The Causes Of The Black Plague In The Middle Ages

In the wake of the fourteenth century, Europe and the world experienced one of its biggest pandemics. Over the preceding centuries, Europe had undergone significant agricultural, economic and religious developments. However, the 400 years between 1000 and 1400 saw a rapid increment in population and the onset of war as people scrambled for scarce resources from 75 to close to 210 million. Also, it was accompanied by religious scandals. It led to widespread unsustainability, causing pollution, plague-like diseases and turmoil in the affected regions. The image below shows the areas that were affected.

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

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.

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.

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

Before the Black Death, Europe was already facing difficulties with the growing population. Due to the

In the mid 1300’s the Black Plague (Black Death) made its way into Europe. The plague had social impacts, economic impacts, and political impacts. The plague affected everybody's life regardless where you were on the social ladder. Everybody who got the disease was dead in three to five days. The few years the plague was in Europe it was affecting them 150 years later.

Assuming that the Jewish people caused the Black Plague, there are actually variety of possible reasons that are not related to people. Something that really was a major issue was, bacteria and viruses we're largely unknown to medical workers. Rather than Jewish people causing the plague, historians assume that the Black Plague was caused by bacterial strains. Fleas are also to blame because they carried the illness and they jumped to the black rats, when the rats would die the fleas would cling on to any living thing. The plague was easily spread among the trade routes. The plague had started in Asia and it was slowly spread to Europe. Reasons why the plague was spread so quickly among Europe was because the entire population of Europe lived

The Black Plague or Black Death was an outbreak of a disease that was spread through rats, feces, fleas, and physical contact. The epidemic began in China, where, during wars, soldiers hurled infected bodies at Italian soldiers, consequently the physical contact. The Italians would go back home on their ships, which was infested with rats and fleas. Unknowingly, they would spread the newfound disease amongst those they came into contact with when they returned to Italy. In the spring of 1348, the disease reached Italy and began to spread like wildfire. Three years later, the Plague had already taken 25%-50% of Europe’s population. The Black Plague was so devastating due to the ignorance of it, trade routes, and fear.

The Bubonic Plague came to Europe in 1347. It was brought on ships with goods from Asia. The disease followed on trade routes as it swept through Europe. The manure and trash in Europe helped the disease spread and hard to get away from since the disease was carried by rats. The plague began with swellings as big as apples. The swellings spread as the body started to be covered in dark spots and sickness set in (document

In a time of political failure, economic disintegration, and constant religious disagreement, Europe was already entering the Dark Ages. Then, in the 14th century, the Black Death struck. A disease transmitted through infected flea carrying rats, the Bubonic Plague was devastating to European society not only because it was highly contagious and very lethal, but also because it had unknown origins.

The first major European outbreak of the plague occurred 1347 in Italy. The plague is a bacterium carried by fleas. It likely originated in Asia, but shipboard rats carried diseased fleas to Europe where the densely populated and unsanitary conditions made it catastrophic. The most common bubonic plague results in dark colored buboes (swollen lymph glands in the armpits and groin). These black or dark spots led to the name Black Death because most people who had the swollen dark spots died. The medicine available to people during this time was of no affect. In fact in his popular book, In The Wake of The

The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in history. Many Western Europeans were living with this disease for nearly four hundred years. The disease was able to spread rapidly and affected Europe in many ways. Since this disease was rapidly spreading throughout Europe it scared many of the people during this time. Many historians considered the Black Death in the fourteenth century a turning point in Western European history. According to Streissguth, “Before the epidemic of bubonic and pneumonic plague died out three years later, it would kill more than one-third of the continent’s population.” Hundreds of thousand people died from this horrific disease which changed Europe forever. Near the end of the fourteenth century it was obvious to the people living during that time that the plague had become a regular and destructive aspect of life. The plague had left many rural areas untouched after the late 1300’s but the epidemic began almost every decade. When the Black Death began to spread across Europe it caused unimaginable fear, panic, and chaos for the people. The Black Death was an important turning point in Europe, where the economics, politics, and society would never be the same. The Black Death spread rapidly across Europe causing many people to become ill and die which resulted in social, economic, and religious upheavals.

The Black Plague began in central Asia. It originated from southern China and went along the Silk Road. It crossed through central Asia, India and also into the middle East. (Stock Vol.4) Later on, scientists found out the cause of the Black Plague to start was ships and carriers, which had rats onboard that were infested by fleas. India was deeply affected by this, resulting in 13 million deaths. (Wells 1097) The most common disease during the Black Plague was the bubonic plague. A person can only obtain it when a flea, that is already infected, bites a person or when there’s a cut in the person’s skin for bacteria to go through. People who had been infected can get fevers, headaches, and chills. (Wells 1097) The bubonic plague was painful and had swollen lymph nodes. Inside of it was black, full of blood

The Great Plague of Europe made its way all throughout the continent and its population. The plague started on the western side of Europe; off the coast of Italy. It arrived by sea between the fall of 1347 and through early spring 1348. Italy was affected so hard that only one out of seven victims would recover in those parts. The