Black Plague: Impactful Events Of The Renaissance In The Middle Ages

The Renaissance, which is French for the word “rebirth” or “revival”, was the cultural bloom for Europe. Before this era, life was an everyday battle, facing warfare, poverty, and disease. Starting in around 1400 C.E and lasting until about 1700 C.E, the Renaissance brought about new philosophies, lifestyles, and ideas that changed the world forever. The Renaissance changed the way people saw the world and their place in it by focusing more on education and decreasing religion’s importance.

Everything always gets worse before it gets better. This is how it is in most situations such as a lovers quarrel, in which both lovers scream and yell at each other only to reach the perfect mutual agreement in the end of a very silly fight. Another good example; rain storms, where maybe it takes dangerous flooding to bring out the most beautiful spring flowers. Maybe it takes something so terrible and world shattering to bring out the best of a situation. No matter how treacherous or how awful it may be, it all depends on how you handle the situation. How you handle a disaster shows in what becomes of it. Much like the Black Death leading into the Renaissance. The tragic turn of events that took place during the Black Death gave

The Black Death, also known as the bubonic plague, was a disease that devastated Medieval Europe, between 1346 and 1352 it killed 45 million people, wiping out a third of Europe's population. Today, we know that there were many causes of the Black Death. Medieval towns had no system of drains, sewers or trash collections. In such slovenly conditions, germs could grow, and diseased rats could call these medieval towns their homes and infect the people who lived there. Many historians believed the plague originated in china and spread to other countries by trade routes. Infected people and/or infected rodents such as mice or black rats. The Black Death was caused by strains of the bubonic plague. The plague lived in fleas, and fleas lived on

All throughout history nations all over the world have dealt with deadly diseases, but one in particular brought out the fear in the nations of Europe, the bubonic plague or as others call it, the black death. During the thirteenth century, medicine was not as developed as it is now, causing England to suffer more than others. According to Cantor (2002) the European nations encountered the bubonic plague in its most brutal state during 1348 to 1349, taking out about a third of Europe’s population (pp. 6-7). He continues on by claiming that one big question to this event was whether or not the plague was the full cause to the loss of lives or if there was another cause along with it (p. 11). Cantor (2002) also explained that the reason the black plague stopped in Europe around the eighteenth century could possibly have been from an introduction to a new species of rats, the gray rat (p. 13). Even though there is controversy based around the plague being spread by rats and how it was stopped by isolation, it may have taught countries useful strategies and ways to grow stronger.

Diseases have always been a threat to humans, all throughout history. One of the most destructive disease outbreaks in history was the plague outbreak which peaked in 1346 to 1353, in Europe, commonly known as the Black Death. This plague outbreak was extremely deadly and killed 30-60% of the European population at the time of the outbreak. The outbreak is commonly believed to have been caused by the bubonic plague, but modern evidence suggests that the Black Death was caused by pneumonic plague, a much more contagious and deadly infection.

Starting in the early 14th century and ending around 1353, the Black Death was a horrific time in history. The Bubonic Plague killed about sixty-seven percent of Europe’s population. People living in Europe at the time of the Black Death responded differently to the devastation around them: many people fled, some stayed to investigate, and others saw it as an opportunity to obtain what others had lost, mostly money.

The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in history. Many Western Europeans were living with this disease for nearly four hundred years. The disease was able to spread rapidly and affected Europe in many ways. Since this disease was rapidly spreading throughout Europe it scared many of the people during this time. Many historians considered the Black Death in the fourteenth century a turning point in Western European history. According to Streissguth, “Before the epidemic of bubonic and pneumonic plague died out three years later, it would kill more than one-third of the continent’s population.” Hundreds of thousand people died from this horrific disease which changed Europe forever. Near the end of the fourteenth century it was obvious to the people living during that time that the plague had become a regular and destructive aspect of life. The plague had left many rural areas untouched after the late 1300’s but the epidemic began almost every decade. When the Black Death began to spread across Europe it caused unimaginable fear, panic, and chaos for the people. The Black Death was an important turning point in Europe, where the economics, politics, and society would never be the same. The Black Death spread rapidly across Europe causing many people to become ill and die which resulted in social, economic, and religious upheavals.

Historically, there was economic, social order, and governmental upheavals that occurred before the renaissance began such as the spread of the Bubonic Plague in the 14th century. The beginning of the renaissance was introduced by the Italian renaissance since they experienced a period of academic changes throughout Europe. However, the Northern renaissance came along that started in France with particular types of strengths and traits involved. Equally important, the Northern renaissance was the expansion of goals, mainly from Italy and then to the rest of Northern Europe while the Italian renaissance was more secular. For that reason, social with political improvement led to the values of christianity and the reform of the church.

After the Black Plague crippled Europe, a new period of time erupted known as the Renaissance slowly developed. The Renaissance is known as the “rebirth” for Humans. The reason for this meaning during the 14th century was because of the radical changes in the culture of Europe. The Middle Ages was surrounded by religion in many aspects. The Black Plague helps stimulate the idea that religion is through the individual. Religion in Europe was starting to becoming not so literal, but more of a personal connection with God, instead of a strict public connection. The starts of the renaissance, commoners or nobility were not focused on taking over the family business, but focusing on other career options of interest. The ideas and the development of Humanism were established during the renaissance through the idea of religion being more personal.

The Bubonic Plague, more commonly referred to as the "Black Death," ravaged Europe between the years 1347 and 1350 (Herzog, 2000). During this short period, according to Herzog (2000), 25 million people (which were about one third of Europe's population at the time) were killed. In another article, Herlihy (1997), however, claimed that two thirds of Europe’s population were killed. Nevertheless, it is ascertained that thousands of people died each week and dead bodies littered the streets. Once a family member had contracted the disease, the entire household was doomed to die. Parents abandoned their children, and parent-less children roamed the streets in search for food. Victims, delirious with

Throughout the decades in Europe, multiple catastrophes and events went down into the books of history. One of the most significant catastrophes that ignited the Renaissance was the Black Death. The plague was a widespread epidemic that spread across Asia then to Europe in the fourteenth century. In effect to this disaster humanism slowly ruptured, focusing on humans and their values or worth. After starting in Italy, humanism spread across Europe. Due to this ideology, new ways of life soared across the country. The effect was painters, engineers, inventors, sculptures, architects, and poets designed artwork, and buildings that started what Italy and Florence are known for today.

Many things changed from Medieval Times to the Renaissance. The catholic church saw it’s reign secede and individualism increase in the minds of the people of the time. Because of this, people in the Renaissance now looked at themselves in a way that was never seen before. Slowly but surely, the whole world changed. The rise in individualism and humanism signified a change in the way people thought about their purpose in life. In the Medieval Times, people believed that they were at the mercy of God, and they had no control over their own bodies or lives. From the change in Medieval Times to the Renaissance, whole fields were changed, especially art and the medical field, because of the rise of the individual and that way of life.

The Renaissance began in Florence, Italy around the 1500’s to about the 1700’s. Florence, Italy was the mecca of this rebirth because at the time Florence was extremely wealthy and the people of the city had political freedom and those new ideals of the Renaissance were not being condemned in Florence as they were other cities. This was a time where the arts and the logic of one’s own mind was valued rather than criticized, the antiquated medieval ideals no longer matched the needs of those who were living during the early Renaissance. Eventually, a term for this way of thinking arose and was called Humanism, and what humanism is, is an ideology where humans can lead themselves to create a prosperous life and instead of leaning on supernatural forces for answers. Humanists believe that humans have enough logic to create conclusions themselves. This brand-new way of thinking caused a lot of controversy because it did question God’s ability and the church’s power, but the ideas behind it are still heavily used today, even in the 21st century. Humanism in the early Renaissance is important because it called for thinking with reason, it allowed an appreciation for human body and mind, inspired authors and caused a shift in power.

With the arts the artists began to think on their own and those movements began to spread. It was not just what the church said anymore that was right. Humanism, one of the new beliefs which was formed during the Renaissance, said that people should read the works of the greats and focus on writing, and the arts. Humanists believed that they were equal with the ancient Greek and Roman writers and philosophers. Petrarch was the original humanist, and a writer who wrote many letters to the people of ancient Rome. In those letters he spoke as if he was an equal with them. Another of the new beliefs was scholasticism, which was the opposite of humanism. Scholastics thought that people should spend more time the sciences, they also wanted the church and science to be brought together as one. As new scientific discoveries were made many of the churches theories were beginning to be questioned.

Humanistic belief that ?the church should not rule civic matters, but should guide in only spiritual matters? (The Humanist Philosophy) led to the expansion in education that the Renaissance is known