The Black Death Epidemic In The Middle Ages

In 1348-1350 the Black Death kills one-third of the English population including Kind Edwards daughter. War alone was taking lives everywhere much less the Black Death and other diseases that took a fearsome toll (Merriman 84, 176). The Black Death affected more than ninety percent of Europe’s population, some not directly but family members and such. Plague ravaged through many countries causing them a downfall to a lack of soldiers and the sickness was rampant across many countries. The Black Death wiped out about sixty percent of Europe’s population of eighty million at the time, which calculates to about fifty million (The Black Death: The Greatest Castrophe Ever). The population did not reach the level it had been in the 1300’s until about 1550, then it began to rise rapidly but Europeans still took precaution with the disease. For the next century, births and deaths remained balanced with higher mortality rates wiping out whole cities due to this disease that spread like wildfire. Europe only began to recover during the second half of the fifteenth century because of the disease became less rampant and started to die down, as well as wars (Merriman

People started to abandon cities and run off to the country side where it was believed to be a safer place to live, away from all other people. It is known that some family members would leave their own loved ones who had contracted the plague and venture to clean areas. Doctors would refuse treatment on the sick in hopes that they could somehow be spared for the epidemic. Yet there was one group of people who as a whole looked out for those who were sick: the clergy of the Catholic Church. Priests, nuns, and monks were typically the only glimmer of hope for the sick. With everyone else shunning the sick or abandoning them, those with the plague were happy to receive whatever help they could get.

"The Black Death" is known as the worst natural disaster in European history. The plague spread throughout Europe from 1346-1352. Those who survived lived in constant fear of the plague's return and it did not disappear until the 1600s. Not only were the effects devastating at the time of infection, but during the aftermath as well. "The Black Death" of the fourteenth century dramatically altered Europe's social and economic structure.

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, also known as the Black Plague, was a rapid infectious outbreak that swept over Europe and Asia in the mid-1300s resulting in the death of millions of people. Tentatively, this disease started in the Eastern parts of Asia, and it eventually made its way over to Europe by way of trade routes. Fever and “dark despair” characterized this plague. The highly contagious sickness displayed many flu-like symptoms, and the victim’s lymph nodes would quickly become infected. The contamination resulted in a colossal and rapid spread of the disease within one person’s body. Due to the lack of medical knowledge and physicians, there was little that people could do to save those dying all around them. Now that a better understanding of

The plague, otherwise known as “the Black Death”, brought on much turmoil and suffering for the habitants of Pistoia. Numerous ordinances were put into effect with the primary goal of limiting the spread of the plague as well as to keep the city as healthy as possible. These ordinances typically focused on confinement, i.e. no one goes to Pisa and Luca and no one from Pisa and Luca is allowed to enter Pistoia (ordinance 1), how death and burials are to be processed (ordinances 3-12), and how butchers were to handle their animals and animal carcasses (ordinances 13-19). Essentially, confinement was targeted in hopes of stopping the spread of the infection while keeping the city isolated. Secondly, how the bodies of plague victims and their

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.

From 1347 to 1352 a string of the bubonic plague lay waste to western Europe, killing millions. In Italy, nearly a third of the population died; in England, half. The plague was a looming presence, always in the back of people’s minds. The symptoms of the Black Death caused great strife for westerners. Giovanni Boccaccio, an Italian writer and poet, described the symptoms he saw during the first outbreak of the plague: “Not such were they as in the East, where an issue of blood from the nose was a manifest sign of inevitable death; but in men a women alike it first betrayed itself by the emergence of certain tumors in the groin or the armpits, some of which grew as large as a common apple, others as an egg, some more, some less, which the common folk called gavoccioli.” Both Italy and England desperately searched for answers, claiming that the Black Death was the cause of a higher force, but realising that the squalor of their countries also played a part in spreading the illness. Although Italy and England both had a common explanation for the cause of the plague and they both implemented better public health standards, they adopted different public health practices after the plague.

The Black Death, the most severe epidemic in human history, ravaged Europe from 1347-1351. This plague killed entire families at a time and destroyed at least 1,000 villages. Greatly contributing to the Crisis of the Fourteenth Century, the Black Death had many effects beyond its immediate symptoms. Not only did the Black Death take a devastating toll on human life, but it also played a major role in shaping European life in the years following.

When the plague came to Paris, the rich fled the city, leaving the disease to be “principally directed towards the poor”(Nicolas Versoris 3). Nicolas Versoris was a French author, and most likely one of the rich to leave Paris. When he wrote about this in Book of Reasons, he may have felt ashamed of how many of the poor died after he fled. Additional people, like Nehemiah Wallington, feared for who in their family would get infected and die. The public would cut the hair off the dead bodies of the tainted because they were afraid the plague was spread through wigs. When the Black Death stuck Europe once again in 1722, foreign exportation with France, Holland, Spain, and Italy was stopped because these nations were concerned the plague would spread through trade. All of these countries had seen what the plague would do if it were to spread, so they practically quarantined Europe in an attempt to keep the Black Death contained.

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 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.

Firstly, the doctors used the dried flowers, herbs and spices in their beak mask to protect themselves against the bacteria. Secondly, if a person got infected by the plague, they must be put to bed and they should be washed with vinegar and rose water because the vinegar use for antibacterial to stop the plague to spread. After that, they used the leeches to bloodsucking in the human body because by this

One of the most terrifying moments of human life would emerge in the 14th century, the Black Death. The Black was transferred, according to studies, by rats on ships traveled from Asia to Europe. Within four years, (1347-1351) most of Asian, European, and Middle Eastern people were infected. Socially and religiously, nothing worked like before, and people lived as if it was their last day. Jews were executed and accused of creating the plague by poisoning the wells. The Catholic Church lost its credibility when it came to explaining the disease. This lead to the evolution of Protestantism. The Black Death exterminated one to two third of the European population, about 25 million in Asia, interrupted the progress of science and intellectual

The 14th century was full of death, confusion and failed expectations. Although, it looked like things were turning around in the 13th century with intellectuals and philosophers, this shortly changed after natural disasters in Europe. One of these disasters was the Black Death. The Black Death was a virulent combination of bubonic, septicemic and pneumonic plague (). This plague caused a decrease in Europe’s population and people were dying by the thousands.