The Black Death hit the shores of Europe in October 1347. After a long a tough journey, through the Black Sea, twelve ships or Genoese docked at the Sicilian Port. Those who greeted the ships had a horrifying site of dead sailors and the sailors who were alive were greatly ill. It is said that the sailors had awful fevers, were not able to keep food down, and they were covered in black boils that oozed blood and puss. This is where the name Black Death came from. Although the ships were ordered to leave the port, the Black Death claimed the lives of over 20 million people, about one third of the continent’s population during that time, over the next five year.1 In October 1347, twelve ships arrived at the port of Messina in Sicily. This town was one of the stopping points of the trade route from the East that brought silks and spices through the Old Silk Road, then through Crimea, across the Black Sea and into Europe. However, this time there were no silks and spices. The port authorities found scarcely anyone on board. Those who were found on board, had black boils and everything that came out of their body smelled awful. The very presence of the sailors was said to “deem public health” and were ordered to leave the port.2 The Black Death has been thought to be a mixture of bubonic, septicemic and pneumonic plague. A plague is a disease that are carried by rodents and is endemic to a number of regions of the world. The plague bacillus lives in the bloodstream of small
History’s Turning Points: The Black Death described what the Black Death (also commonly called the plague) was and how it spread. The Black Death was a deadly disease epidemic that occurred from 1348 to 1350. It started in Central Asia and eventually spread to Europe. In just two short years, the disease had taken the lives of over 20 million people. The disease was caused by infected fleas which were carried and spread by black rats. At this point in time, no one knew that the rats carried the disease. These infected rats eventually boarded merchant ships. These merchant ships then unknowingly spread the disease by transporting the stowaway black rats during their travels. Italian merchants who were escaping the war in Central Asia, were thought to be the first to accidentally transport the disease to Europe on their ships. After a few days of traveling, many sailors became ill and began to die. Once the ships arrived in Europe and it became known there were sick and dead sailors on board, many port cities tried to refuse their entry. The cities were trying to shield themselves from the disease. Eventually, the ships were able to dock for a short while, which is all the time the rats needed to escape to shore. Once in Europe, the disease spread quickly just as it had in Central Asia.
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.
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
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 arrived in Europe in October of 1347. It was brought by twelve Genoese trading ships that docked at the Sicilian port of Messina after a lengthy expedition through the Black Sea. The people that were gathered on the docks to meet the twelve ships were greeted with a terrifying surprise: the majority of the sailors that were on they ship were dead, and the ones that were still alive were somberly ill. They had fevers, were unable to hold down food, and were delirious from pain. They were covered with big black boils that oozed pus and blood. The illness was named the “Black Death” because of the black boils.
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.
“Based on published translations of the de’ Mussi manuscript, other 14th-century accounts of the Black Death, and secondary scholarly literature, I conclude that the claim that biological warfare was used at Caffa is plausible and provides the best explanation of the entry of plague into the city. This theory is
Sickness times a thousand equals the Black Death. In our world, many disasters have occurred, causing terrible damage emotionally, physically, and mentally. However, I believe that the Black Death is the worst disaster to have occurred throughout our world’s history. It all started in 1348, when trading ships from different countries around Europe settled at the port of Messina, Sicily. Once the ship dropped their anchor many of their sailors were found dead, and the few surviving carried with them the deadly disease so dangerous that it would quickly lead to death. Scientists researched and concluded that the disease started from Central Asia (Mongolia), when fleas on rats boarded the many ships from Europe. The fleas got on the sailors’ skin and started killing them instantly. However, many thought that the disease had originated from the Far East and was spread along many major trade routes. When the people of Sicily finally started finding out what was causing the death, they closed their port and trading system with other countries. (Wikipedia) The ships were forced to anchor somewhere else in other countries, which allowed the disease to spread even more quickly. I believe that the Black Plague was a disastrous event that affected all aspects and the future of European and Central Asian society, their political and economic environment, and their future advancement to medicine.
Causing so many deaths this disease will forever be known as the Black Death. The Black Plague, also known as the Black death, came to Europe in 1347 and ended in 1351. There are many different stories about how the Black Plague came to be. Some people believe that the black plague was spread by sailors coming from a journey through the Black Sea. They were heading to a port in the Mediterranean to trade their goods. When the boat docked, many people went towards the boat to see what these men had brought. To their surprise, almost all of the sailors were dead; those who were not dead were extremely sick. Boils that oozed blood and pus were all over their bodies, along with other symptoms including
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.
The Black Plague, also referred to as the Black Death, is a plague that wiped out more than one-third of Europe in the 14th century. The Black Death derived its name from its symptoms, which were horrid black boils that oozed fluid as well as delusions caused from pain. Besides the boils there were many other symptoms that included vomiting, lack of ability to keep down food and many others. Ultimately the plague was very infectious and fatal. The plague before spreading to Europe came from China. The plague arrived in Europe by ships that sailed the Black Sea in 1348. When the ships docked, most of the crew and sailors were dead or severely sick. The plague spread through Italy and across Europe by June of 1348. Over the course of two
(Source 3) The Black Death arrived in Europe by ship in October 1347 when 12 Genoese trading ships docked at the Sicilian port of Messina after a long journey through the Black Sea. They were overcome with fever, unable to keep food down and delirious from pain. Strangest of all, they were covered in mysterious black boils that oozed blood and pus which gave the illness its name: the “Black Death.” Overall, the Black Death killed many people, which caused a huge change in medieval Europe. This is evident because there was a peasant uproar threatening the feudal structure; there were fewer labourers to do twice as much work; and the churches authority was question.
The Black Death resulted in the death of over 25 million people and one third of Europe’s people from 1347 to 1352. This disease originated in China in the early 1330’s and started to spread to Western Asia and Europe through trade. The bubonic plague, aka Black Death, affects rodents mostly but fleas can transmit disease to people. Once a one person is infected, it was easily transmitted. The plague caused fever and swelling of the lymph glands. It also caused red spots on the skin, but then turned into black spots. During the winter the plague seemed to vanish, but came back and happened in waves. The aftermath of the Black Death had a major impact on, literature, religion, and the economy.
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.