ipl-logo

Effects Of The Bubonic Plague

1056 Words5 Pages

The Bubonic Plague, decimated nearly sixty percent of Europes entire population in the middle of the 14th century. Leaving nothing but death in its tracks, the bubonic plague derived the name the Black Death. Cases of this deathly plague were first reported in 1347, and gradually increased as the disease began to flourish from city to city. During this time, temperatures in Europe had significantly dropped, the heavy rainfall created widespread crop failures, which forced peasants to migrate towards heavily populated cities, just to survive. The population in urban areas soon tripled, as over crowding and severe poverty began to take place. Over population resulted in a disarray of poor sanitation, causing the black rat population to significantly …show more content…

The drastic drop in population, created a dramatically increase in wages, a fall in food supplies, change in medicine, and an undetermined mindset of religion. As food prices began to drop, and the need for food supplies decreased, landowners where finding it more and more difficult to make ends meets. These effects led to an end in the once great manorial system of Europe, and adapted peasants from farmers to the urban life. Doctors treating the disease soon became infected, and killed off most physicians treating this disease. This caused an awakening in the medical field, as physicians where viewed as a failure. “New medical tests were developed” and science began to make its way into medicine, as new concepts and health measures were beginning to develop (Swenson 185). The sight of death was in the eyes of every individual who witnessed this plague, and the unquestionable Catholic Church soon began to fall also. Peasants began to question their creators and turned away from religion for “having failed totally during the epidemic” (Swenson 185). The plague decimated nearly more than 50 percent of catholic clerics, paving the way for …show more content…

The infected where placed in quarantines and isolated from the rest of the population. While the contagion theory, blamed the poor for the outbreak, justifying government officials to execute them. Clothing and “other personal items belonging to the victim were burned,” in order to kill the plague (217). Children where forced to leave their parents, who were victims of the plague, behind in order to survive. Many cities filled with the decaying corpses of the Black Death where locked away, and abandoned. Strict policies where enforced and “restrictions were placed on public assemblies and gatherings,” to ensure no further outbreaks (Sumich 217). To them quarantine was the only way to control and prevent the disease, but little was known about the disease during that time. The Black Death was very selective on who it infected, some regions such as Iceland and Finland, avoided the Black Death entirely. “The medieval epidemic powerfully shaped patterns of health and demography in the surviving population, producing a post-Black Death population that differed in many significant ways,” presenting a strong force of natural selection, which led to an adaption in human genes (DeWitte 1). This is the reason why some individuals survived the Black Death while others didn’t. The Black Death never fully left

Show More
Related
355 Words | 2 Pages

The Black Death started during the Middle Ages in the 14th Century and killed about 150 million people in Central Asia. The epidemic originated from fleas and rats. The symptoms started out as egg shaped swellings in groin and armpit and ended up as dark blotches and swellings on the body. The people believed that the plague came from dead bodies and the victim’s clothing. According to the rulers of Pistoia, any old imported cloth was to be burned and corpses were not permitted to enter within the city (Doc 2).

Read More
1303 Words | 6 Pages

Therefore, the medicine and treatments that people received for the Black Death were more based upon prayer and miracles, for example, a fifteenth century Italian medical book suggests that plague victims should make a good death through their last rites rather than treating their body . This would have meant that victims would have accepted their fate and exposed themselves to other people, such as the priest that would come to administer their last rites, meaning that the more contagious part of the disease, the pneumonic plague, would have been passed on to more and more people. However, whilst some of the medicines had no use, others did help to prevent the spread of the disease and, while no one had any idea why, some people did survive being infected due to some of the treatments. Lancing the Black Death’s famous buboes was one such treatment .

Read More
995 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
1198 Words | 5 Pages

They had fevers, were unable to keep their food down and were ecstatic due to the pain. They were found covered in black boils that oozed blood and pus. The ships were ordered to leave, but by then the disease had already spread. The Black Death is accountable for killing about 50 million people in Europe. Furthermore,

Read More
1655 Words | 7 Pages

The Black Death ravaged over 20 million people in China, India, Persia, Syria and Egypt during the early 1340’s. Most of these people were in Europe; this was over ⅓ of the population at the time (“BLACK PLAGUE”). This was the First Pandemic of the Bubonic Plague, killing far more than any Pandemic to follow it. Given the knowledge of medicine and science during this era, the Black Plague spread like wildfire, and caused many hideous symptoms which led to several ineffective treatments. Luckily, scientists and doctors worked together to create a cure, and while the Bubonic Plague does still infect people to this day, the wave that killed countless Europeans died out by 1400 (“IN THE WAKE OF THE PLAGUE:

Read More
1207 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
1163 Words | 5 Pages

The historical pandemic of the Black Death (1347-1352), which killed 25 million people, greatly impacted the European history of the Middle Ages. Originating from China and Inner Asia, the infection of the bacterium Yersinia pestis had widely spread, rapidly infecting those who encounter the infected. The main cause of the spread derived from flea-infected rats on boats or the fleas on the bodies and clothes of the travellers. People at the time had limited understanding of the world, so they believed that the Black Death had an association with supernatural forces such as God’s punishment for sin and demonic acts, along with performing medical procedures that were futile for the disease. The era was highly affected by the plague,

Read More
910 Words | 4 Pages

Europe in the fifteen hundreds was a dangerous, local, hierarchic, tradition-bound, slow moving, and poor filled with the tasks of providence, salvation and community. Europe during the fifteen hundreds were a dangerous place; disease, famine, and violence all prevented the population of the era to live a long life. One of the major killers during the time was disease. Disease and plagues killed major parts of the population, the bubonic plague, for example, claimed the lives of perhaps a third of Europe’s population in five years.

Read More
731 Words | 3 Pages

The Black Death was caused by various reasons, non-religious and religious. The disease in Europe, was said to be caused by, miasma (impure air) carried by warm southern winds, the March 20, 1345, conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, excessive clothing or outrageous fashion, and in the near east, caused by, miasma due to wind carrying the stench of Mongol bodies from Crimea,

Read More
489 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More
1097 Words | 5 Pages

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

Read More
881 Words | 4 Pages

As the Black Death traveled through Europe, it left thousands dead. From 1315 to 1322, the Great Famine caused starvation and death, weakening Europe’s population. Once the Black Death came into

Read More
1006 Words | 5 Pages

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

Read More
1668 Words | 7 Pages

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.

Read More
549 Words | 3 Pages

Philosophes of the Enlightenment Baron de Montesquieu was a French philosopher who was most known for his idea of having an equal system of governments. He was born in Bordeaux, France on 18th January 1869 to a wealthy family who had once done services for the royal family. Montesquieu was a sharp social writer and a political thinker. He gained a lot of respect after publishing the The Spirit of Laws which was about how governments should work. He also established the idea of a separation of powers:legislative, executive and judicial.

Read More

More about Effects Of The Bubonic Plague

Related Topics

Open Document