Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The black death research paper
Socio economic causes and effects of the black death in europe
Black death affecting social in europe
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The black death research paper
The Black Death in Europe 1
Abstract
The Black Death in Europe was one of the continents worth natural disasters. The bubonic plague wiped out nearly 60% of the population, causing changes that took many years to recover. The effects of art are astonishing. Every person and social class were affected, the church lost prestige and power, as did the doctors and physicians. Politics changes for a short time and the nobility lost wealth. Fear was wide spread, and people lost trust of their families. No one could escape the carnage this illness brought, if they tried, they succeeded in bringing it with them.
The Black Death in Europe 2
Knox (page 15) states that the population losses were staggering, between1347 and 150 nearly 1 to of 3 people where gone. Venetian records stated that the death rates escalated close to 500-600 deaths a day, 60% of Venice’s population was gone.
As with medical professions the clergy suffered great losses as well. Theirs was an occupational hazard; entering the home of the sick, doctors were at greater risk of catching the illness themselves. The clergy had to give the dieing their last rights and preside over the burials, this made for their demise.
As indicated by Knox (page12) those who were learned hade some ideas about what was causing the disease such poisonous vapors released by constellation alignments. They recommended that no fat meant should be eaten at all and bathing was hazardous, these suggestions only made to make people more vulnerable to the plague. The only real action taken that worked was confinement, cities walled themselves off from incoming ships and would quarantine and ill persons house.
With the population losses the labor forse was reduced, there was a greater need for crafts men and skilled laborers. Guilds began opening their doors to other skilled peoples, because when and skilled man died his whole family usually got the plague as well, this mad openings for others. Towns began to advertise higher wages to those artisans and those with skills. If the miller died and the sickens was in his home, then the miller family passed away also, this left none to mill the grain, therefore towns were in need of help.
The Black Death in Europe 3
According to Marchione di Coppo Stefani (1370-1380) people looked to the doctors and the clergy for answers and advice, neither had the answers nor the cure.
“ In the year of the Lord 1348 the was a great pestilence in the city of Florence.
One effect that the Black Death had on Medieval Europe was that the economy had fallen. (FELL)The economy had taken a blow because of the fact that most of the workers had either died, or ran away from their lords and manors. One piece of evidence stated, “As the plague kept occurring in the late 1300s, the European economy sank to a new low (Document 9).” Another piece of evidence states,” In the second half of the 14th century, a man could simply up and leave a manor, secure in the knowledge that
The knowledge of the anatomy was hindered as only one dissection was allowed per year and this only dissection was carried out by the already knowledge teaching assistant not the inexperienced students so they couldn't have a hands on experience of the anatomy. Public health was hindered but Cathedrals did have freshly pumped in water for toilets, fountains etc but this idea wasn't spread into the community and the public weren't allowed to use the Cathedral's facilities, so the Church were being selfish with their medical improvement. When it came to training doctors the church both helped and hindered its progress as they encouraged doctors to train to improve knowledge but they hindered it as they only allowed one dissection a year and only a select few who could read were allowed to read selected books which were approved by the church. The Church hindered the knowledge of medicine spreading as usually only Priests and Monks could read so books couldn't be passed on and the Church selected what people could read so the ideas that were spreading were limited and the same. Caring for the sick was slightly hindered by the church as only 10% of monks helped those in need
Many wondered what the true cause of the Black Plague was and how it spread all across the world in such a short amount of time. Throughout its time period, many medical authorities and scientists sought to give rational explanations for the reasons why the plague was spreading and believed it was caused by several factors such as: “corrupted air and water, hot and humid southerly winds, proximity of swamps, lack of purifying sunshine, excrement and other filth, putrid decomposition of dead bodies, excessive indulgence in foods (particularly fruits), God's wrath, punishment for sins, and the conjunction of stars and planets” (Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence). The confusion and lack of scientific knowledge on the harmful disease caused much panic and triggered many outbreaks among individuals. Many people began to start placing cities and ships under quarantine, burning sulfur to purify bad air, burning clothes, and even blaming and killing Jews in hope that they could solve a cure or at least stop the spread.
The Black Death, also known as the Bubonic Plague is perhaps the greatest and horrifying tragedies to have ever happened to humanity. The Plague was ferocious and had such a gruesome where people would die in such a morbid fashion that today we are obsessed with this subject.
The Black Death is the name later given to the epidemic of plague that ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1351. The disaster affected all aspects of life. Depopulation and shortage of labor hastened changes already inherent in the rural economy; the substitution of wages for labor services was accelerated, and social stratification became less rigid. Psychological morbidity affected the arts; in religion, the lack of educated personnel among the clergy gravely reduced the intellectual vigor of the church.
The destruction and devastation caused by the 'Black Death' of the Middle Ages was a phenomenon left to wonder at in text books of historical Europe. An unstoppable plague swept the continent taking as much as eighty percent of the European population along with it (Forsyth).
The filth of the cities promoted the spread of disease faster than doctors could discover a cure. This encouraged large outbreaks of many deadly diseases. And it is said that throughout this period there were people who went about the cities and towns with wagons calling "Bring out your dead!" in a fashion similar to that of the Medieval era during the bubonic plague (Which, by the way, was not yet a dead disease).
The Bubonic Plague, or more commonly known as ‘The Black Death’ or ‘The Black Plague,’ was one of the most devastating and deadliest pandemics that humans have ever witnessed in the history of mankind. The disease spanned two continents in just a few years, marking every country between Western Europe all the way to China. During the reign of the plague, which is estimated to be the years between 1347-1352, it is estimated that “20 million people in Europe–almost one-third of the continent’s population” was killed off due to the plague. The Black Plague would change the course of European history since the plague knew no boundaries and inflicted its wrath upon the rich and the poor alike. As a result, not only did the plague have a devastating demographic impact which encountered a massive social disruption, but also, an economic and religious impact as well.
The plague was spread by fleas, which were not effected by the disease. Fleas first infected the rats, which lived off garbage and sewage. The rats then spread the infection to the humans. Rats were a common sight in the cities, due to the poor sanitary conditions, so no one suspected them (www.tartans.com). In the winter the plague seemed to disappear, but only because fleas were dormant then. Each spring, the plague attacked again, killing new victims (www.byu.edu). The effects of the plague were devastating. After just five years, twenty-five million people were dead - one third of Europe's population. Once people were infected they infected others very rapidly. As a result, in order to avoid the disease, many fled to the countryside where the lower population density helped to decrease the speed at which the disease spread (www.tartans.com). From a person's time of infection to his or her death was less than one week (www.home.nycap.rr.com). The plague became known as "The Black Death" because of the discoloration of the skin and black enlarged lymph nodes that appeared on the second day of contracting the disease. The term "The Black Death" was not invented until after 1800. Contemporaries called it "the pestilence" (Cantor 7).
It has been called “the greatest catastrophe ever.” That statement was made in reference to the Black Death which was one of many bubonic plague epidemics. Throughout history, the bubonic plague proved itself to be an extremely lethal disease. Outbreaks of the bubonic plague were devastating because of the stunning number of deaths in each of the populations it reached. The Black Death was the worst epidemic and disaster of the bubonic plague in all of history. The Black Death refers to a period of several years in which affected populations were decimated. The bubonic plague is a disease started by bacteria. The disease has horrible symptoms, and most of the victims die after getting the plague. The bubonic plague spread easily between different areas of people. The Black Death was not the first epidemic of the bubonic plague; there was another outbreak several hundred years before. It is important to understand the history of the bubonic plague and reflect upon the Black Death because plague outbreaks can still occur today.
We can see this as we compare the writings of Weyer, (document 4) from the fifteenth century, who feared the Plague, to the writings of Bertrand, (document 16) from the eighteenth as he declared the Plague was cause because of religious superstition. This shift in belief may be caused by the "Age of Enlightenment" that caused people to think more irrationality, and to heavily believe in
The Black Plague, perhaps one of the worst epidemics in history, swept its evil across Europe in the middle of the 14th century, killing an estimated 20 million people. This major population shift, along with other disasters occurring at the time, such as famine and an already existing economic recession, plunged Europe into a dark period of complete turmoil. Anarchy, psychological breakdowns, and the dissipation of church power were some of the results. As time passed, however, society managed to find new ground and began its long path of recovery. The plague, as catastrophic as it was to medieval Europe, had just as many positive effects that came with this recovery as it did negative effects prior. An end to feudalism, increased wages and innovation, the idea of separation of church and state, and an attention to hygiene and medicine are only some of the positive things that came after the plague. It could also be argued that the plague had a significant impact on the start of the Renaissance.
A hierarchical society of Kings granting land to nobles, who would then give a fief to a knight in return for service. The knight would then have peasants or serfs working on their fief. However, as the plague spread, many peasants died and their labour could not be replaced. This loss of workforce had a significant impact upon the economy as grain was not being harvested and livestock roamed free. The agrarian economy had been severely damaged, the land became uncultivated and returned back to its natural state.
After the Black Death took the cities, shortly after it spread into the villages and farms. Killing the farm workers, the Black Death left crops not gathered which led to a shortage of food supplies and people to starve. Because of the mortality and the labor shortage, prices of goods dropped while the wages rose. Landowners were so desperate that they tried everything to keep the peasants to work for them. This gave the perfect opportunity for the laborers to demand higher wages how much they were valued. During the epidemic, the societies in Europe found their own ways to live through the Black Death. Some people thought that it God that created the plague, so he can punish the people because of their sins. Other people tried to enjoy as much as possible their last moments of their lives because they knew they would eventually die. Day and night people were getting drunk and move from one tavern to another and satisfying every last-minute wish they could. A social long-term consequence of the Black Death was that people lost their faith and were against God because he could not save them from the epidemic. Another consequence covers the economic change of the lower and middle-class people. During the 14th century peasants were at the very bottom but thanks to the Black Death their lives changed dramatically. After the epidemic was over, they were very
To make matters worse, over the course of just six years, seventy-five million people have died. There were about fifteen million in Southwest Asia. Even more about thirty-five million dead in China. Finally, there were about twenty-five million dead in Western Europe. The Middle Ages became so depopulated that the economy changed. In the economy laborers demanded more pay, meanwhile changing their work status. All over was widespread poverty because of the merchants raising their prices heavily.