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Dbq Black Death

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It is true that the effect the Black Death had on society at the time was not just reduction in population numbers. The Black Death was a disease carried by fleas and rats. It reached Europe around 1347. Some internet sites say it killed 20 million people in Europe which was one third or more of its population at the time contrasting to other sites which say it killed 25-50% and some that say 25 million. We don’t know for sure how many people were killed but we can have a rough estimate that about 20-25 million of Europe’s population died. The drop in population was a serious affect although it wasn’t the only one. Even though most of the issues that occurred as of the Black Death were linked back to the decrease in population the Black Death …show more content…

The plague spread quickly from Asia to Europe along the Silk Road. The reason why the Black Death was able to kill so many people was that it was spread through rats and fleas. Which were small enough to travel to different areas throughout the world without being seen, or noticed. Rats would often board a boat with humans without being seen. Boats were used for trade in medieval times as they could travel to more places than people could by foot. However boats were also the main carrier of the plague. The plague was easily spread by boats as once the ill and the rats departed the ship and had entered a village they would begin to infect the people who lived there. The rats that had been infected by the disease would run around and hide in the villages, meaning that if you lived in a place that was not very hygienic you had a pretty likely chance of becoming infected. This meant that one by one village’s population were dramatically decreasing, with peasants, doctors and monks being the first to go. This was because peasants lived in worse conditions than nobles and higher classed people and were more susceptible to the disease. Monks and doctors were also susceptible to the disease as they would often care for, talk to and meet with people who were ill. The Black Death was a dangerous disease that decreased medieval society’s population

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