The Black Death And Its Effect On Society

Black death was a bubonic plague, which took the lives of millions of people in the mid 1300s. This plague was caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis, which lived in fleas. Therefore, transmitting the bacteria to its rodent hosts every time they would feed. The bacteria then killed the rodents leaving the fleas without hosts to feed on and in result they would feed on the humans. (Bailey 7-12) Most people who were infected would last two to three days before they died, no longer than two to three weeks. The plague moved rapidly, medical researchers believe it could have moved as fast as eight to twelve miles a day. The plague was first encountered in China and it spread through Asia and into Europe in a

The Black Death was the worst epidemic in the history of the world to date. The plague killed off more than a third of the total European population during the mid-1300’s. Several people believed that the plague was punishment from God for the sins of man, while others believed it was brought about by natural causes, and there were yet others who did not care where or why the plague came but only how they could better their own lives.

The Black Death discusses the causes and results of the plague that devastated medieval Europe. It focuses on the many effects it had on the culture of medieval Europe and the possibility that it expedited cultural change. I found that Robert S. Gottfried had two main theses in the book. He argued that rodent and insect life cycles, as well as the changing of weather systems affect plague. He claimed that the devastation plague causes is partly due to its perpetual recurrences. Plague ravaged Europe in cycles, devastated the people when they were recuperating. As can be later discovered in the book, the cycles of plague consumed the European population. A second thesis, which he described in greater detail,

The black death came through Western Europe from 1348-1949. The black death is a deadly disease that killed huge amounts of people. Some names that the black death is known as are the “Bubonic Plague”, “Black Plague”, and “The Plague”. The Black Death is a disease that was spreaded quickly and that is how it killed so many people. It spreaded through cough and touching and thats why it spread so quickly everywhere. The black death was deadly because it caused the skin to die, swelling, pain then death. The black death was a powerful disease and caused many changes to take place in the society.

Life was very busy for me in 1300’s, I travelled through many countries and continents following the trail of dead bodies. I am death. I have lived forever. I will live until no human lives no more. I will continue collecting the souls of the deceased on earth and taking them to rest in the light blue place beyond. I lived through the Black Death watching on as the world experienced the disastrous effects.

The Black Death was one of the worst pandemics in history. The disease ravaged Europe, Western Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa between 1346 and 1353 (Horrox 1994). It is difficult to understand the reality of such a devastating event, especially given the fact that science during the middle ages was severely underdeveloped. No one knew about bacteria, viruses, or other microbial agents of disease (Benedictow 2004). They had no way of protecting themselves during that time and no one was safe from the effects of the plague. Those who wrote chronicles claimed that only a tenth of the population had survived, while others claimed that half to a third of the population was left alive (Horrox 1994). In 1351, agents for Pope Clement VI predicted the number of deaths in Europe to be 23,840,000 (Gottfried 1983). Obviously, not all regions experienced the same mortality rates, but modern estimates of the death rate in England give the first outbreak a mortality rate of about forty-eight percent (Horrox 1994). That is, England lost half of its population in about a year and a half. Clearly the chroniclers ' who claimed that ninety percent of the population had died were overstating the magnitude of the plague, but this overemphasis demonstrates how terrifying the pandemic was to those who experienced it (Horrox 1994). The Black Death had huge consequences on the lives of those who were impacted directly, as well as major religious and cultural effects that came afterward.

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

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.

One of the well known massive disasters that happened in the history of European is the “Black Death.” This fatal plague led to huge loss of between 17 million and 28 million lives in whole Europe. It took place from 1345 to 1353 and the death arrived by sea during the time when twelve Genoese trading ships had actually docked at the Sicilian port after travelling through the Black Sea. A horrifying surprise befell the individuals who were gathering on the docks when they realized that a great number of sailors had died, and the lucky sailors were extremely ill. In addition, they were covered by mysterious black boils which oozed pus and blood (Cohn, pg 514). This is why they named this kind of illness as the “Black Death.” Then what followed were other various symptoms such as vomiting, fever, diarrhea, chills, severe aches and extraordinary pains- and then death.

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

The church could not save people from this disease, so it led to many people questioning and giving up on their religion. Doctors did not understand the origin of the disease, so most civilians believed the cause of the Black Death was from supernatural powers. They saw the disease as divine punishment, which is god punishing them. Many people thought they could beat themselves to atone for their supposed sins. The church lost power and influence in society because they failed to protect the civilians and the clergy from the horrid diseases. Many civilians lost faith and found a scapegoat to blame for the cause of the plague. The most popular scapegoat in the 14th century plague was the Jews. This religious group was accused of creating and spreading the plague because most Jews were merchants and the diseased rats were carried by the merchants. Persecution of the Jews continued out through the late Middle

In the middle ages people had no idea about how any disease such as the Black Death could spread. The Europeans think “it disseminated by the influence of the celestial bodies, or sent upon them by God in his just wrath” (Boccaccio). In other words, they think the plague came from the sky or sent by God. They think maybe it is God’s way of cleansing the earth or punishing them for their unfair behaviors. Some think that a supernatural origin caused the disease. This disease is a bacterium infection which has a variety of symptoms, such as, nose bleeding, tumors in the groin or armpits and black spots or

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.

In the Later Middle Ages, from 1300 to 1450, a plague is seen spreading and killing mass amounts of people in Europe, this plague would later be named the Black Death. Starting in China in 1331 and then spreading to Europe by cargo ships in 1347. During the Later Middle Ages the climate also changed, dropping the temperature, killing crops, and freezing water supplies. During this period there were also multiple crisis that began to pop up, and not many can be attributed to the Black Death. One must take each event and look for causation case-by-case rather they labeling all with the same brush stroke.

There have been many catastrophes throughout history, but none of them have had an impact upon society like the infamous Black Death. One of the reasons Black Death was so serious is it can be transmitted in various ways. The catastrophe known as the Black Death has influenced modern society in many ways. Some of the ways Black Death influenced society is economically, socially, and scientifically.