The Black Death: A Pandemics In European History

On October 1347, twelve Genoese merchants’ ships arrived at the Sicily port of Messina, after returning from a long expedition at the Black Sea. The people, who waited on the shore to welcome the ships, were met with a disturbing bombshell, which would change the lives of the people of Messina and Europe forever. The citizens notice something strange before the ships even docked. Usually, each ship has about a crew of forty men; citizens on the shore could see only few sailors on. When the ships finally stopped at Messina, local

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.

Multiple factors contributed to the spread of this deadly plague, that historians believed originated in Asia and then spread along trade routes to Europe and England. Infected rats carrying fleas that were infected with the Plague took rides on boats and travelled through the routes. While this is how the Plague

The Bubonic Plague took the lives of many individuals in the heart of Florence. Its reign affected “not just that of men and women…but even sentient animals” (Stefani). While the plague only lasted a mere six months, from March 1348 – September 1348, it is a piece of time that society should forever acknowledge and learn from. Much of the significant information from the Bubonic plague are unbeknownst to people today, even though it possesses such an importance aspect in our history. Therefore, in this essay, I will discuss the effects the plague had on the people of Florence, and how the appearance of this plague brought about short and long term historical change what we see today.

The first signs of the plague in Europe occurred in 1347 in Sicily. Once it was brought over the plague was almost impossible to contain, as it was extremely contagious. The swift, painful deaths had Europeans cowering. Caregivers and priests faced the biggest risk as they were the ones in most contact with the sick and dying. Eventually most died or refused to treat the sick. Priests also retreated; they decreed that Last Rights could be performed by others. With such an unpredictable and untreatable illness the only

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.

The Black Death “bubonic plague” was not picky when choosing its victims during the medieval times and thrived in heavily populated areas. The symptoms of the Black death were, “boils the size of eggs in their groins and armpits, black blotches on their skin, foul odors, and severe pain” (The Earth and its People pg. 309). The sudden occurrence of the Black Death is still not fully known, but “The origins of the Black Death can be traced back to the Gobi Desert of Mongolia in the 1320s.” ( Geoffrey), by fleas, mosquitoes, and rats transferring the Yersinia pestis bacteria. The plague had major effects on trade, the economy, social status, and the religion of Europe and China. However, out of all the bad things about the Black Death, good

The ships from the east well carried it. with the plague everyone thought different thought it came from the east and none knows what it really is and that it comes from trade routes through like Europe ,China and is affecting a lot of people love ones . People have to leave their loves ones behind.

When the plague first reached Europe, people panicked. In hopes of survival, many began to abandon what they had and moved to villages and country sides in hope of fleeing from the disease. “Children abandoned the father, husband abandoned the wife, wife the husband, one brother the other, one sister the other…. Some fled to villas, others to villages in order to get a change in air. Where there had been no [plague], there they carried it; if it was already there, they caused it to

In the year 1348, in Florence, Italy, the first incidence of the Black Death was experienced. It originated from the east, and it had made its way into the West after destroying a large number of people in different places. Speculations about the cause of the Black Death were numerous, but some people believed that the disease came from God, and started to pray and repent. Some thought they only could escape the plague by running away from it. Some theorized Infected fleas on rats and then to man was responsible.

The purpose of the source was to tell me what the effects were of the Black Death. Book "Italy: history to 1796. " Hutchinson Encyclopedia. 2011. eLibrary.

A group of Italian merchants, expelled from their trading post had taken refuge in the fortified city of Caffa, on the Black Sea. Tensions between the Christian merchants from Italy and the local Muslims residents erupted into street brawls. The minor skirmish soon became a war, the Muslims sought help from their local Mongol prince to lay siege to the Italians inside the walls

The Black Death is known to have originated in Kaffa in the Crimea by 1343. The plague spread from the surrounding lands of the Golden Horde then southwards into the Caucasus, heading west into the Crimea. Upon entering the Crimea, it traveled southwards along the coast of the Black Sea to the Circassians, the Abkhazians and the Armenians where it spread into the Asia Minor, the Middle East and Persia (Benedictow 2004, 35-50).

The flea carrying the bacterium began to look for a new host. Fleas then spread bacterium to human population. Scholars have argued that The Black Death originated in Asia. The Black Death had a mortality rate of 65 million individuals . A selective number of scholars believe the origin of The Black Death began in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, Somewhere in-between India, China and Burma. The Black death is thought to have reached china by the 1330’s. (popwich 2015, p.) The origins of The Black Death have yet to be confirmed.

The black death came from China through communication of trade in The High Middle ages. Due to Western Europe's lack of education and hygiene, the black death spread quickly and was almost always fatal. For many, the Black Death affected them directly, but even survivors and future generation’s lives were changed forever. During the high middle ages in western Europe the black death changed the church’s power & relationship with its followers, the importance of the manor system and people’s expression through art.