The origins of the Black Death can be traced back to the Gobi Desert of Mongolia in the 1320s. The cause of this sudden eruption of the plague is not exactly known. From the desert, it spread out in all directions. Of most importance was the spread eastward to China. China suffered an emergence of bubonic plague during the early 1330s. During the expansion of trade during the Early and High Middle ages, trade routes with China were strengthened and ventured greatly. European traders, particularly those from the Italian city states, traveled the Black Sea region regularly. Surviving documents show that one group of traders from Genoa arrived in Sicily In October of 1347, fresh from a voyage to China. This was most likely the introduction of the plague to European lands. Along with the Chinese goods on board, the traders carried the bacterium yersinia pestis in the rats on board as well as in some of the sailors themselves. The Black Death had arrived in Europe.
From Sicily, the plague spread at an alarming rate. The speed at which it spread and killed, as well as the horror which accompanied the diseased, caused a panic in the Italian population. Families were forced to abandon members who were sick. Lawyers refused to form wills for the dying. Entire monasteries were wiped out when they attempted to care for the dying, which caused great fear in charitable organizations. Other European countries looked toward Italians as being the cause of the plague, and there were many
From the Mediterranean, the Bubonic plague spread along the Indian Ocean and from the Indian Ocean, it spread to China. As the Bubonic plague spread to China, it became very easy to keep spreading along the Silk Road, and eventually hit Europe where the deadliest “Black Death” occurred in 1347. This plague killed approximately 25-35 million people, which made up a third of the human population. This whole thing began when the Mongols launched an attack on the Italian merchant’s last trading station in the region. Then in 1346, plague broke out among the besiegers and from them entered into the town. Later attempting to flee the plague, the Italian merchants fled to their ships, unknowingly carrying the diseases with them. The diseases were also spread from place to place by fleas on rats, or other kinds of rodents who traveled along these trade routes. The Indian Ocean and Silk Road are similar in that the Bubonic Plague spread throughout both trade networks because since trade was very popular and happened all the time, people unknowingly would catch the disease from one place, only to be spreading it to their next stop, causing it to spread across the regions very
As was we all know that The Black Death is one of the tragic events in world history and it has effected many civilizations in early 1300s. This has made many devastating trends within Europe’s borders and raged with many diseases, and other infections. Not only this pandemic event has effected many people, but it has transform Europe’ political, religious, and cultural practices. The Black Death became an outbreak and painful change to western civilization in which it marked history
The black death affected Europe because it killed over a third of its population. In all, the black death killed twenty million people in Europe. People fled their homes, families, and friends because they did not want to get infected with the plague. The Plague reduced the population of the world from 450 million to 375 million. Seven thousand people died per day in Cairo. Three Fourths of Florence’s residents were buried in makeshift graveyards. The disease even spread to the isolated outposts Greenland and Iceland. However, the Black Death set the scene for modern medicine. Growing increasingly frustrated about diagnoses with the Black Plague, educators began to place a greater emphasis on medicine.
The Black Death was one of the most devastating worldwide diseases in human history. The plague originated in central Asia and was brought to China by traders and Mongols from 1334-1347. Mongol protection of the trade may have caused the disease to spread along the “Silk Road” to Crimea. During a Mongol siege against Caffa in 1347, the Mongolian army began to die. The Mongols catapulted the dead bodies into the city where the fleas on the corpses were released into Caffa. In the year 1347, October, Genoese traders escaped from the city and sailed to Messina, an Italian port, unaware that they were infected by the disease. Eventually, everyone on the ship died and a “ghost ship” made it to port. Seeing no activity on board, the ship was
The black was a bubonic diseases that spread from fleas on rats which is called yersinia pestis. This disease called the black plague is very deadly and has no cure which caused a lot of fear. It started in China and then spread to Europe in 1347 killing two thirds of their population in five years. Some of the symptoms were a black tongue, acral necrosis and swollen nodes, also the black plague caused a really bad smell which they tried to use herbs to help get rid of the smell. Some people used the black plague to their advantage by using this tactic called biological warfare in wars which means they basically killed their opponents by germs they did this by shooting those affected by the black plague at their opponent causing them to get
Assuming that the Jewish people caused the Black Plague, there are actually variety of possible reasons that are not related to people. Something that really was a major issue was, bacteria and viruses we're largely unknown to medical workers. Rather than Jewish people causing the plague, historians assume that the Black Plague was caused by bacterial strains. Fleas are also to blame because they carried the illness and they jumped to the black rats, when the rats would die the fleas would cling on to any living thing. The plague was easily spread among the trade routes. The plague had started in Asia and it was slowly spread to Europe. Reasons why the plague was spread so quickly among Europe was because the entire population of Europe lived
The Black Plague or Black Death was an outbreak of a disease that was spread through rats, feces, fleas, and physical contact. The epidemic began in China, where, during wars, soldiers hurled infected bodies at Italian soldiers, consequently the physical contact. The Italians would go back home on their ships, which was infested with rats and fleas. Unknowingly, they would spread the newfound disease amongst those they came into contact with when they returned to Italy. In the spring of 1348, the disease reached Italy and began to spread like wildfire. Three years later, the Plague had already taken 25%-50% of Europe’s population. The Black Plague was so devastating due to the ignorance of it, trade routes, and fear.
In Medieval Europe, many people thought “bad air” was the cause of the Black Plague (Document K). Back in the Middle Ages, the Black Plague was a very severe disease that went around Europe and Asia. It killed about 1/3 of the population and lasted 3 years (Background Information). The disease was carried by rats. It had gotten to the humans by fleas, which had gotten the plague by the rats (The True Cause of the Plague). The effects of the black plague in Medieval Europe were a decrease in the population and economy, new jobs for the serfs, and religion.
However, around 1346 a war broke out between the people of Genoese city and the Tartars. At this time, the first recorded epidemic was noted. The Tartars in retaliation intentionally spread the disease by dragging or catapulting around the bodies of the dead in Crimea. This was intended to use the plague to extinguish their enemies, according to this legend. In a panic, the inhabitants left Genoese city and sought to find refuge in the west. As the Genoese people tried to start their lives elsewhere, they unknowingly spread the infection to unsuspecting neighbors and their families. In 1348, the plague ravaged Italy as the ships
The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were a particularly dreadful time in Europe. The fourteenth century was so bad it is regularly referred to as the calamitous century. During this timeframe the Hundred Years War between France and England occurred. Additionally, there were major upheavals in the power and structure of the Catholic Church. Finally, the Black Death wiped out an estimated one-third of the population of Western Europe. This Black Death or Bubonic Plague was the primary cause of the massive economic and social changes in Europe during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The sheer number of deaths attributed to the plague led to a series of other unfortunate events such as famine and war that compounded the problems and led to the calamity. The Black Death was so well known that it shaped basically all vestiges of art and literature from this timeframe.
The black death is believed to have began in central Asia in the mid-thirteen hundreds, and killed millions. After it spread across Asia it was then carried down the Silk Road reaching Crimea by 1343. Scientists believe that the plague was carried by fleas on rodents, such as rats, being normal passengers traveling on merchant ships across the Mediterranean. The fleas were believed to have bacteria called Yersinia pestis, which is commonly present in the flea population on ground rodents in certain areas such as Central Asia, Kurdistan, Western Asia, Northern India, and Uganda. Scientists believe that all three outbreaks of the epidemic began in China. The disease was devastating to the economy of Europe and Asia, making it hard for people to find employees, and forcing them to pay higher wages. The plague was supposedly
The Black death was able to drastically change many countries and regions. The black death was able to topple political regimes and religious regimes that had been in power for many years. The populations of countries shrunk due to the Black Death. The epidemic left a third of Europe’s population dead. In China the population went from 120 million to 80 million over the course of a century because of the death. Farmers were affected which led to famine because of the inability to produce food. Without food it led to rising prices, work stoppages and unrest. Because of the issues that the Black Death was causing countries needed to be able to make drastic changes in order to revive their nations. In China, the families that were ruling started to claim that their power was coming from the divine calling. Many other countries tried similar things to attempt to regain confidence in their country. In Europe, the struggles that the death was causing gave rise to new models and new forms of governance that attempted to turn around the country. Some of the changes that were caused because of the death were able to help the countries. The Black Death was able to bring radical political change to many countries while forcing governments to asses all of their policies and make sure that they are the right ones for their country. Therefore, the Black Death could be seen as having a mixed legacy as it did kill an unbelievable amount of people but it also forced countries to reexamine
The spread of the plague was understood by people in terms of its transmission through air and through contact with the ill. During the course of the Black Death it was well known that those who came into contact with those stricken with the illness soon became the likeness. This posed a problem for those within the same household, if one became afflicted, all were taken with the same form of the disease. As advised by medieval physicians the most effective way of avoiding the plague was to flee the affected
The causes of the Black Death – the flea, the rat, and the bacillus Yersinia pestis– have been labeled the “unholy trinity” (Boeckl). The flea is able to live in environmental conditions of about 74° Fahrenheit and 60% humidity (Ibid). Before the Black Death reached Europe, they were experiencing those same types of weather conditions. The rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis and the human flea, Pulex irritans, are both capable of transmitting plague (Boeckl). Sometimes, an infected flea cannot ingest blood because Yersinia pestis obstructs its digestive tract. The blockage causes a flea to regurgitate into a bitten host rather than ingest the host’s blood, thereby infecting the host with plague (Boeckl). Unable to eat, the famished flea will bite with more frequency, accelerating the spread of plague. A flea can be carrying Yersinia pestis without it blocking the flea’s digestive tract, in which case the flea does not transmit plague when it bites a host. Also, Yersinia pestis can only enter a victim through a bite, as the bacilli cannot pass through intact skin (Gottfried).
At the time, the Black Death, also known as the Bubonic Plague, was going around which was a very nasty and deadly disease that began in 1328 AD in Asia. It was bacteria that fleas were infected with and when humans were bitten, they were then infected which caused the spread of the disease. Of course it had a great effect. It spread through Central Asia, China, and Western Europe. It swept through Italy then went through France,Spain, Germany, England, and other parts of North America and Europe. Town population began to fall, prices would go up when trade was declined so trade decreased, serfs would leave their owners and look for better jobs, and Jews were sacred all around Europe, etc. Back in this time, people didn't really have any knowledge on germs and thought people were just poisoned. Of the bumps and boils that came with the disease, some people would use a knife or something to get into them and draw out the poison and some people would survive by this method. Giovanni Boccaccio, an italian writer during the time, said “This scourge had implanted so great a terror in the hearts of men and women that brothers abandoned brothers, uncles their nephews, sisters their brothers, and in many cases wives deserted their husbands. But even worse, . . . fathers and mothers refused to nurse and assist their own children.”