The Black Death : The Black Death Of The 14th Century

Reactions differed. Some escaped into alcohol, sex, and crime. Others, believing the Black Death to be a punishment from God, attempted to atone for their sins through self-inflicted pain. The Jews became scapegoats. People fled, carrying the plague with them. The resulting labor shortage could benefit peasants, although the demand for products was also reduced. When the ruling classes reduced wage rates there were peasant revolts. The ruling classes quelled the revolts, but social upheaval continued to plague the post-plague world.

In the year 1348 the world changed forever. The Black Death, which is another name for the Bubonic Plague, laid havoc on the entire world. “The plague chases the screaming without pity and does not accept a treasure for a ransom. Its engine is far-reaching. The plague enters into the house and swears it will not leave except with all of its inhabitants…” (Al-Wardi, #29, 113). The plague did not care if the people were rich, poor, white, black, Muslim or Catholic, it would kill whomever it could. The plague brought out the worst in people because people acted selfishly, people were completely inhumane, and there was no peace.

The Black Death was one of the most life-changing pandemics in history. It was first discovered 550 years later in the 1800s by Alexandre Yersin, a french biologist. In his honor, the plague was named Yersinia Pestis. The plague traveled in two major ways. Yersin discovered that it traveled by infected fleas; the flea would attempt to feed on a human or animal and would then regurgitate the disease into the new host, further spreading the illness. Urban areas across Europe were populous with rats, which were one of the main hosts of the plague. These rodents spread the Black Death throughout cities in days. The unaffected still were not safe if they did not come in contact with an infected flea or rat. The plague also traveled pneumonically, or through the air. It caused large boils full of blood and pus, which would pop and spread. Another symptom was coughing, which was one of the many ways of proliferation. The disease eventually spread throughout Europe and killed a third of it’s population. It’s wrath caused many shortages, loss in hope, riots, and even some good things, such as many changes in art, science, and education. Therefore, the Black Death was one of the most life-changing pandemics in history.

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

During the 13th centuries all the way to the mid-15th century, the European nation experiences tough moments, which defined their history and the nations. The Black Death was among the many distressing pandemics in the human history, which was contributing to the death of 75 to 200 million people with the most in Europe. There are different theories, which have been developed since then to explain the deaths. The most reliable, which is based on the DNA from the victims in northern and southern Europe is the existence of the pathogen known as Yersinia Pestis, which was responsible for the plague. From there Oriental rat fleas that were popular on merchant ships and then spread in Mediterranean and Europe carried it. The death and depopulation of many places in Europe were the main changes by the Black Death. Hundred Years War was a conflict between the kings and kingdoms of France and England during these time. These were wars that took place in three stages, and the war was between the Roman Empire and the Carthage. The battle took place at around 264 BC to 146 BC. The Roman nation had wanted to expand because at that time Carthage was powerful than the Roman Empire. As the war began, in the first stage of the war, the Carthage was mighty than Roman Empire, but at the end of the third stage, the Roman Empire had defeated Carthage and expanded its Empire. There was a transformation in Rome regarding the population. Many people decided to go to the cities and abandoned the

The Black Death, also known as the bubonic plague, was a disease that devastated Medieval Europe, between 1346 and 1352 it killed 45 million people, wiping out a third of Europe's population. Today, we know that there were many causes of the Black Death. Medieval towns had no system of drains, sewers or trash collections. In such slovenly conditions, germs could grow, and diseased rats could call these medieval towns their homes and infect the people who lived there. Many historians believed the plague originated in china and spread to other countries by trade routes. Infected people and/or infected rodents such as mice or black rats. The Black Death was caused by strains of the bubonic plague. The plague lived in fleas, and fleas lived on

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.

Amongst the devastation and despair the Black Death left in its wake, it also brought with it some much-needed change to the way medieval Europeans were living. Although it ended many innocent lives, it also began a new era of social and economic living. In the years following the first outbreak of the plague, medical knowledge and awareness of hygiene dramatically improved, as did the living and working conditions of the workers. Other benefits included the rapid growth of Europe’s middle class and thus the fall of the feudal system, the loss of the church’s supreme authority, and the increase in economic power for medieval women.

Appropriately nicknamed the “Black Death”, the plague often “began with swellings in the groin and armpit, in both men and women, some of which were as big as apples. (Doc 2)” The disease then “began to take on qualities of a deadly sickness, and the body would be covered with dark and livid spots, which would appear in great numbers. (Doc 2)” These symptoms were quickly followed by death. The lethalness of the disease is expressed in Document 4, which describes the burial of the deceased as “layers of cheese in a lasagna.” In other words, there were too many dead for each one to have his or her own grave. More concrete statistical evidence can be found in Documents 8 and 9. According to Document 8, population decline per region ranged from 20% to 37%, with over 4.5 million deaths in France, 1.2 million in England and Wales, and 16.2 million deaths throughout all of Europe combined. Document 9 also shows similar long term results as Europe’s population fell from 83 million to 60 million between 1345 and 1400. This astronomically high death rate didn’t only impact the emotional and social stability of all who remained alive, but also sent Europe into complete bankruptcy, destroying trade, agriculture, and

Wages rose, there was an oversupply of goods, and prices dropped. As a result of all of these contributing factors, the standard of living rose tremendously. A lot of the land could no longer be cultivated. With the post-Plague labor shortage, many nobles tried to keep their land and still make money. People took advantage of the labor shortage and demanded better terms from their owners and landlords. Governments tried to fix wages, but due to the high-demand, low-supply labor situation, they were unsuccessful and laborers continued to demand better treatment. All around the world, people were benefiting left and right from this plague that was widely (and accurately) considered to be unprecedentedly devastating. However, despite the horrific disease and death, there were some strangely positive effects as a result. (The Effects of the Black Death on the Economic and Social Life of

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

The Black Plague, also known as Black Death, the Great Mortality, and the Pestilence, is the name given to the plague that ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1351. It is said to be the greatest catastrophe experienced by the western world up to that time. In Medieval England, the Black Death killed 1.5 million people out of an estimated 4 million people between 1348 and 1350. There was no medical knowledge in England to cope with the disease. After 1350, it stroke England another six times by the end of the century.

As the middle ages came to a close, political theologians set forth a series of political ideologies that would help shape modern day democracy. The Black Death greatly affected the beliefs of the power in Catholic Church. With seemingly randomly mass death of the young and old, the peasant class began to revolt. While unrest occurred throughout Western Europe events like the conciliar movement called into question the emerging conceptions of limitations on rulers’ power. Theologian including John Wycliffe, William of Ockham, and Christine de Pizan all captured the number political ideas of the time. The events that defined this period in history helped shape what we have come to know and trust in our government.

“Nothing is so catching as the plague; now fanaticism, no matter of what nature, is only the plague of the human mind.” Hell on earth. Believed by many, a disease originated in the plains of central Asia and traveled significantly at the beginning of the year 1346. The disease rapidly spread throughout cities for centuries. Mostly found in rodents and their fleas, the disease was in fact a bacterial infection. This disease which resulted in a plague outbreak was known as the black death. There were three different forms of the black death being, the pneumonic form, the septicemic form, and the bubonic form.

The Bubonic Plague, more commonly referred to as the "Black Death," ravaged Europe between the years 1347 and 1350 (Herzog, 2000). During this short period, according to Herzog (2000), 25 million people (which were about one third of Europe's population at the time) were killed. In another article, Herlihy (1997), however, claimed that two thirds of Europe’s population were killed. Nevertheless, it is ascertained that thousands of people died each week and dead bodies littered the streets. Once a family member had contracted the disease, the entire household was doomed to die. Parents abandoned their children, and parent-less children roamed the streets in search for food. Victims, delirious with