The Plague: The Black Death

"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

In the year 1348 the world changed forever. The Black Death, which is another name for the Bubonic Plague, laid havoc on the entire world. “The plague chases the screaming without pity and does not accept a treasure for a ransom. Its engine is far-reaching. The plague enters into the house and swears it will not leave except with all of its inhabitants…” (Al-Wardi, #29, 113). The plague did not care if the people were rich, poor, white, black, Muslim or Catholic, it would kill whomever it could. The plague brought out the worst in people because people acted selfishly, people were completely inhumane, and there was no peace.

The Black Death was one of the worst pandemics in history. The disease ravaged Europe, Western Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa between 1346 and 1353 (Horrox 1994). It is difficult to understand the reality of such a devastating event, especially given the fact that science during the middle ages was severely underdeveloped. No one knew about bacteria, viruses, or other microbial agents of disease (Benedictow 2004). They had no way of protecting themselves during that time and no one was safe from the effects of the plague. Those who wrote chronicles claimed that only a tenth of the population had survived, while others claimed that half to a third of the population was left alive (Horrox 1994). In 1351, agents for Pope Clement VI predicted the number of deaths in Europe to be 23,840,000 (Gottfried 1983). Obviously, not all regions experienced the same mortality rates, but modern estimates of the death rate in England give the first outbreak a mortality rate of about forty-eight percent (Horrox 1994). That is, England lost half of its population in about a year and a half. Clearly the chroniclers ' who claimed that ninety percent of the population had died were overstating the magnitude of the plague, but this overemphasis demonstrates how terrifying the pandemic was to those who experienced it (Horrox 1994). The Black Death had huge consequences on the lives of those who were impacted directly, as well as major religious and cultural effects that came afterward.

Have you ever thought about how our ancestors survived through all of the diseases from hundreds of years ago? Well hundreds of years ago in the Medieval ages, our ancestors from Europe had to survive a deadly plague called the Black Death. have you ever thought how our ancestors were affected by that disease? Our ancestors had to live through the Black Death and were affected by the Black Death emotionally, physically, and economically.

The plague, otherwise known as “the Black Death”, brought on much turmoil and suffering for the habitants of Pistoia. Numerous ordinances were put into effect with the primary goal of limiting the spread of the plague as well as to keep the city as healthy as possible. These ordinances typically focused on confinement, i.e. no one goes to Pisa and Luca and no one from Pisa and Luca is allowed to enter Pistoia (ordinance 1), how death and burials are to be processed (ordinances 3-12), and how butchers were to handle their animals and animal carcasses (ordinances 13-19). Essentially, confinement was targeted in hopes of stopping the spread of the infection while keeping the city isolated. Secondly, how the bodies of plague victims and their

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.

Amongst the devastation and despair the Black Death left in its wake, it also brought with it some much-needed change to the way medieval Europeans were living. Although it ended many innocent lives, it also began a new era of social and economic living. In the years following the first outbreak of the plague, medical knowledge and awareness of hygiene dramatically improved, as did the living and working conditions of the workers. Other benefits included the rapid growth of Europe’s middle class and thus the fall of the feudal system, the loss of the church’s supreme authority, and the increase in economic power for medieval women.

When the plague was consuming most of the European population, priests, monks, and nuns cared for any who had the plague. They also took the responsibility to bury the dead. This caused the population of the clergy to suffer, showing that all of society was affected by the plague, whether it was caring for others, or suffering themselves. The economy was also affected. Before the plague started to spread, most of Europe was experiencing the affect of overpopulation. With overpopulation came the need for food, land, and anything else needed for survival. When the plague hit Europe, the population naturally decreased meaning labor did as well. This caused the price of most all foods went up, yet also caused wages to go up as well, bringing in

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.

Peasants were quite poor before the plague since they were not paid as much until the plague happened. Peasants usually got raises since most of them kept dying and it was starting to be really hard to find a peasant that would not die of the plague. This lead more peasants to have more money. A quote from Matteo Villani, a historian from Florence, Italy. The quote is about how the price doubled or more for everything that you bought during and after the plague. This definitely affected the the people since business flourished while the wealthy lords and nobles lost money. A law that King Edward III made in 1351 after the black plague, was that peasants could not make anymore than they did before the outbreak. This lead peasants to become much more poor and start uprise later on, and this made the lords and nobles happy because they did not have to spend that much money on the staff. King Edward made this law because he realised the peasants were making money and the wealthy were losing money which he did not like. A 14th century record of the Savarnak House in England shows peasant wages before and after the black death. The records show from the year 1300 where they got paid 1.5d to 1361 when they got paid 3d. Their price doubled in the just of span of 60

The Black Death had a significant negative effect on both the economy of Europe and the Catholic Church during and after it 's prime, proving to ruin the lives of many both directly and indirectly subject to the plague. However, it can be argued that the Black Death prompted a restructure in feudalism, increasing equality in society. The Bubonic Plague became prominent in 1347 AD, tearing through the lives of many throughout Europe. A major financial shift in the fourteenth century saw millions living in poverty. The Catholic Church was shunned because it had no power over the plague, and therefore lost much of its influence on society. However, lower class citizens were able to stand

According to Robert S. Gottfried, author of the book The Black Plague: Natural and Human Disaster in Medieval Europe, the Black Plague had a huge impact on human behavior and psychology, “the mechanics and commonplaces of everyday life simply stopped, at least initially “(77-78). With the devastation of the plague, “peasants no longer ploughed, merchants closed their shops, and some, if not all, churchmen stopped offering last rites” (Gottfried 78). In his book The Decameron, Boccaccio described many of the responses of the people during this time:

The plague of the black death was a panic and disaster in Western Europe because it leads the death of ⅓ of the population. It quickly spread all over the continent, destroying full towns and cities. Moreover, the plague reached its peak of destructions in 1349, which was a “wretched, terrible, destructive year, the remnants of the people alone remain.” Life before the black death arrived for the serfs it was unpleasant and short. Nevertheless, Europe before the black death arrived was successful and the trade at the time was strong. The spread of the plagues was traumatic and unexpected because it spread so quickly.

The Black Death was brought to Europe in the 14th history and with it came many problems socially and economically. Some problems included such things as, a drastic decrease in population, shrunken labor supply, peasant revolt, and more. The Black Death, even when it had just arrived, began killing an abundant amount of people. In some villages it was even able to wipe the population out completely! With this low population amount came a shrunken labor supply. This came because they didn’t have enough people, who were able to work, to fill the jobs available. Their solution to fill these jobs was to raise the wages. The raised wages made many more people want to work and even allowed peasants to work for these high salary jobs instead of attending

The plague had an important role in the decline of Feudalism one of these are as follows power had to shift from nobles to common people because the demand for workers (to rebuild the economy) was high but there were less workers than before the black death the cause is that a majority of them died from sickness, this let the workers that remained to be able to demand more money and more rights. This finally resulted in many serfs (A laborer bound to the Feudal system) to leave the manors and move to cities for more opportunities, therefore completely changing their daily life from disgusting conditions to somewhat civilized human habitable conditions.