Crisis and Disintegration in the Fourteenth Century
During the 14th century, Europe underwent several crises which played major effects on the European Society. One of these events included the bubonic plague or the Black Death, one of the most notorious epidemic plagues to cause a major crisis in Europe. Due to the stability in Europe at the time, successful trades with other countries led to many flea-infested rats invading Europe while carrying the bubonic plague, causing the huge spread. In addition, the “little ice age”, a time where there was a decrease in the overall temperature and storms, also played an affect on the famine and population. Without a doubt, the bubonic plague and “little ice age” led to famine, social upheaval, and a revolution in medicine during the fourteenth century.
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As a contemporary chronicler described the situation, “We saw a large number of both sexes, not only from nearby places, but from as much as five leagues away, barefooted and maybe even, except for women, in a completely nude state, together with their priests coming in procession at the Church of the Holy Martyrs, their bone bulging out, debuts carrying bodies of saints and other relics to be adorned hoping to get relief,” (pg.284). By this time, many families were desperate to be “relieved” of the constant famine that suppressed about 10 percent of the population of European, and everyone fought for themselves, trying not to starve to death. However, this disintegration added more vulnerability to the spread of the Black Death through “chronic malnutrition” which was caused by starvation. Without the disintegration of the “little ice age”, the spread of the bubonic plague during the 14th century might have not spread as