Bubonic Plague Essay

The black plague, also known as the bubonic plague, swept its way across Europe beginning in 1346 A.D. , killing an estimated thirty to fifty percent of the total population. The plague was spread by fleas infected with Yersinia pestis, and was carried over oceans by hitchhiking rats and pet gerbils. The plague outbreak that decimated the population was transported by infected Christian merchants

The Bubonic Plague killed over twenty-five million people during the Elizabethan Era (David Perlin, PhD and Ann Cohen). “The origins of the Black Death can be traced back to the Gobi Desert of Mongolia in the 1320’s (Ed. Geoffrey J. et al).” The Bubonic Plague has picked up many nicknames. For example, it has been called “The Black Death,” and “one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse” (Ed. Geoffrey J. et al). The Bubonic Plague was very prominent during its time with many people’s lives being affected by the treatments, preventions, and twisted theories that occurred.

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 Great Plague of London claimed seventy five thousand to one hundred thousand lives of their population of four hundred sixty thousand, from 1664 to 1666. The epidemic raged through Cologne and the Rhine from 1666 to 1670, the Netherlands from 1667 to 1669, soon following it subsided in western Europe. This this was followed with outbreaks in North Africa, Poland, Hungary, Austria, and Germany. Malta lost eleven thousand people in 1675, Vienna lost at least seventy six thousand in 1679, and Prague lost eighty three thousand in 1681. Germany also was a victim of the plague’s carnage until it disappeared in Germany in 1683.

The Black Death was a plague that overwhelmed Europe at the beginning of the 1350's. During the time of the plague, nearly half of Europe's population was killed by the Black Death. Many people believe that it was brought to Europe via the trade routes to and from Asia. As soon as it arrived, the Bubonic Plague spread vigorously, claiming the lives of all ages. The insufficient knowledge of the plague, the lack of help from people, and the extinguished hope people felt during the period helped lead to the devastation of European society.

The Bubonic Plague came to Europe in 1347. It was brought on ships with goods from Asia. The disease followed on trade routes as it swept through Europe. The manure and trash in Europe helped the disease spread and hard to get away from since the disease was carried by rats. The plague began with swellings as big as apples. The swellings spread as the body started to be covered in dark spots and sickness set in (document

The Black Death swept through Asia, Europe and Africa during the 14th Century, killing between 50 to 90 percent of those who contracted it. The effect of the disease had significant consequence for Europe in particular. Trade and commerce virtually stopped. This caused a rapid rise in the prices of goods. Some people believed they were being punished by God and sought forgiveness; others looked for someone to blame.

The Bubonic Plague or the Black Death has been in the history books since the medieval times. This deadly disease has claimed nearly 1.5 million lives in Europe (Gottfried). The Black Death hit Europe in October of 1347 and quickly spread through most of Europe by the end of 1349 and continued on to Scandinavia and Russia in the 1350s. Not only did the plague effect the European population by killing one-third to two-thirds (Gottfried), it also hurt the social and economic structures of every European society.

The disease spread throughout Europe with astonishing speed and fatal consequences. By January 1348, the plague was in Marseilles. It reached Paris in the spring,

The Black Death started in China in the early 1330's. Since China was a major trading center, many rodents got clear access to leave and spread the disease to other countries' villages. They would travel on the ships to the other countries. They would also spread the disease to fleas, then that's how the people would get it. Once the disease was spread through trading, it went throughout Europe and infected the people around and through the villages there. When a village was infected with the plague, people would flee and look for new land if they didn't die. There were about 1,000 villages that were abandoned in England at that time. (textbook)

The pandemic known to history as the Black Death was one of the world’s worst natural disasters in history. It was a critical time for many as the plague hit Europe and “devastated the Western world from 1347 to 1351, killing 25%-50% of Europe’s population and causing or accelerating marked political, economic, social, and cultural changes.” The plague made an unforgettable impact on the history of the West. It is believed to have originated somewhere in the steppes of central Asia in the 1330s and then spread westwards along the caravan routes. It spread over Europe like a wildfire and left a devastating mark wherever it passed. In its first few weeks in Europe, it killed between 100 and 200 people per day. Furthermore, as the weather became colder, the plague worsened, escalating the mortality rate to as high as 750 deaths per day. By the spring of 1348, the death toll may have reached 1000 a day. One of the main reasons the plague spread so quickly and had such a devastating effect on Europe was ultimately due to the lack of medical knowledge during the medieval time period.

Over five year, 1347-1352, about 25 million people died from the Bubonic Plague in Europe. The Bubonic Plague started in Italy in the spring of 1348 and started to spread throughout Europe. This plague nearly killed between 25-50% of Europe population. This disease they believe came from almost everything what it came from. The Bubonic Plague was also known as the Black Plague and Black Death.

In the 1320’s the Plague erupts in the Gobi Desert in central Asia. By 1347 Black Death reaches Constantinople. In the Fall of 1347 the plague got two more places Alexandria, Egypt were struck by plague. October of the same year reaches Europe and the port of Messina Sicily. The fall and winter of 1347 Florence Italy struck by Black Death nearly sixty thousand die within a few months. December all of southern Italy and much of southern Europe were overcome by black

The Black Death, the bubonic plague, we’ve all heard about the illness that wiped out one third of Europe's population. The first outbreak of this terrible disease started in China in the 1330’s, and spread quickly through the rats that carried the disease; as well as fleas. This terrible disease killed many people, and did not die out until the 1600’s. For a better perspective, about twenty-five million people were killed in a span of five years.

(Diamond) Millions of Romans died during the fifteen-year epidemic. In the fourteenth century, the Black Death (bubonic plague) traveled from Central Asia to Europe and killed a third of Europe’s population. It continued to reappear periodically for the next 300 years. The Great Plague hit London in 1665 and was killing about 6,000 people a week by September. (Ponting) Close quarters and a lack of good sanitation helped perpetuate the problem.