The Bubonic Plague, is a disease that is caused by Yersinia pestis. This bacteria is found in rodents, such as rats. Fleas feed on these rats, and it can be passed to humans through flea bites. The Bubonic Plague was first seen in China, yet it came to Europe in the year 1347 with the use of Genoise Ships. These ships would bring the contaminated rats across the Black Sea. The Bubonic plague ended up being catastrophic, and so devastating to European society because it caused changes in attitude towards religion, changes in population, and an increase of antisemitism.
The Black Death spread so quickly through Europe that people did not even have time to process what was going on. As seen in the map “The Bubonic Plague spreads through Europe,”
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An image created by Givoennni Srcambihas, a pharmacist in the 14th Century, shows the intensity that the Black Death hit Europe with. In his image, an Angel of Death appears to be shooting arrows to everyone in sight; The author uses this angel to represent how the plague would kill anyone in its path (Document 3). This image accurately represented what was going on in Europe during these times. The amount of lives lost was so severe that Europe ended up losing around one-third of their population. As seen in the chart “Estimated Long Term Impact on Population of Europe”, in 1345 there were around 83 million people. By the 1400’s, the population had significantly decreased to 60 million (Document 9). The population decline was insane, and it led to lower productivity, high inflation of monetary values, and shortages in labor. Lords struggled to find workers. Serfs begin to have several choices of who to work for, and their wages increased. Since there was low productivity, however, less food was available for people, which made them weak and more susceptible towards diseases. The population decline had an immense impact on Europe’s population, and it was very closely estimated that it would take about 150 years for the population to