Bubonic Plague Dbq

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The Start Of Something Devastating During the the Renaissance the Bubonic plague killed millions of people in Europe. The plague “is a severe and potentially deadly bacterial infection that affects humans and mammals”( Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). In 1347 the plague first arrived to Europe it was something never seen before but heard of. People had theories of what was the cause of the plague but they were wrong not only did the bubonic plague bring death to most of the European population but it also caused an economic depression. When the bubonic plague first arrived no-one knew what the cause was. The physicians at the time thought the plague was caused by “body fluids being out of balance” (Chapter Three: GREAT PLAGUES …show more content…

By the year 1450, the bubonic plague had already killed “half of the European population” (Renaissance -- Out of the Middle Ages). This happened because some merchants from “Kaffa fled back home to Italy with the plague and some black rats”(Chapter Three: GREAT PLAGUES OF HISTORY: BUBONIC PLAGUE,SMALLPOX, AND ANTHRAX.). When they arrived they found “dying men and dead bodies”(Chapter Three: GREAT PLAGUES OF HISTORY: BUBONIC PLAGUE,SMALLPOX, AND ANTHRAX.) on board of the ship. Although they were quarantined on the ship the plague spreed “northward through Europe and across the English Channel to Britain.” (Chapter Three: GREAT PLAGUES OF HISTORY: BUBONIC PLAGUE,SMALLPOX, AND ANTHRAX.) and then later inland to” Florence, a city which survived floods and earthquakes”(Archaeological Institute of America), but they were not prepared for the plague, “which you can get when you are bitten by a flea that carries the plague bacteria from an infected rodent”(Plague: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia), the plague killed everyone from “merchants, physicians, and prostitutes”(Archaeological Institute of America).This was very devastating to all Europe and the only way to avoid this disease was to “leave the city for the …show more content…

The start of the European economic depression started with half of the population gone. The merchants were the trigger to the down fall of the economic revenue because they were the center of trade. “ Those who dealt with the merchants-- bankers, suppliers, and shippers-- also lost revenue.”(Renaissance -- Out of the Middle Ages) This was due of the lack of people and the excessive unwanted products the result was an income loss to all parties involved in trade. The down fall of the merchants caused a domino effect which caused everyone they had business with to fall with