The Bubonic Plague During The 13th Century

D1 - “The 1300s Bubonic Plague epidemic changed the path of world history”: agree/disagree, explain, then argue.

The Black Death, also called the Bubonic Plague, is one of the worst epidemic diseases.The Black Death was introduced by ship-borne rats from Black Sea areas, and spread along the trade routes from Asia into Europe. Throughout the years there have been many epidemics of this disease in Europe. Decades of overpopulation, economic depression, famine, and bad health weakened Europe’s population and made it easy for an epidemic of the Black Death to get started. It is estimated that 25,000,000 Europeans died from this disease (Kagan, Ozmant, and Turner 317).

The Bubonic Plague killed over twenty-five million people during the Elizabethan Era (David Perlin, PhD and Ann Cohen). “The origins of the Black Death can be traced back to the Gobi Desert of Mongolia in the 1320’s (Ed. Geoffrey J. et al).” The Bubonic Plague has picked up many nicknames. For example, it has been called “The Black Death,” and “one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse” (Ed. Geoffrey J. et al). The Bubonic Plague was very prominent during its time with many people’s lives being affected by the treatments, preventions, and twisted theories that occurred.

Bubonic plague is an infectious disease that is spread by the bacteria Yersinia pestis. These bacteria remain in a dormant state primarily in a rat flea’s foregut. Once the flea has bitten a victim it regurgitates the contents in its foregut into the bite location. Once the bacterium has entered into a mammal’s warm body it begins to reproduce and spread throughout the mammal’s body. The reproduction of this bacterium creates large painful swollen lymph nodes which are called buboes. Once these buboes get large enough they begin to ooze infected body fluid so that any contact between an infected person and a healthy person will facilitate the spread of this disease. (The Mayo Clinic Staff, 2012)

The Black Plague of the 14th Century And its effect on the European Nation All throughout history nations all over the world have dealt with deadly diseases, but one in particular brought out the fear in the nations of Europe, the bubonic plague or as others call it, the black death. During the thirteenth century, medicine was not as developed as it is now, causing England to suffer more than others. According to Cantor (2002) the European nations encountered the bubonic plague in its most brutal state during 1348 to 1349, taking out about a third of Europe’s population (pp. 6-7). He continues on by claiming that one big question to this event was whether or not the plague was the full cause to the loss of lives or if there was another cause along with it (p. 11). Cantor (2002) also explained that the reason the black plague stopped in Europe around the eighteenth century could possibly have been from an introduction to a new species of rats, the gray rat (p. 13). Even though there is controversy based around the plague being spread by rats and how it was stopped by isolation, it may have taught countries useful strategies and ways to grow stronger.

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

The plague was a catastrophic time in history, and happened more than once. It took millions and millions of people’s lives. It destroyed cities and countries, and many people suffered from it.

In the 14th century the Black Death engulfed Europe killing an estimated 50 million people. The pandemic is considered extraordinary because it did so in a matter of months. This disease was carried by fleas, the Bubonic Plague is caused by a bacteria called Yersinia pestis, found mainly in rodents, in this case in rats, and the fleas that feed on them.

The Great Plague of London claimed seventy five thousand to one hundred thousand lives of their population of four hundred sixty thousand, from 1664 to 1666. The epidemic raged through Cologne and the Rhine from 1666 to 1670, the Netherlands from 1667 to 1669, soon following it subsided in western Europe. This this was followed with outbreaks in North Africa, Poland, Hungary, Austria, and Germany. Malta lost eleven thousand people in 1675, Vienna lost at least seventy six thousand in 1679, and Prague lost eighty three thousand in 1681. Germany also was a victim of the plague’s carnage until it disappeared in Germany in 1683. France saw the end of the plague in 1668. The plague did not make another appearance until it showed itself again in Marseille in 1720, there it claimed at least forty thousand lives.

The black plague, also known as the bubonic plague, swept its way across Europe beginning in 1346 A.D. , killing an estimated thirty to fifty percent of the total population. The plague was spread by fleas infected with Yersinia pestis, and was carried over oceans by hitchhiking rats and pet gerbils. The plague outbreak that decimated the population was transported by infected Christian merchants

The Bubonic Plague, otherwise known as the Black Death, devastated the world between 1347 and 1351. Due to the plague being transmitted through fleas, many people were susceptible to the disease that wiped out much of the population. The plague caused much throughout Europe because of the number of lives lost, the number of people affected, and the limited amount of medical research that came from this period in time.

NAME COURSE PROFESSOR DATE The Causes and Effects of The Black Death The Bubonic Plague or the Black Death has been in the history books since the medieval times. This deadly disease has claimed nearly 1.5 million lives in Europe (Gottfried). The Black Death hit Europe in October of 1347 and quickly spread through most of Europe by the end of 1349 and continued on to Scandinavia and Russia in the 1350s. Not only did the plague effect the European population by killing one-third to two-thirds (Gottfried), it also hurt the social and economic structures of every European society.

The bubonic plague, or Black Death, was a devastating plague in the fourteenth century that wreaked havoc in Europe and the Middle East. In Europe the plague killed nearly one third of the population. In the Middle East it killed between twenty-five and thirty-three percent of the Egyptian and Syrian population (DBQ: The Black Death, 2010). However numbers are not the only evidence of how miserable the disease

During 1348- 1349, a devastating sickness swept over all of Western Europe that wiped out about half of the population. The Black Death, also known as The Plague and the Bubonic Plague, killed thousands over the span of two summers. The Black Death was caused by the bacteria Y. Pestis, which normally lives dormant in a flea's stomach. However, when a flea bites a rat, the rat becomes infected, which eventually leads to a human being infected. Since rats had a high abundance in 1348-1349, the disease was very easily spread to humans, where it then became airborne (pneumonic), bubonic, or spread throughout the blood, also known as systemic. (The Black Death).

The Black Death 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.