The Plague Dbq

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. Everyone was affected by the Black Death, including government officials and high ranked nobles. Since these people

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. Because of the high wages, people had more money to spend on themselves, which forced industries to meet that demand. This overall lost money for

The Black Death contributed to the fall of trade between countries, and the halt of trade routes. Since many people were afraid of the Plague, they did not like to allow outsiders to enter their countries or trade with them. People still needed certain goods, so they ended up trading with infected people, for infected things. The Black Death shut down about three major trade routes, making it hard for disease long distance trade to occur. Trade ships were a large disease spreader, and made up about 20% of infection making it very easy for the Plague to spread to different countries. This was such a good host for the disease because the things that people would ship were most likely covered in fleas, or had traces of the disease on