The Black Death A fierce plague swept through Europe in 1348, indiscriminately killing most people who came into contact with it, irrespective of age or social status. This pandemic, which remains perhaps the single greatest human tragedy in history, is known as the Black Death. The earliest known visitation of the plague to Europe may have occurred in Athens in 430 B.C., but it is unclear if the disease that afflicated Athens was caused by Yersina pestis. A disastrous epidemic occurred in the Mediterranean during the time of the Roman emperor Justinian; an estimated 25% to 50% of the population is reported to have succumbed. The most widespread epidemic began in Constantinople in 1334, spread throughout Europe (returning Crusaders were
Approximately25 million people died. Many cities were wiped out including the medieval cities Lamen and Thurgau. The Black Plague killed many but it affected England the most. They lost one third of there population. The church lost man power and impoverishment through not being able to cultivate their vast tracts of land.
No medical knowledge existed in Medieval England to cope with the disease. After 1350, it was to strike England another six times by the end of the century. Understandably, peasants were terrified at the news that the Black Death might be approaching their village or town. The Black Death is the name given to a disease called the bubonic plague which was rampant during the Fourteenth Century. In fact, the bubonic plague affected England more than once in that century but its impact on English society from 1348 to 1350 was terrible.
It resulted in the deaths of one-third of Europe’s population, roughly thirty million people [1]. Not only did it affect the population, but also every aspect of life in Europe during that time. What was the Black Death exactly? It was a terrible illness, which existed in three forms, that was transmitted through fleas, rats, and other animals. Fleas would infest animals
This frightened the people of the time because no one knows exactly what will happen in the end of it all, when you die, but no one wants to live a life of hell, pain and torture. “The devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up.” (Edwards 46). The piece was written at the beginning of the Great Awakening, when the old Puritan ways were fading and the Christian religion was rising. Because the Puritan religion was becoming a thing of the past, the reverends used scare tactics to drive the “unregenerate” Christians who had not confessed to being born again into God’s grace, into thinking that they were not saved. The Great Awakening caused mass hysteria from the fear instilled in the people of the
The Black Death's toll was so staggering that population densities took 200 years to recover. Trading hubs, now filled with the dead and dying, suffered as interaction and
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
The Black Death In general, the later Middle Ages was a time of crisis and trouble throughout the world. The plague that is often referred to as the Black Death reached its height in the middle of the fourteenth century. This plague has erupted in the Gobi desert in the 1320's and it spread from there in every direction. In Europe and among the Asian nations there were severe population losses, with the population of China, for example, falling from around 125 million to 90 million during the fourteenth century. Through the 1340's the plague spread towards the west, reaching Constantinople in 1347, then Egypt where a thousand people a day died in Alexandria, and in Cairo seven thousand a day.
When the world could not speak Octavia E. Butler’s, “Speech Sounds”, an apocalyptic story that portrays how disease has caused the ability to speak impossible and has shattered society and causes many to die from the disease or its latent effects. The loss of speech could impact a society to the point where only the desire to survive is the main focus of human existence. History records periods were naturally occurring diseases have caused unimaginable suffering and the death of millions. These periods involved a slow progressive process that ended in a relatively short period, for instance, The Plague of Europe lasted from 1348 to 1351 and the “death toll throughout Europe was at least 25 million out of a total population of 40 million” (Bugl par.16).” During these times the knowledge of the disease process was unknown because the science of medicine was not as developed as it is today. While “Plague” is still present today it does not affect the speech of those who contract the disease.
The Black Death was a plague that started in Florence, Italy, in 1348. It was one of the deadliest plague epidemics that ever happened in history. It spread all over the world infecting everyone and leaving trails of dead bodies along its path. It led many people to death and can still infect people today. The Black Death swept across Asia and Europe during the middle 1300’s.