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The black plague western europe
Essays on black death in europe
The impact of black death in europe
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In the 14th century, a contagious plague called the Black Death damaged society physically and mentally. After the Genoese were defeated by the Mongol armies, they accidently took germs of the “disease” and aboard the ship to leave. As a result, more than half of the passengers were dying slowly. This sight scared away those people waiting on shore to collect the goods because they fear death. Even though captains on the ships realized the mess they got themselves into, it was too late because the disease was spreading very quickly from one port to another.
The primary source I chose for my analysis is “A Most Terrible Plague: Giovanni Boccaccio”. This document focuses on the account of how individuals acted when a plague broke out and hundreds of people were dying every day. This source is written by Giovanni Boccaccio as it is a story told by him and friends as they passed the time. Boccaccio discusses how “the plague had broken out some years before in the Levant, and after passing from place to place, and making incredible havoc along the way, had now reached the west.” Readers of this source can assume there wasn’t much cures and medicinal technology weren’t used much during this time as even their physicians stayed away from the sick because once they got close they would also get sick.
The plague then started to infect thousands and thousands until 35% of Europe’s population was deceased. This reduced the world population in total to seventy-five to one hundred million people. Massive loss of life was caused. For a short time war stopped and trade declined. Many of the serfs died, so the remaining ones demanded higher wages.
Morinsola Mustapha Mr. Plunkett Western Civilization November. 24, 2015 The Black Death reached Europe by sea in October of 1347. It came across when 12 Genoese trading ships docked at the Sicilian port of Messina after a long trip through the Black Sea. Those who gathered to greet the docks were welcomed with a horrific surprise. Most of the sailors who were on the ship had died and those who alive were greatly ill.
Aboard those 12 ships were many dead, or nearly dead sailors. The few that were alive were on the brink of death and covered in black boils filled with blood and pus (“BLACK DEATH”). The disease then spread through northern Italy, into Portugal, Spain, France, and England by June of 1348 (“IN THE WAKE OF THE PLAGUE: The Black Death and the World It Made”). The Black Plague is caused by a bacillus called Yersinia pestis.
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.
The Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black death is a disease that ravaged Europe in the 14th century. The disease seemed incurable and spread like wildfire. The effects were devastating as roughly one third of Europe’s population is thought to have been lost along with countless Jewish people as the subject of blame. The origin of the Bubonic Plague was Central Asia but it made its way to Europe through trade ships. Fleas, the source of the disease, were on the rats carried over by these ships.
Many factors played a key role in the extensive spread of the Black Death, or Bubonic plague, like insect bites or rodents, but the progressive trade networks were the most impactful. It started in Asia, in the 1300’s, but the new trade routes allowed it to spread across the Indian Ocean. Many people from many different backgrounds were negatively affected by this disease, and many didn’t know that they were exposed to the disease until it was too late. The Black Death had a variety of clinical forms, but no matter which type a person had, they were guaranteed death. This disease completely changed the medieval world and affected religions as well as many other ways of life or cultures.
In 1347, Europe had just been infected by the Black Death. This epidemic killed over 2/3 of Europe’s population and lasted for over five years. The pathogen that caused the Black Death was Yersinia Pestis which causes many forms of plague. The Plague originated in central and south Asia then traveled through trade routes like the Silk Road, all the way to Sicily The Black Death killed most of Europe’s population, thus ending Feudalism by having not enough serfs and workers to run fields and farms. The land owners started to offer more for their work and labor, making the lower class more wealthy, and providing more jobs.
The Black Death was a disease that had a catastrophic impact on Europe. Reaching Europe in 1347, the plague killed an estimation of one-third of the population in the first wave. Each document varies with its reasons for the cause of the plague and how to deal with it. The first document Ordinances against the Spread of Plague seemed to blame Pisa and Lucca for the plague and thus, began to forbid contact with those places. It was forbidden for citizens of Pistoia to go to, or have contact with anyone or anything from Pisa or Lucca.
During the mid-fourteenth century, a plague hit Europe. Initially spreading through rats and subsequently fleas, it killed at least one-third of the population of Europe and continued intermittently until the 18th century. There was no known cure at the time, and the bacteria spread very quickly and would kill an infected person within two days, which led to structural public policies, religious, and medical changes in Europe. The plague had an enormous social effect, killing much of the population and encouraging new health reforms, it also had religious effects by attracting the attention of the Catholic Church, and lastly, it affected the trade around Europe, limiting the transportation of goods. As a response to the plague that took place
The decision by the city leaders to prohibit people from Pisa or Genoa from entering Florence shows they were aware of the first points of the plague's entry into Italy (Armstrong). The plague changed the salaries of many people, living standards, and the progress of ideas. There was a rise in unemployment and many businesses failed, one of the reasons being lack of labor. It had a huge impact on social, economic, religious, and cultural aspects of the places it spread. In order to prevent pestilence, several European cities introduced new laws.
According to Ole J. Benedictow “Inevitably [the Black Plague] had an enormous impact on European society and greatly affected the dynamics of change and development from the medieval to Early Modern period. A historical turning point, as well as a vast human tragedy, the Black Death of 1346-53 is unparalleled in human history.” It was one of the most devastating diseases in history
The Black Death also known as the “black plaque” was a widespread of bubonic plaque that killed nearly seventy-five million people and wiped out a fourth of the entire Europe population. The Black Death was caused by the bacterium “…Yersinia pestis that comes from wild rodents that arrived in Europe by sea in October
It was the Spring of 1348, and the citizens of Europe were malnourished due to limited food supplies for such a large population. This made them more susceptible to the outbreak of the Black Death. The Black Death originated in Asia, then moved westward into Sicily. From Sicily, the plague crept its way up through Europe infecting millions of people, in total killing more than one third of Europe’s population. In fact, over fifty percent of the population of Siena died, along with fifty percent of Paris, eighty percent of Florence, and over two thirds of Venice.