Black Death Dbq

However, the demise of approximately 76 million people from 1346 to 1353 culminated in the most severe disaster to ever hit Europe. It was referred to as the Black Death. This essay critically analyses the significance of the Black Death pandemic.

The Black Death was devastating and was one of the most significant events in Medieval Britain. The Black Death was also known the plague and bubonic plague it describes the spread of disease that caused mass deaths throughout Britain. The disease itself was carried by fleas and spread across Europe between 1346-1353 leaving towns and city such as Siena Italy with 85% of the population wiped out. This was seen all over Europe including Britain and it can be argued economic factors was the most significant consequences of the Black Death. However there are many factors such as political, social factors and Mortality rates that were also results of the Black Death and perhaps social factors may be more significant.

During the late 1340’s a plague fostered in Europe and began to take effect onto the feudal system in place. This plague was known as the Black

I was observing the spread of the plague right before my eyes. I knew how the three types of plague were transmitted but the humans did not. The three types were the Bubonic, Pneumonic and Septicemic plague. The Bubonic plague was the most common plague in medieval Europe. It was transmitted by infected fleas that were carried by rats, when the rat died the flea would jump to a human to feed from their blood. The human bitten by the flea, was then infected and faced certain death, the flea would then find a new human to feed off. The Pneumonic plague, being the second most common type in medieval Europe, was far more deadly and contagious than the Bubonic plague. The Plague would attack a human's respiratory system and was spread through the air by a victim's cough. The last type of plague was the Septicemic, it was the rarest and deadliest form of the Black Death. The Septicemic plague was also spread by fleas, like the Bubonic plague, but moved directly to a human's

"The Black Death" alone was not the only factor that was responsible for the social and economic change although it was the most important (Ziegler 234). Even without "The Black Death" continued deterioration in Europe would have been likely. The social and economic change had already set in well before 1346. For at least twenty-five years before "The Black Death," exports, agricultural production, and the area of cultivated land had all been shrinking. "The Black Death" contributed a large part to all of this destruction and led to important changes in the social and economic structure of the country (Ziegler 234-235). The plague touched every aspect of social life (Herlihy 19). There was hardly a generation that was not affected by the plague (www.jefferson.village.virginia.edu). Families were set against each other - the well rejecting the sick (www.byu.edu). Families left each other in fear. Many people died without anyone looking after them. When the plague appeared in a house, frightened people abandoned the house and fled to another (www.jefferson.village.virginia.edu). Due to this, the plague spread more rapidly because people were not aware that being in the same house with the infected person had already exposed them to it. Physicians could not be found because they had also died. Physicians who could be found wanted large sums of money before they entered the house (www.jefferson.village.virginia.edu). When the

patients. Because they were paid by the state, the doctors were able to treat both the

The Black Death, also known as the bubonic plague, was a disease that devastated Medieval Europe, between 1346 and 1352 it killed 45 million people, wiping out a third of Europe's population. Today, we know that there were many causes of the Black Death. Medieval towns had no system of drains, sewers or trash collections. In such slovenly conditions, germs could grow, and diseased rats could call these medieval towns their homes and infect the people who lived there. Many historians believed the plague originated in china and spread to other countries by trade routes. Infected people and/or infected rodents such as mice or black rats. The Black Death was caused by strains of the bubonic plague. The plague lived in fleas, and fleas lived on

Beginning in the mid-fourteenth century, a plague swept the world like no other. It struck in a series of waves that continued into the eighteenth century. The first wave was estimated to have killed twenty-five million people, about a third of the Western Europe population at that time. Throughout the different outbreaks, the plague, also known as the Bubonic Plague or the Black Death, caused people to react in several ways. Some people believed the plague was a medical problem that can be treated, some found themselves concerned only with their own greed, still others believed there was nothing they could do and reacted in fear, and most people believed it was a form of divine

The plague was a disease that devastated Europe and the Christian population. Christians handled the plague very differently than the other groups it affected. The mortality rate for European Christians was an estimated 31%. (Robert S. Gottfried, The Black Death, New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1983.) They believed the plague was a cruel and horrible punishment on the men, women, and children of their society brought upon them by God.

The Bubonic Plague, often referred to as the “Black Death”, was one of the most devastating diseases to ever effect the world, and its effects will always be felt. It spread faster than anyone could have prepared for and flourished in its medieval surroundings. A huge portion of Europe lost their lives, their livestock, and became mad with fear of this horrible affliction. This essay will address the ways that the disease spread and how the general public reacted to it. It will also discuss the various attempts people, such as the doctors of the time, tried to cure or prevent this disease, many that made it worse. Another aspect that will be addressed is the group of people known as “flagellants”, those who would punish themselves in hope that God would spare them from this terrible disease. Lastly, this paper will discuss the other religious aspects of the Black Death, how it brought an end to the “dark times”, the hatred and fear of the Jews, and also the social and economic effects of the impact after the disease slowly disappeared.

The pandemic known to history as the Black Death was one of the world’s worst natural disasters in history. It was a critical time for many as the plague hit Europe and “devastated the Western world from 1347 to 1351, killing 25%-50% of Europe’s population and causing or accelerating marked political, economic, social, and cultural changes.” The plague made an unforgettable impact on the history of the West. It is believed to have originated somewhere in the steppes of central Asia in the 1330s and then spread westwards along the caravan routes. It spread over Europe like a wildfire and left a devastating mark wherever it passed. In its first few weeks in Europe, it killed between 100 and 200 people per day. Furthermore, as the weather became colder, the plague worsened, escalating the mortality rate to as high as 750 deaths per day. By the spring of 1348, the death toll may have reached 1000 a day. One of the main reasons the plague spread so quickly and had such a devastating effect on Europe was ultimately due to the lack of medical knowledge during the medieval time period.

They believed that the Black Death was a punishment from God for sins against god such as greed, blasphemy, heresy, and fornication. The logic to overcome the plague in the Middle Ages was to gain God’s forgiveness. People took this thought in many different ways. Some people believed they had to purge their communities of criminals. In result of that reaction, thousands of Jews were killed in 1348 and 1349. Some lashed out on neighbors, others worried about themselves. Upper-class men joined flagellants that traveled from town to town and publicly displayed penance and punishment by beating each other with sharp pieces of metal. Flagellants repeated this ritual for thirty three and a half days, then moved to the next town. The flagellants brought some comfort to people who felt powerless, but it worried the Pope that it would disrupt people. By cause of the Pope’s worrying, the Pope disbanded the flagellants ("Black Death"). The Black Death had a massive effect on the way people lived their daily lives. Doctors refused to see patients, shopkeepers closed stores, priests refused to administer last rites. It also affected cows, sheep, goats, pigs, and chicken ("Black Death"). People's businesses suffered because people were locked away in their homes. One in three people died in infected homes, in some cases whole families died (“London Plagues”). Husbands abandoned their wives, parents abandoned their kids, priests and doctors refused to see patients to save themselves (Butler). Some threw sick servants onto the streets, others refused to help sick family and friends (“London

The plague of the black death was a panic and disaster in Western Europe because it leads the death of ⅓ of the population. It quickly spread all over the continent, destroying full towns and cities. Moreover, the plague reached its peak of destructions in 1349, which was a “wretched, terrible, destructive year, the remnants of the people alone remain.” Life before the black death arrived for the serfs it was unpleasant and short. Nevertheless, Europe before the black death arrived was successful and the trade at the time was strong. The spread of the plagues was traumatic and unexpected because it spread so quickly.

The Black Death was a plague that devastated Europe in the fourteenth century. Trade routes, especially, were overrun with people dying from this plague. These trade routes were covered in dirt and full of plenty of people in close quarters, making this plague more damaging. About one out of three people died at the hand of this vile disease, and no one could figure out how it was spread. Anarchy spread throughout Europe. People guessed the causes and tried to deal with the disease, but it still spread like wildfire. Some regions were spared from this plague, but plenty towns were almost completely wiped out (Pavlac 177). The Black Death caused many people in fourteenth-century Europe to go to the extremes in behavior and religion.

The Black Death is one of the most fatal diseases in human history and took its peak in Europe from 1348 to 1350. Half of Europe’s population was wiped out due to this disease and the short and long term impacts greatly affected the structure of Medieval Society.