Yersinia Pestis Plague Essay

In 1348-1350 the Black Death kills one-third of the English population including Kind Edwards daughter. War alone was taking lives everywhere much less the Black Death and other diseases that took a fearsome toll (Merriman 84, 176). The Black Death affected more than ninety percent of Europe’s population, some not directly but family members and such. Plague ravaged through many countries causing them a downfall to a lack of soldiers and the sickness was rampant across many countries. The Black Death wiped out about sixty percent of Europe’s population of eighty million at the time, which calculates to about fifty million (The Black Death: The Greatest Castrophe Ever). The population did not reach the level it had been in the 1300’s until about 1550, then it began to rise rapidly but Europeans still took precaution with the disease. For the next century, births and deaths remained balanced with higher mortality rates wiping out whole cities due to this disease that spread like wildfire. Europe only began to recover during the second half of the fifteenth century because of the disease became less rampant and started to die down, as well as wars (Merriman

"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

The Bubonic Plague, more commonly referred to as the "Black Death," ravaged Europe between the years 1347 and 1350. During this short period, 25 million people, one third of Europe's population at the time, were killed. Thousands of people died each week and dead bodies littered the streets. Once a family member had contracted the disease, the entire household was doomed to die. Parents abandoned their children, and parent-less children roamed the streets in search for food. Victims, delirious with pain, often lost their sanity. Life was in total chaos. The Plague was a disaster without a parallel, causing dramatic changes in medieval Europe. Coming out of the East, the Black Death reached the shores of Italy in the spring of

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.

The black death affected Europe because it killed over a third of its population. In all, the black death killed twenty million people in Europe. People fled their homes, families, and friends because they did not want to get infected with the plague. The Plague reduced the population of the world from 450 million to 375 million. Seven thousand people died per day in Cairo. Three Fourths of Florence’s residents were buried in makeshift graveyards. The disease even spread to the isolated outposts Greenland and Iceland. However, the Black Death set the scene for modern medicine. Growing increasingly frustrated about diagnoses with the Black Plague, educators began to place a greater emphasis on medicine.

Another reason the Black Plague affected the economy was how so many people died. The continent had enjoyed some 200 years of prosperity, and then 70 of cold. Result: too little food for too many people. By 1350 one-third of them, especially in the swollen cities, would be dead. In Europe in three or four years, 50 million people died. The population was reduced from some 80 million to

After the Fall of Rome, the Dark Ages occurred during the Middle Ages in Western Europe, France, Germany and Italy. The term “Dark Age” is an accurate description for Western Europe despite the formation of feudalism and the united church. The severity of disease, such as the plague, killed millions of people and lead to society not having the desire to prosper with education . These reasons, among others, demonstrate that Western Europe was truly a Dark Age.

The people weren’t sure how they were catching the quickly spreading disease, and the doctors of this age couldn’t find a cure. This disease is estimated to have killed thirty to sixty percent of Europe’s population. The total world population is believed to have dropped from four-hundred and fifty million down to three-hundred and fifty million, which is a hundred million people or possibly more. The plague resulted in a series of religious, social, and economic outburst, which had great effects on European history.

An outbreak had occurred of the disease in, 1334, Chinese province of Hubei, killed about 90% of their population. China lost two-thirds of their population, about twenty-five million people. Europe had lost one to two-thirds of their population from 1348-1350. One-fourth, or 25%, of all villages had became depopulated because survivors fled to cities. Rural areas, isolated mountainous regions, and low populated areas were the lucky ones and had escaped the plague.

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 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.

Sometimes, like most explanations back then, it was the work of God and punishment afflicted upon Europe for whatever reasons of the time. For these people, the only cure was to be somehow forgiven by God. This was usually done by people carving or painting the symbol of the cross on the front doors of their house with the words “Lord have mercy on us” either near it or on it. Another great contributor to the destruction of the Black Death was the Great Fire of London which helped eradicate most of the rats that carried the disease and wiping out most of the people with the disease. The plague actually repeatedly continued to remain in Europe and the Mediterranean throughout the centuries. The major occurences of the plague happened around the year 1346 and 1671. The Second Pandemic Black Death was pretty active in the years 1360 and 1667. All of Europe was ravaged and it impacted Europe so devastatingly that it took 150 years for the population of Europe to be fully recovered. Quarantining people was another way of combating the plague in ancient times. Taking anti-bio tics was advised was advised in case you came into contact with a victim of the disease. In early 2011 it was discovered that the bacteria Yersinia Pestis was actually the culprit for one of the most devastating pandemics ever to surface in the world. While

During the late 1330’s in Europe the population was growing dramatically. This caused food shortages, which began to worry the people. The summers and winters were harsh not helping with the crop harvesting. A famine broke out, and it is now known as the famine before the plague. In 1347, the Black Death began spreading across Western Europe. Over the time span of three years, the plague killed roughly one third of the population in Europe. It killed more people than any other epidemic or war up to this time. The Black Death, or Bubonic Plague, was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history.

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.

No one could figure out what was causing it and no one had a cure. The Black Death came in waves but none were as bad as the first one in the 1940s. During the thirteenth century the population before the plague was the highest it had ever been. Due to famines occurring during the second decade of the fourteenth century population had gone down to six million in 1300. The Black Death essentially was the downfall that wiped out most of the population.