How Did The Plague Affected Society

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The Black Death was three detrimental plagues that began in Mongolia, then swept across the Europe in the 1300’s, being the result of great famines that weakened Europe’s people. The plague was carried by fleas that were carried on rats, making colonists, and the poor more susceptible to the disease. It changed society by not only diminishing the population but also made the people skeptical of the Jews as if it was their doings. What made the plague so significant was how it wasn’t just amongst the poor; royalty, priests, armies, and the poor were all dying. Giovanni Boccaccio witnessed the plague from the city of Florence in Italy, and how it was a “deadly pestilence” (Plague, from the Decameron) He saw how the healthy completely deserted the infected and would live in houses only for the healthy. And the same went for the infected. This made it to where the populations of cities were dying either of starvation from lack of food or from the infection. Gabriele de’ Mussi was a lawyer who witnessed the black plague along the coast of the Black Sea in the city of Caffa. He saw how an entire “army was affected by the disease” and had swept the land and killed thousands (Spread of the Plague) . The plague primarily affected the population, as well as the economy due to the lack of people able to work, the goods coming …show more content…

The population of Europe decreased significantly due to both disease and starvation. The Black Death also affected the economy of Europe due to lack of consumers and producers. However, it also set the foundation for the rebirth of Europe known as the Renaissance. The Black Plague started out as the Great Famine that only affected the poor and not as much as royalty, making the social gap very large, but then turned into the Black Plague making the social gap go back down due to the disease having little discrimination on its