Starting in 2019, COVID-19 caused a population loss of around 7 million people across the world, terrorizing people by reminding them of the Great Mortality, or the Black Death (WHO). The Black Death in the 14th century was a bubonic plague pandemic that killed between 75 and 200 million Europeans (Shipman). It was caused by the bacteria “Yersinia Pestis” and spread by rats, ultimately impacting Europe through the northwest, striking England and Italy. Nobody was immune to the destructive force of the disease. The economy, politics, and religion were disrupted, but not all changes were negative. Although the Black Death could be considered a transformative force in the Middle Ages due to the way peasants’ wealth increased, the plague should be seen as …show more content…
It drove the downfall of the trading system which led to the economic collapse because the rapid medieval economic growth before the Black Death was due to a rise in trade (Blum and Dudley 213-4). Even if the products were manufactured, they could not be sent abroad. Ships significantly impacted international trade because they helped develop faster and cheaper ways of traveling goods from one place to another. To cope with the Black Death, people and ships suspected of the plague were isolated (Benedictow 66). That way, people couldn’t use ships to trade between countries, as they did before the plague. Therefore, it stopped economic growth because of increased costs and time that could have led to inflation and reduced opportunities for exports which were relied on by the economy. While the trading system was crumbling down, people were starting to turn to secular lives.’ Disappearance of the Catholic Practices The bubonic plague also led to the disappearance of the traditional customs of the Catholic Church which led to social disruption. Before the plague struck Europe, the Catholic Church taxed peasants, which were called