Black Death Essay

1198 Words5 Pages

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. 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, …show more content…

It first started with a headache. Those who had a headache at first thought nothing of it, but just a minor migraine. After the headache would arrive the chills and a fever which left the person exhausted. Soon after, they may have encountered nausea, vomiting, back pain and soreness in their arms and legs. After a day or so, the swelling would appear. The swellings were hard, painful, burning lumps on the neck, underarms, and inner thighs. Later, these “swellings” would turn black, split open and began to ooze pus and blood. They may have turned into the size of an orange. Unlike the symptoms of Malaria, chills and a fever, or Smallpox, flu-symptoms and rashes, the symptoms of the Black Death were severe. The symptoms physically hurt you too. Once someone received it in a household, the other members were likely to get it since it was highly contagious. Not only were the symptoms bad, but the disease would kill you in 2 weeks’ time. The Black Death was also incurable, so once they had it, they were dead in short times …show more content…

Throughout that time it’s said that about 25-50 million people died. That about 1/3 of the population affected by the plague. It was estimated to have killed 30%-60% of Europe’s population in 3 years. It could have reduced the world population of about 450 billion to about 375 million in 1400. The Black Death was one of the most deadly plagues out there. Not only had that, but everything during that time taken a downfall. People lost faith in God which caused multiple churches to close. Nobody walked the streets in fear of catching this plague. In Society today, we do a better job informing people about the latest outbreaks and diseases. Back then we didn’t have the research to sure up what certain things were and what to do to stop something. Diseases like the Black Death push us to go and background information surrounding it and to help people. The Black Death affected us positively in a way that we know have the technology to look at what’s behind a sickness and what can be done to fight it. People still have a constant fear of the Black Death coming back which says a lot considering it was so many years