The Cause Of The Black Death

During the fourteenth century a disease ravaged across the middle east that calculated up to fifty million deaths and impoverished half of Europe. This disastrous disease had attained the nick-name, “Black Death”, referring to its high fatality rate. The plague, as some may call it, scattered amongst the whole world taking many lives because of the lack of medical attention or treatment and is even still around till this day. The Black Death is best understood through its symptoms, treatments, and death toll changing life in the fourteenth century.

The Black Death was the worst epidemic in the history of the world to date. The plague killed off more than a third of the total European population during the mid-1300’s. Several people believed that the plague was punishment from God for the sins of man, while others believed it was brought about by natural causes, and there were yet others who did not care where or why the plague came but only how they could better their own lives.

The Black Death discusses the causes and results of the plague that devastated medieval Europe. It focuses on the many effects it had on the culture of medieval Europe and the possibility that it expedited cultural change. I found that Robert S. Gottfried had two main theses in the book. He argued that rodent and insect life cycles, as well as the changing of weather systems affect plague. He claimed that the devastation plague causes is partly due to its perpetual recurrences. Plague ravaged Europe in cycles, devastated the people when they were recuperating. As can be later discovered in the book, the cycles of plague consumed the European population. A second thesis, which he described in greater detail,

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 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

Sometimes the missteps of the medical community went so far as to cause inadvertent harm. Jacme D’agramont, physician and professor, writes in his “Regiment de preservacio a epidimia o pestiliencia e mortaldats” of the dangers of bathing because it opens one’s pores and “through these pores corrupt air enters and has a powerful influence upon our body and on our humors.” (Aberth, 1186). The entire period was wrought with novelty cures and hypotheses about overcoming the plague, and so often these approaches failed that eventually the people would find solace wherever they could. Even art had a voice in coping with the Black Death. Much of the art was not only therapeutic for the artists and those who enjoyed them but they serve as an insight into the shared setiments of the time. These pieces understandably emphasize death and its inevitability as a primary theme. While the real victor over the plague turned out to be time, this perspective on conflict serves as a testament to the long-suffering determination of humanity to survive and thrive.

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

End of a Paradigm, Samuel K. Cohn Jr. argues that the Black Death of 14th century Europe was not the same illness as the bubonic plague. To help illustrate his argument, Cohn compared the Black Death of 14th century Europe to the agent of the bubonic plague, Yersinia pestis, which was discovered in Hong Kong

The Black Death was one of the most devastating worldwide diseases in human history. The plague originated in central Asia and was brought to China by traders and Mongols from 1334-1347. Mongol protection of the trade may have caused the disease to spread along the “Silk Road” to Crimea. During a Mongol siege against Caffa in 1347, the Mongolian army began to die. The Mongols catapulted the dead bodies into the city where the fleas on the corpses were released into Caffa. In the year 1347, October, Genoese traders escaped from the city and sailed to Messina, an Italian port, unaware that they were infected by the disease. Eventually, everyone on the ship died and a “ghost ship” made it to port. Seeing no activity on board, the ship was

In Medieval Europe, many people thought “bad air” was the cause of the Black Plague (Document K). Back in the Middle Ages, the Black Plague was a very severe disease that went around Europe and Asia. It killed about 1/3 of the population and lasted 3 years (Background Information). The disease was carried by rats. It had gotten to the humans by fleas, which had gotten the plague by the rats (The True Cause of the Plague). The effects of the black plague in Medieval Europe were a decrease in the population and economy, new jobs for the serfs, and religion.

He/She talks about the different methods used in desperate need to find a cure such as astrology or it was punishment for human sin. Finally medical students such as Gentile da Foligno thought that it was thought the air, while rival school came up with “choleric matter.”The difference between the two is “Choleric matter”theory is basically stating that Cholera or yellow bite was part of the human body and deemed essential for health but any access to it was cause to disease. While Gentile’s theory was that once the air was corrupt with the disease and you inhale it your body creates “Poisonous Matter” near the heart and lungs which caused the disease. But neither of these really produced a cure, Alfonso de Córdoba explained that the black death was from human and artificial causes “played into popular psychology need to maintain human control over such an extraordinary disease.”Over all many citizens viewed doctors during the time of the Black Death very

There were three major outbreaks of the Black Death pandemic in the world. In the history the Black Plague is also called as the Black Death or Bubonic Plague. This research paper will mainly cover the European outbreak of the 14th century as it is considered to be the era of the worst time of the Black Death period. Many historians would agree that the events of 1300s led to dramatic changes affecting every European country in all the aspects. Creating economic, social, religious, and medical issues, the Black Death caused renovation of the Europe. New circumstances forced Europe to reconsider its political system, improve the medicine and look at the situation from a different perspective, shifting from the medieval to modern society. Paul Slack, in his book The Impact of Plague in Tudor and Stuart England, provides a detailed description of the most affected places and the approximation of the victims, estimating that Europe had lost about one third of its population. Comparing to cholera the number of deaths caused by the Black Plague in England is doubled making The Black Plague the most devastating disease (Slack 174). In the book, The Black Death, Robert Gottfried examines the history of the Black Plague and its political consequences as well as social. He introduces the facts how the European population was affected in both positive and negative ways. From his writing it stood out that the lower class was affected the most as the conditions they lived in were worse

The causes of the Black Death – the flea, the rat, and the bacillus Yersinia pestis– have been labeled the “unholy trinity” (Boeckl). The flea is able to live in environmental conditions of about 74° Fahrenheit and 60% humidity (Ibid). Before the Black Death reached Europe, they were experiencing those same types of weather conditions. The rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis and the human flea, Pulex irritans, are both capable of transmitting plague (Boeckl). Sometimes, an infected flea cannot ingest blood because Yersinia pestis obstructs its digestive tract. The blockage causes a flea to regurgitate into a bitten host rather than ingest the host’s blood, thereby infecting the host with plague (Boeckl). Unable to eat, the famished flea will bite with more frequency, accelerating the spread of plague. A flea can be carrying Yersinia pestis without it blocking the flea’s digestive tract, in which case the flea does not transmit plague when it bites a host. Also, Yersinia pestis can only enter a victim through a bite, as the bacilli cannot pass through intact skin (Gottfried).

In the middle ages people had no idea about how any disease such as the Black Death could spread. The Europeans think “it disseminated by the influence of the celestial bodies, or sent upon them by God in his just wrath” (Boccaccio). In other words, they think the plague came from the sky or sent by God. They think maybe it is God’s way of cleansing the earth or punishing them for their unfair behaviors. Some think that a supernatural origin caused the disease. This disease is a bacterium infection which has a variety of symptoms, such as, nose bleeding, tumors in the groin or armpits and black spots or

The black death was a disease triggered by the bacteria Yersinia pestis. Yersinia pestis is a bacterium transmitted by rodents,