42+.
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