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The impact of the black death on society
Longterm effects of the black death on society
Changes in society because of the black death
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Moreover, the Black Death caused a gastric drop in the economy. Workers died, prices rose, and lords pushed laws so peasants couldn't demand higher wages leading to many revolts and rebellions. Due to the death of so many people, there weren't enough people buying products so the prices rose tremendously. Since the plague started killing millions of workers, lords would try force the survivors to work. But, the surviving workers began to demand higher wages since there were higher prices in the sales market.
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.
Innocents were burned, the economy was tarnished, and throughout all of this, the plague continued to spread. This is further reasoning as to why the Bubonic Plague, the Black Death, was so devastating to Medieval Europe. The harrowing disease that was the Bubonic Plague caused Europe a plethora of issues. It took years for the people to come back from the travesty of the
It was a crisis where no one knew why death kept coming. Not only did kill, but it impacted how life was lived, too. Overall, the black death forever damaged the social pillars in Europe. One of the social pillars was how family was, and with a crisis like the plague, family wasn’t the biggest factor in surviving. In the event that the plague was spreading, it scared others and led them to panic.
All plagues strike by uprooting individual lives and society as a whole. Nevertheless, the particular circumstances regarding the government, and religious and cultural beliefs in the affected lands influence the specific results of the tragedy, as witnessed through the Black Death and smallpox. Although both diseases led to drastic economic changes, they caused different overturns of religious beliefs, and only the Black Death resulted in the creation of public health services and the marginalization of groups of people. A lack of labor precipitated alterations to the economy--the end of feudalism in the case of the Black Death and the creation of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the case of smallpox.
The Black Death caused many positive and negative changes in medieval society. Since the Black Death caused such a vast amount of humans to die in a short period, there was a large surplus of food however a shortage of peasants to work the land. This labour shortage meant that serfs were no longer tied to the land and could leave to find higher wages, as said in Chronicle of the Black Death 'such a shortage of workers... scarcely be persuaded to serve the eminent unless for triple wages'. Secondly, because of the upwards mobility and lack of structure that came from the Black Death and the fact that serfs could ask for more pay, feudalism became a lot less prominent in many places and was eventually replaced with other systems, such as capitalism.
The effects of the Black Death were significant on Medieval society. The black death caused panic amongst communities and towns leaving unmaintained paddocks and scarce amounts of food. This is due to the plague's rapidly spreading nature, and the fact that many people died. The plague left Europe with a multitude of short and long-term effects and issues. These issues varied from flagellants whipping themselves, from town to town, to make up for sins against God to the loss of labourers to work the land.
The lack of workers meant that labor would cost about five times more than before the Black Death came. This allowed poorer people to become wealthier with the large wages. Since land was abandoned, and rents was not being paid, tax revenue declined. This had a major impact on Europe’s health, thus making more people die. Higher wages and small manufacturing, caused high inflation.
The Black Death instilled fear into almost anyone occupying the places that the disease was in. This created a divide between the sick and the healthy. The social divide was so strong that most people wouldn’t even talk to other people who were sick. Wives left their husbands, a healthy person would flee from their sibling, and parents even fled from their sick children. Another way in which the Black Death changed society was that it paved the way for people to do whatever they desired.
No one wanted to work at this time either because of the chance of getting infected so to actually have work done, they would have to pay more, aka inflation. Without workers, work wouldn’t get done, so they didn’t really have a choice. One place catapulted infected corpses to try to infect the enemies. All things considered, the Black Death affected society in many different ways. In conclusion, the Black Death was a catastrophic disease.
“After the Black Death, as the rich saw their wealth disappear and poor laborers and peasant farmers become wealthier, they took measures to stop the trend” (Hardman). King Edward III of England made it illegal for workers to demand wages higher than they had been before the plague which made the peasants revolt (Hardman). The peasants successfully revolted, the manor system ended, and they were able to demand higher wages and their freedom to work where they wanted to. Wealthy peasants could now start to specialize in jobs, which then created the bourgeois or the middle
Consequently, the black death caused the stable system, known as feudalism to cease to exist in Europe. The Black death is a horrible disease that caused many symptoms in and on the body and was easily transmitted. There are a few different
Dukes and kings were forced to bargain with their laborers about working conditions. Moreover, the lower classes could demand for better pay for their services. In some areas, wages rose, doubling within a period of just one year. At the same time, prices of commodities fell because fewer people bought the commodities. Therefore, the middle class lords were entangled between falling revenue and rising production costs.
The Black Death caused people to question authority, which led to the breakdown of the political, economic, and religious spheres of traditional society in Europe and the introduction
Economic and Social Consequences of the Black Death The Black Death was no modest disease it swept all over Europe during the dark ages , had immense and annihilating effects and is in fact one of the most disastrous and destructive pandemics in human history. It rapidly spread through Medieval Europe during 1347-1351 killing more than one third of the population. In the midst of Italy’s overpopulated cities 50 to 60 percent of the population died while villages were completely swept of their people in England and Germany (Spielvogel World History and Geography 248-249). The Black did not only bring the tragedy of killing millions but it also came with many consequences such as economic inflation and extreme social distinction ("Social and Economic Effects of the Plague").After the intense shock of the Black Death, Europe’s economically declined, its internal affair were instable and its social systems
