The Start Of Something Devastating During the the Renaissance the Bubonic plague killed millions of people in Europe. The plague “is a severe and potentially deadly bacterial infection that affects humans and mammals”( Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). In 1347 the plague first arrived to Europe it was something never seen before but heard of. People had theories of what was the cause of the plague but they were wrong not only did the bubonic plague bring death to most of the European population but it also caused an economic depression. When the bubonic plague first arrived no-one knew what the cause was. The physicians at the time thought the plague was caused by “body fluids being out of balance” (Chapter Three: GREAT PLAGUES …show more content…
By the year 1450, the bubonic plague had already killed “half of the European population” (Renaissance -- Out of the Middle Ages). This happened because some merchants from “Kaffa fled back home to Italy with the plague and some black rats”(Chapter Three: GREAT PLAGUES OF HISTORY: BUBONIC PLAGUE,SMALLPOX, AND ANTHRAX.). When they arrived they found “dying men and dead bodies”(Chapter Three: GREAT PLAGUES OF HISTORY: BUBONIC PLAGUE,SMALLPOX, AND ANTHRAX.) on board of the ship. Although they were quarantined on the ship the plague spreed “northward through Europe and across the English Channel to Britain.” (Chapter Three: GREAT PLAGUES OF HISTORY: BUBONIC PLAGUE,SMALLPOX, AND ANTHRAX.) and then later inland to” Florence, a city which survived floods and earthquakes”(Archaeological Institute of America), but they were not prepared for the plague, “which you can get when you are bitten by a flea that carries the plague bacteria from an infected rodent”(Plague: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia), the plague killed everyone from “merchants, physicians, and prostitutes”(Archaeological Institute of America).This was very devastating to all Europe and the only way to avoid this disease was to “leave the city for the …show more content…
The start of the European economic depression started with half of the population gone. The merchants were the trigger to the down fall of the economic revenue because they were the center of trade. “ Those who dealt with the merchants-- bankers, suppliers, and shippers-- also lost revenue.”(Renaissance -- Out of the Middle Ages) This was due of the lack of people and the excessive unwanted products the result was an income loss to all parties involved in trade. The down fall of the merchants caused a domino effect which caused everyone they had business with to fall with
Change in European Understanding of Plague in the 1348 versus 1352 Known as the “Black Death,” one of the most devastating plague pandemic wiped out approximately 30 to 60 percent of the European population, peaking in between 1348 and 1350 . It caused massive religious, social, and economic, upheaval in the European society causing great changes in the European culture and lifestyle1. Finally, when after three and a half years the first wave passed in 1351, it spared few regions causing devastation in towns, rural communities, families, and religious institutions . The plague was reportedly first introduced to Europe via the ports of Caffa and Sicily in 1347, when several Italian merchant ships returned from a trip to the Black Sea, one of the key links in trade with China .
The primary source I chose for my analysis is “A Most Terrible Plague: Giovanni Boccaccio”. This document focuses on the account of how individuals acted when a plague broke out and hundreds of people were dying every day. This source is written by Giovanni Boccaccio as it is a story told by him and friends as they passed the time. Boccaccio discusses how “the plague had broken out some years before in the Levant, and after passing from place to place, and making incredible havoc along the way, had now reached the west.” Readers of this source can assume there wasn’t much cures and medicinal technology weren’t used much during this time as even their physicians stayed away from the sick because once they got close they would also get sick.
The Route of the Plague In two months half of Messinaś population had been
Overall, 70 percent of the people died from the Black Death and 20 out of 24 doctors died from this deadly disease in Venice (Worlds, 429). At the time, people did not know how it was spread or if they were infected until it was too late. People died as soon as they showed the symptoms of the Black Death which included swelling in the “armpit or groin caused by coagulating humours and followed by putrid fever” (Worlds, 423). There were many theories about how this disease was started. One theory was the plague was a “Punishment signifying God’s righteous anger at our iniquitous way of life” that brought the deadly pestilent (Worlds, 434).
If war can eliminate people 's lives, so can a plague. The Black Death was the disastrous pandemic of mankind. This plague swiped over Europe and parts of Asia and Africa. Back then, insufficient of research of medical studies aided the spread of the Black Death. Variety of factors contributed to lack of research.
Which, was not an uncommon number of deaths for that time period, due to the medical treatment and preventative drugs that where available. What is uncommon is this plague is it affected young men and not just the old or children. There are many different speculations as to what disease the Plague actually was, especially within the last century. Although, none have been proven yet. With the difference of opinion on the
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
This plague took about 280,000 lives. The places with the most deaths were Venice and Lombardy. The Venetian troops from Northern and Central Italy moved with the disease and spread it around even more. The Great Fire in London on September 2nd,
The Black Death was a deadly disease that wiped out almost half of Europe’s population during the 14th century. Also known as the bubonic plague, the sickness emerged from the bacteria yersinia pestis that was carried by fleas on rats and was brought to Europe by merchant ships. It swept through Europe and racked up an immense number of fatalities, anywhere from 20 to 50 million. The Black Death significantly impacted Europe and caused major cultural, economic, religious, and social changes. Because the Black Death killed millions of people, it greatly affected the economy by creating labor shortages, changes in social structure, and extensive inflation Due to the death toll of the Black Death, labor shortages greatly impacted Europe.
In the 1300’s there were many people and children that were killed by the Bubonic Plague, and more than ⅓ of the population went down because of it. This in turn caused many people and families sadness, despair, and grief. The bubonic plague caused a lot of sadness among children. Children would play on the streets, and sing songs about the plague.
The Bubonic plague has been the cause of some of the worst catastrophes of humankind (Dobson 8). During the 14th century, the Bubonic plague killed 75-200 million people, that is roughly the estimate of the entire population of Brazil today (Ukenholz). Beginning with the history of the Bubonic plague, throughout the world wide spread, and the unusual symptoms and treatments, the Bubonic plague was one of the worst diseases to cast its rath amongst the world. The history of the Bubonic plague is widespread and deadly.
In the thirteenth century in Europe, the population had a relatively good life. Filled with fair weather and an expanding count of humans, progression seemed to be running smoothly along. However, something terrible was brewing on the horizon: toward the end of the century, a natural disaster hit in a magnitude that had never been seen before by anyone. The Bubonic Plague was a form of sickness that spread through Europe in the Black Death’s reign, riding on infected rats from fleas. This deadly bacterium, Yersinia pestis, killed “50 to 60 percent of its victims” (page 284) and was accompanied by “high fever, swelling joints, swelling of the lymph nodes, and dark blotches caused by bleeding beneath the skin” (page 284).
The video, The past, present and future of the bubonic plague by Sharon N. DeWitte shows how the Black Death was a very dangerous disease that spread across the world in the 1300’s and how it is still going around today. It affected people for centuries in China, Europe, Asia, Africa and in the Middle East (DeWitte 2014). The Black Death came from a bacteria called Yersinia Pestis (DeWitte 2014). Around 50% of people in Europe died from this disease because of the explosive population growth that happened in Europe. This growth led to families having more kids and being in poverty and that caused them to have more vulnerability to infections.
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
This evidence showcases that Europe was in a dark age because of The Black Death, Crusades and the Government The Black death is one of the reasons why Europe was in a dark age. At least 1/3rd of the population of Europe had died; it was also in a dark age because the people in Germany thought that it was the Jews that had started this disease and kill most of them and once they killed most of them they realized that it wasn 't the Jews that started this and it still came and infected the people in Germany. Really the black rats and fleas were the main cause of the black death spreading. This is the story of how it started.