Imagine loosing seventy five percent of your country to a disease, do you even think that is possible? Europe can tell you it is, after loosing at least one third of their population to the Black Death. The Bubonic Plague , also known as Black Death is the most deadly plaque that has ever occurred to date. The Black Death originally came from Central Asia, but spread to Europe and the Mediterranean. Most of the plague was at Gobi - Desert in Mongolia around the 1320’s (ARMICHAEL, ANN). Discoveries about the plaque are still happening today. The latest discovery in 2011, states that the pathogen held accountable for the plaque was Yersinia pestis bacterium. Yersinia pestis is a anaerobic bacterium and a infectious disease affecting human beings as well as other creatures. The bacteria affects the rodent first, then a flea bites the affected rodent, when the flea is infected it jumps onto a person, and bites them. When the person is bitten they become infected (The Black Death). There are many symptoms such as: high fever, delirium, vomiting, muscle pain, bleeding from the lungs, mental confusion, being tired, weakness, and heavily sweating. When victims start to get these symptoms, it is most likely that they have the disease. After catching the disease people on average only survived for two to four more days. It was rare that the disease spread from person to person. Most cases it is when a human gets bit by an infected flea containing the disease. (The Black Death 245) It affected may towns and villages because most of the population had died and the people in the towns and villages where killed. Leaving the survivors in fear, most of them wanted to move because of the chances of them catching the disease. Most big towns and ... ... middle of paper ... ...conomic conditions in medieval Europe at the outbreak of the Black Death and the causes and effects of the epidemic."The Black Death: Plague and Economics." The Economist 25 Dec. 1999: n. pag. World History in Context. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. CABANISS, A. "Dance of Death." New Catholic Encyclopedia. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale, 2003. 506-508. World History in Context. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.Fetter, Bruce. Fetter Bruce. ”Disease and Pestilence." History of World Trade Since 1450. Ed. John J. McCusker. Vol. 1. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2006. 194-196. World History in Context. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. "Medieval Residents of the Nation's Capital May Have Been Just as Cosmopolitan as They Are Today, According to Analysis of Victims of the Black Death." Derby Telegraph 8 Mar. 2013: n. pag. Infrotrac Newsstand. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
"The Black Death." World Eras. Ed. Norman J. Wilson. Vol. 1: European Renaissance and Reformation, 1350-1600. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. 435-438. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
One of the largest epidemic events in history, the Bubonic Plague had a devastating effect on European society. It is believed to have begun in China, and it reached European soil in 1347, when it struck Constantinople (Document 1). It was carried by infected fleas that spread the disease between humans and rats. A symptom of the plague was the development of large, dark swellings called “buboes” on the victim’s lymph nodes. By the time the plague left, Europe’s population had been reduced by almost half. The devastation as a result of the plague may seem shocking, but there were several important factors that contributed to its deadliness.
The first was through human contact and the second was through the air, people were infected with the disease just by inhaling it. The symptoms and characteristics of the disease included fever, fatigue, muscle aches and the formation of buboes which is swollen lymph nodes. These buboes were usually found under the arm, on the neck or in the groin area. It is caused by internal bleeding which eventually forms black spots or boils under the skin (which is why it is called the black death). Death usually followed shortly after these symptoms
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).
No other epidemic reaches the level of the Black Death which took place from 1348 to 1350. The epidemic, better regarded as a pandemic, shook Europe, Asia, and North Africa; therefore it deems as the one of the most devastating events in world history. In The Black Death: The Great Mortality of 1348-1350, John Aberth, compiles primary sources in order to examine the origins and outcomes of this deadly disease. The author, a history professor and associate academic dean at Vermont’s Castleton State College, specializes in medieval history and the Black Death. He wrote the book in order to provide multiple perspectives of the plague’s impact. Primarily, pathogens started the whole phenomenon; however, geological, economic, and social conditions
The Bubonic Plague, known more commonly as the Black Death, was a fatal disease that ravaged Asia and Europe during the mid-14th century. Although the destruction the Plague brought upon Europe in terms of deaths was enormous, the Islamic world arguably suffered more due to the fact that plague epidemics continually returned to the Islamic world up until the 19th century. The recurrence of the disease caused Muslim populations to never recover from the losses suffered and a resulting demographic shift that arguably helped Europe to surpass the Islamic world's previous superiority in scholarship.
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 Black Death first appeared in Sicily around October 1347, abroad Genoese trading ships that had sailed from the port of Caffa. The men on these ships were diseased and dying with black swellings and boils all over their body and most died within five days. The Black Death had made its way to Europe, and started to wreak havoc on the population. By January 1348, the plague had reached Paris and by August it was in England. Populations sharply decreased as the plague took its toll, indiscriminate in its killing. Worse of all, it wasn’t just one disease that was killing off whole populations- there were two differ...
Gottfried, Robert S. The Black Death: Natural and Human Disaster in Medieval Europe. New York:
Sweeping through Western Europe during the fourteenth century, the Bubonic Plague wiped out nearly one third of the population and did not regard: status, age or even gender. All of this occurred as a result of a single fleabite. Bubonic Plague also known as Black Death started in Asia and traveled to Europe by ships. The Plague was thought to be spread by the dominating empire during this time, the Mongolian Empire, along the Silk Road. The Bubonic Plague was an infectious disease spread by fleas living on rats, which can be easily, be attached to traveler to be later spread to a city or region. Many factors like depopulation, decreasing trade, and huge shifts in migrations occurred during the Bubonic Plague. During Bubonic Plague there were also many different beliefs and concerns, which include fear, exploitation, religious and supernatural superstition, and a change of response from the fifteenth to eighteen century.
During the 14th century most of Europe was struck by a devastating disease called the Black Death, or bubonic plague. This disease was carried by flees which lived on rats. When the rats died, the flees jumped onto humans and spread the disease. Even though the Black Death was controlled in Europe by 1351, it came back regularly over the next 150 years.
Imagine living in a time filled with nothing but fear. The thing you fear cannot be touched or seen but will put you to a slow miserable death. In the 1300s people were struck with a great plague, which has now been named “The Black Death”. The Black Death killed off populations with just one sweep. Historians call this the biggest tragedy of all time. The question is what caused this plague and how does something like this happen? Overtime historians have boiled it down to 2 and some may say 3 explanations, which are religion, science, and humans. With the help of a book The Black Death by Rosemary Horrox I was able to find explanations of them all. Who may know which is the correct reason for such a thing but what your think caused it is for you to decide.
The Black Death plagues had disastrous consequences for Europe in the 14th century. After the initial outbreak in Europe, 1347, it continued for around five years and then mysteriously disappeared. However it broke out again in the 1360s and every few decades thereafter till around 1700. The European epidemic was an outbreak of the bubonic plague, which began in Asia and spread across trade routes. When it reached Europe, a path of destruction began to emerge. Medieval society was tossed into disarray, economies were fractured, the face of culture and religion changed forever. However the plagues devastation was not all chaotic, there were benefits too, such as modern labour movements, improvements in medicine and a new outlook on life. Therefore in order to analyse the impact the Black Death had on societies in the 14th century, this essay will consider the social, economic, cultural and religious factors in order to reach an overall conclusion.
It was a bubonic plague that came from Asia and spread by black rats infested with fleas. The plague spread like a wildfire because people who lived in high populated areas were living very close to each other and had no idea what was the cause of the disease or how to cure it. The signs of the “inevitable death” where blood from the nose, fever, aching and swellings big as an “apple” in the groin or under the armpits. From there the disease spread through the body in different directions and soon after it changed into black spots that appeared on the arms and thighs. Due to the lack of medical knowledge, no doctors manage to find a remedy. Furthermore a large number of people without any kind of medical experience tried to help the sick but most of them failed “...there was now a multitude both of men and of women who practiced without having received the slightest tincture of medical science - and, being in ignorance of its source, failed to apply the proper remedies…” (Boccaccio). The plague was so deadly that it was enough for a person to get infected by only touching the close of the
The disease spread through a bacteria called Yersinia Pestis. The bacteria itself can clog small blood vessels, causing them to burst. The waiting period for the plague is about one to three days, just to show symptoms, soon dead within forty-eight hours. The disease was a major depopulator. Just in Europe did it kill one-third of their population, meanwhile completely destroying two-thirds of China’s population, and decimating many Muslin towns. The disease flared and raged so quickly there wasn’t enough time to bury all the dead, so they mainly waited until the end and held a large memorial service. The disease itself was ripping apart the very fabric of society.