The Plague Dbq

Doctors and other scholars have come to the conclusion that the deathly plague was caused by a bite of an infected flea. In the fall of 1347, the Black Death appeared in Europe by sea when trading ships landed at the Sicilian port of Messina after an extended journey through the Black Sea. The people of Sicily went to approach the traders and greet them, instead they were left speechless to what they have witnessed. Almost everyone on the ship were deceased and if one was alive, they would be close to death. They were affected with a fever and was unable to keep food down. Their bodies had these mysterious black boils all over and would constantly bleed and pus. The black boils gave the plague its name. The Sicilian authorities ordered the

Bubonic Plague This unfortunate and tragic event also known as, the Bubonic Plague, reached Italy when the flowers began blooming in that of 1348 (HC). Document 6 says “the Bubonic Plague affected at least 80,000 lives.” All of which resulted in death. (Thesis Statement)

Why does death stink that badly? Plague started in the year of 1348 and it took about two years to spread all over Europe. The plague spread quickly throughout Europe. The symptoms of the infected reacted quickly and left families abandoned. The plague was really devastating.

Europe had become overpopulated by the early 14th century. There were three times as many inhabitants in England in 1300 than there were in 1066. In 1314, the weather began to change and become more and more brutal. People were not equipped with the resources that were necessary to survive such harsh conditions. These weather conditions led to lack of crops.

Europe was in a dark age because of the Bubonic Plague, Crusades destruction, and king Henry's cruelty. The bubonic plague was so catastrophic because Europe was so compact and people thought it was the end of the world so they caused havoc, stole, and killed for fun. Also, it was so horrible because a symptom was boils and bubbles on the skin that would pop and puss would shoot out. “The Black Death was such a frightful thing that when it got into a house, as was said, no one remained”. Secondly, the Crusades were a terrible thing because there was a lot of bloodshed.

The disease had not only killed one thousand people a day but it effected animals as well ranging from horses to ostriches. The plague also caused a economic collapse as well as a political collapse within the eastern Mediterranean In Europe it wasn’t any different, the plague first landed in Italian peninsula and then made its way to six other countries. Europe may have been one of the worst areas because of the mass cities and the plague effecting people of all classes that were crowded the black plague killed fifty million people of the eighty million people within five years. Then while many people were living hard lives the church and the priests lived luxury lives and would ignore the people who needed

The Black Death of the mid-fourteenth century will have the greatest impact on the 16th and 17th centuries. The plague caused the European population the drop by 25 to 50 percent, induced movements and many revolts, and prompted changes in urban life. The European population dropped by 25 to 50 percent between 1347 and 1351. So, if the European population was 75 million, this would mean the 18.75 to 37.5 million people died in four years. There were also major outbreaks that lasted many years until the end of the 15th century. Mortality figures were incredibly high. As a result, the European population did not begin to recover until the 16th century. It took many generations after that to achieve thirteenth-century levels. The plague induced movements and many revolts in Europe.

Beginning in the mid-fourteenth century, a plague swept the world like no other. It struck in a series of waves that continued into the eighteenth century. The first wave was estimated to have killed twenty-five million people, about a third of the Western Europe population at that time. Throughout the different outbreaks, the plague, also known as the Bubonic Plague or the Black Death, caused people to react in several ways. Some people believed the plague was a medical problem that can be treated, some found themselves concerned only with their own greed, still others believed there was nothing they could do and reacted in fear, and most people believed it was a form of divine

People started to abandon cities and run off to the country side where it was believed to be a safer place to live, away from all other people. It is known that some family members would leave their own loved ones who had contracted the plague and venture to clean areas. Doctors would refuse treatment on the sick in hopes that they could somehow be spared for the epidemic. Yet there was one group of people who as a whole looked out for those who were sick: the clergy of the Catholic Church. Priests, nuns, and monks were typically the only glimmer of hope for the sick. With everyone else shunning the sick or abandoning them, those with the plague were happy to receive whatever help they could get.

In the 1300s, Europe was thriving with new innovations and huge cities that covered the country. Most of Europe was urban and very crowd with a population of 50,000 (“Middle Ages”). The 1300s was a period known as the Middle Ages, which represents the time where the Roman Empire and the Constantinople fell. During this time around 1350, infectious disease was spreading through the streets of Europe. Approximately, 20 million people died in Europe from the plague, which is roughly around one-third of the population (“Black Plague”). The Black Plague affected European civilization and how European society viewed the world. The renaissance is a prime example of how the Black Plague affected Europe. The Black Plague helped influence people

"The Black Death" alone was not the only factor that was responsible for the social and economic change although it was the most important (Ziegler 234). Even without "The Black Death" continued deterioration in Europe would have been likely. The social and economic change had already set in well before 1346. For at least twenty-five years before "The Black Death," exports, agricultural production, and the area of cultivated land had all been shrinking. "The Black Death" contributed a large part to all of this destruction and led to important changes in the social and economic structure of the country (Ziegler 234-235). The plague touched every aspect of social life (Herlihy 19). There was hardly a generation that was not affected by the plague (www.jefferson.village.virginia.edu). Families were set against each other - the well rejecting the sick (www.byu.edu). Families left each other in fear. Many people died without anyone looking after them. When the plague appeared in a house, frightened people abandoned the house and fled to another (www.jefferson.village.virginia.edu). Due to this, the plague spread more rapidly because people were not aware that being in the same house with the infected person had already exposed them to it. Physicians could not be found because they had also died. Physicians who could be found wanted large sums of money before they entered the house (www.jefferson.village.virginia.edu). When the

It has been proclaimed “the greatest single natural disaster in history” (McCouat). Ravaging in Europe in 1347 to 1351, the Black Death killed around 30% of the population (Jordan). It was, and remains, one of the most memorable tragedies in European history. Naturally, big tragedies bring big consequences. In the case of the plague, there were three most important effects related to it. Those are consisted of the complete dismantlement of the feudal system, advancements in the medical field, and expression of faith through artwork.

The disease affected the social life through marriage, the rate rose sharply due to predatory men marrying rich orphans and widows, birth rate also rose. And there were notable increases in violence and debauchery. The economics were also affected. An excess of goods resulted in overspending and it was swiftly followed by a shortage of goods. Plague also affected the church, it lost many people, but the institution became richer through bequests. Churches also grew wealthier by charging more money for its services, such as saying mass for the dead. And the failure of the clergy to help the suffering during the plague, combined with its wealth and the incompetence of its priests, caused anger among the

One of the first problems from “The Black Death” was not having enough workers. In those times their economy was based on the feudal system. In this system there was a lord of a manor and he rented a house and land to a peasant. The peasant would work the land and the lord’s land to pay the lord back for letting him stay there. When the disease hit and so many people started dying then the laborers went down in population. As many of the workers were getting sick and dying the people who were not sick were willing to work, but demanded higher pay. The tenants were harder to come by after the plague hit and the rent had dropped. Governments across Europe reacted by putting a freeze on workers’ pay and putting it back to lower levels. The peasants got angry and because

First, most people in Europe were worried about the plague getting into their families and getting killed, but some people were also worried about money. Johann Weyer, a German physician from Germany and was living around the time that the plague was spreading around Europe, wrote that people had been paid to smear an ointment on there houses and walls to spread the disease faster (Document 4). As a French reporter who lived at the end of the plague breakout in 1523, Nicolas Versoris writes about the causes and effects of the rich fleeing from the city of Paris located