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Reasons Why the Bubonic Plague was Devastating to European Society

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“Ring around the rosy, Pocket full of posies, Ashes, ashes, We all fall down,” this tune can be heard today being sung by children, but the meaning of this song goes deeper than just a children’s song. This song is about the bubonic plague, the bubonic plague was a very dangerous disease that caused devastating effects all across medieval Europe. But why was this disease so devastating? Some reasons could have been: lack of medicine, the large death count, and the mass hysteria caused by the disease. These things are what made the bubonic plague such a devastating event in history.

One reason that the plague was so devastating is because there was a lack of medicine. The medicine practices being used that the time were not advanced enough …show more content…

In the text it states that, “And those who were responsible for the dead carried them on their backs in the night in which they died and threw them into the ditch, or else they paid a high price to those who would do it for them” (Document 4). This goes to show that many people feared carrying the dead knowing that they might catch the disease themselves. This spread the infection to people trying to dispose of their families corpses. The amount of bodies piled up and up forcing them to: “put layer on layer just like one puts layers of cheese in a lasagna” (Document 4). The death toll absolutely devastated the European population. According to Document 8, “37 million people were left alive post plague.” This means that around 16 million people died in Europe during the course of the plague. The large death toll had a severe impact on the devastation of the …show more content…

Due to the mass hysteria the blame quickly fell to the rich Jews. It is stated that, “Jews throughout the world were reviled and accused in all lands of having caused it [the plague] through the poison which they are said to have put into the water and the well” (Document 7). The nation was in need of answers so when the Jews were pointed out as a scapegoat all of Europe followed. Though sadly the blame was not the worst thing to befall the Jewish people. In Document 7 it is stated that, “On Saturday - that was St. Valentine’s Day - they burnt the Jews on a wooden platform in their cemetery. There were about two thousand of them. Those who wanted to baptize themselves were spared.” The people of Europe burnt all of those Jewish people because there was a slight possibility that they could have caused the plague. They all quickly turned there sanity aside and murdered over 2,000 people. Mass hysteria was played a great roll in the downfall of Europe during the bubonic

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Due to being uneducated about the sickness, how it was spread and being unable to understand biology of diseases, people assumed that this was retribution from above due to their sins. Many medical and biological advances have been made since the Black Death; we now understand biochemistry and the molecular makeup of diseases, bacteria and viruses. We understand how infection occurs and how to prevent some of the infections and even how to cure most infections. But during this time period these advances had not been made, so they were left speechless. This event caused people to go into streets and beat themselves with whips asking for forgiveness from god, and to engage in other public displays of pain and punishment.

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This Primary Source is an excerpt from "The Cremation of Strasbourg Jewry, St. Valentine's Day, February 14, 1349—About the Great Plague and the Burning of the Jews" This document talks about how the Jews were blamed for the spread of the plague by putting poisons into water and wells. Because of this it was decided that all Jews would be burned to death and none would be allowed to enter specific cities for 200 years. Our primary source gives us an idea of what people thought started the plague. Many people blamed the Jews saying that they had killed christ and that they poisoned the water and the wells with the plague. The Black Plague allowed a new wave of Anti-Semitism to spread through Europe.

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According to Document G, it explains there was poor hygiene during the time of the plague. Many people dragged corpses and piled them. The bodies were dumped on lands, which is not the proper method to dispose bodies. The priests thought they only had to bury one body, but found themselves with six, eight, or more.

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On top of that, another negative outcome of the plague was the tremendous death toll. After the passing of the Black Death, the death toll accumulated to a quarter to a third of the population. In total, the estimation of the death toll is thought to be between 75-200 million citizens. The sudden loss of citizens proved to be a challenge for many societies that suddenly lost their workers. This is because without workers, a society cannot function as no workers equals no production.

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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,

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The bacillus infects people through the bite of infected fleas and rats (“BLACK DEATH”). This was especially prominent in urban and over populated areas (“Ecology and Transmission“). When Plagues strike people and animals alike die horrifically, in turn fleas need to find other sources of food. The people living in poor conditions often get forayed by flea bites, thus infecting them (“Ecology and Transmission“). It was seldom for the Black Death to be spread from person to person.

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The reason the bubonic plague was so devastating to the European society is because no one was prepared for so many people to die so quickly. This event that reached Italy in the spring of 1348 was one of the most deeply stressing moments of humanity that faced most of Europe. No only did 50% of Europe’s population die it affected every single part of the European society. The culture, education, economy, religion, and the simplicity of life was turned upside down from this epidemic. Not only was were the symptoms of the plague bad, while you had the symptoms you suffered with the misery effects of the plague that there was no cure for.

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In mid-fourteenth century Europe a plague (also known as the Black Death) appeared in which the first wave killed millions of people. But the plague didn’t stop there, it persisted, spreading around the whole known world and exerting its power on people up until the eighteenth century. In Europe there were many responses to the plague which included helping to stop and cure the plague, profiting off it, and trying to protect and care for their loved ones. One response to the plague was to help stop and cure the plague. As the traveler Heinrich von Staden observes, “....

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The pre-plague Syrian population was 1,200,000 with the death rate being 33%. The people who suffered from this diseases body’s were typically carried by biers and benches, although many people were dying and there was not an adequate amount of biers and benches to carry all the bodies. The bodies started being carried by wooden planks, ladders, doors, window shutters, and baskets. Sometimes a bier or a plank carried several bodies. (DBQ: The Black Death,

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The black plague otherwise known as the Black Death, was estimated to kill about 30 percent of the European population which devastated populace

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The growing population allowed the infected fleas, all over the body, to jump from body to body much quicker and easily than before, increasing the spread of the plague throughout Europe. The growing population also bought on a drought in food meaning the people could not keep up nutrition to protect themselves from the fast growing plague. The increase in population for villages also meant that there was a lot less living space making the homes more cramped and closely packed allowing the plague to move more quickly throughout Europe. The trade and trade routes were a major part towards the spread of the plague but was not the only way the Black Death

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Often as a result of overpopulation, pandemics—like swine flu and ebola, for instance—have affected life on Earth for centuries; one of the most well-known, and possibly the most unforgiving epidemics was the Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death . Although the first symptoms of the Plague trace back to the Mongol Empire in 1331, the disease first struck Europe in Venice and Genoa during the winter of 1348. In the following years, the Bubonic Plague spread rapidly throughout Europe, killing roughly a third of its population. It is suggested that the rapid spread and extreme severity of the Black Death was partially due to the weakened immune system of the Europeans, which had been caused by the Great Famine, a period of food scarcity that affected Europe from 1315 to 1322. Additionally, the lack of knowledge about the spread of

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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

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The plague was fatal and spread rapidly in cities where people were close together. This was one of the worst outbreaks of a disease in history and drastically brought down the population. The Black Plague had an effect on the economy, religion, and culture in Europe during the Renaissance period. The Black Plague

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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.

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