How Far Does the Growth of Towns in 14th Century England Explain the Devastation Caused by the Black Death?

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How far does the growth of towns in 14th century England explain the devastation caused by the black death? The Growth of towns in the United Kingdom before and during the times of the plague in the 14th century certainly contributed to the devastation of the black death, and we can identify evidence for this using our own knowledge and understanding different circumstances that the growth of town would bring. However, there are many other contributing factors that explain the devastation caused by the black death. Firstly, the growth of towns all over Britain meant that people all over the country were generally getting more and more enclosed because they were building houses closer together for ease of community. This was a major contributing factor toward the spread of the disease as the proximity between people was smaller, and meant that sick people were coming into more frequent contact with healthy people. This proved to be very devastating for the population in general and saw an massive decrease to the already decreasing population in towns alone (seeing 33% of the entire U.K population wiped out by around 1387). Another consequence of the growth of towns in terms of how it allowed the black death to be devastating is that it encouraged an increase in trade. With the towns ever-growing and expanding, new trade routes and increasing trade activity allowed the disease to spread to many more places quicker. New trade routes also meant that the disease was reaching certain areas were the disease had perhaps not reached yet through the trade; so more and more areas were getting affected. With people living in tighter enclosed spaces; the filth and litter in growing towns began to build up. This attracted vast amounts of rats and drew them to the towns, which allowed the diseased fleas to spread the plague to more people and the population of towns were

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