The Black Death The Black Death, known as the Black Plague, or the Bubonic Plague killed one third of the population of Europe during the 13th and 14th centuries. The beginning of this plague set the scene for years suffering. It left the social and economic world in pause. The Black Death became a subject of art, music and folklore and it influenced the mind of the people. The impact of this mass killer caused disorder to the medieval society because of its unknown origin, the unknown causes and preventions, its deathly symptoms and its breakdown of life.
The invasion by barbarians in Rome led Europe into major depression. This is because Rome was considered a superpower in Europe and when a superpower falls, the trade and economy in Europe will weaken. The bad times of the economy continued when the plague (also known as the Black Death) happened from 1350 to 1450. This plague was almost fatal and it took half of the population in Europe. The only way of escaping of the disease was to move from the city to the country.
The growth of population in cities and small towns tend to lead to decline in living conditions, thus leading to famine and epidemics causing more cases if the Black Plaque. (Wiesner) The Mongol people thought that traders helped in the spreading of the Black Death faster than normal by the trading they did with other traders and countries. The traders would load their goods up to be traded, not realizing that the goods were full of infected fleas. When they traded their goods with other traders and countries, they were leaving behind the infected fleas to infect the people, and black rats in other countries. This is a vicious cycle and one reason why this epidemic became a pandemic so quickly.
The Chronicle of Jean de Venette is a narrative of several historical events spanning the years of 1340 and 1368, written by the Carmelite friar Jean de Venette. The Black Death was the first and most severe manifestation of the Second Pandemic, probably caused by the Yesinia pestis bacteria. Originating in Central Asia, a disease known as plague spread slowly all over the world. Though accurate estimates of mortality are difficult to make, the recent trend has been to adjust the estimates upwards. The terrible disease caused not only massive numbers of deaths, but also caused many minority groups to be blamed and persecuted for "causing" the Black Death.
Some doctors even thought that bad odors would get rid of the disease so they smeared feces and urine on their patients, which produced the opposite effect, and spread the disease. Since people lived in crowded cities due to famine in the years leading to the outbreak, they were exposed to the disease and it spread quickly among them. Fleas could travel from victim to victim easily in such close proximity. The disease is also known as the bubonic plague because it caused swelling and black sores on the body known as buboes. Interestingly, this is where we get the word for injury known as “boo boo”.
The Black Death, often called the Plague which is now known to be caused by the bacteria Yersina pestis, occurred in vast tracts of Europe and along the Silk Road connecting Asia importantly in the years of 1348-1350 when it is estimated that over Europe’s population was killed. In slaying roughly 20 million people, the plague indiscriminately eradicated noble lineages as well as commoners. With the onset of the plague in medieval Europe, when little or no medical knowledge was at hand alongside over population and famine, chaos was bound to strike. Thus, to a large degree the world and Europe’s histories were altered by the Bubonic Plague by weakening the influence of the church, influencing post plague culture and lifestyles, and affecting
Over 3,000 ‘DMVs’ (Deserted Medieval Villages) have been discovered in England, with historians such as Chorpa attributing the reason for desertion to the plague. In perhaps the best known example, Wharram Percy in North Yorkshire, the surviving population is thought to have fled to York to avoid starvation as the village became unsustainable due to 85% of the population dying because of the plague. Some villages, including Kilkenny, saw total oblivoration and 100% death rates. However, perhaps the greatest impact was in the major cities, particularly London, England’s biggest city in the middle ages. London was described by contemporise
The Plague greatly affected the medieval world. It killed 25 million people, including a third of Europe's population. One of the economic effects caused by the Plague was inflation. Trade was dangerous and local goods weren't being produced as much because the number of workers decreased greatly. The prices went through the roof.
Germanys list of problems at this time was only growing. Losing WW1 caused many problems in itself as one might expect, never mind the Treaty of Versailles that was to follow. The most prominent socio-economic effects were most naturally the casualties, 2 million Germans were killed and a further 6 million were injured, also the increasing number of civilian deaths due to hypothermia and starvation. The reason these deaths increased, was due to food and fuel shortages caused by the cold winter of 1916-17. In these winter months there were signs of the country’s morale and unity breaking, it was not helped when Germany was hit with an influenza epidemic, wiping out 20-40 million, the resistance to the disease was lowered due to decline in living conditions.
Some of these creatures became passengers on merchant ships that sailed to Europe. This caused Europe to become infected with the deadly disease. Around 1348, the Black Death reached England and in a year it was all over the country. The people of the middle ages called it the pestilence and they had no idea what it was and how to treat it. People thought that it was a punishment from God.