The plague of Athens hit Athens, Greece in 430BC, taking as many as 75,000 to 100,00 people, in its two year life span. Approximately 25% of the city’s population fell victim to this plague. During this time the city was under attack by Sparta so the population had been moved within the city walls. This lead to overcrowding and with the humid temperature, no sewage, and poor water supply, making it easy for any viruses to spread quickly. The death rate of this plague was very alarming, as in the first outbreak there was a mortality rate of 33% and in the second outbreak, a mortality rate of 26% was recorded. A reason why the first outbreak had a higher death rate was said to be because of the humidity. Humid temperatures helped it
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.
Entire town populations were desicrated. Ten million deaths roughly. A recent outbreak occured in the 20th century in the 1960's and 70's during the Vietnam war. As of 2008, a case of a 16 year old boy was confirmed to have the plague and was in the Sarharan
Insects have been biting and sucking the blood of humans and animals throughout history. Plague swept through early civilizations, killing millions of people. The Black Death was a plague pandemic that swept through Asia and Europe, killing possibly as many as 25 million people. It wasn't until the late 1800s that researchers figured out what caused this horrible disease that kept reappearing throughout history. They discovered that rats were also getting sick from the plague, and that infected people had fleabites from rats.
One example of disease being spread was in Athens between 430-429 B.C.E; it was entered through Greece via seaborne trade from Egypt and killed about 25% of its army and had weakened the city-state. Another example of disease was smallpox and measles; it affected the Roman and Han dynasty and contributed to their political collapse. Disease hit once again and affected the Mediterranean Sea coastal areas. Black rats that were disease infected had traveled via sea trade and killed 10,000 people per day during a 40 day period in Constantinople. The spread of disease has caused people to take precautions before interacting with one another and has help find unknown cures.
Thus was the staging ground for the Plague of Athens. The summer of 430-429B.C. was not unusually humid; however, due to the population being moved within the city walls due to the war only hastened the spread and severity of the virus. Actually, with those conditions any virus would have spread extremely fast. During the first outbreak those conditions resulted in a mortality rate of thirty-three percent of the population.
In 1347, Europe had just been infected by the Black Death. This epidemic killed over 2/3 of Europe’s population and lasted for over five years. The pathogen that caused the Black Death was Yersinia Pestis which causes many forms of plague. The Plague originated in central and south Asia then traveled through trade routes like the Silk Road, all the way to Sicily The Black Death killed most of Europe’s population, thus ending Feudalism by having not enough serfs and workers to run fields and farms. The land owners started to offer more for their work and labor, making the lower class more wealthy, and providing more jobs.
The plague raged throughout Europe from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century evoking various responses from the people who experienced its terror. It affected all regions of Europe, killing one-third of the population. Various responses to the plague expressed different beliefs and concerns including exploitation, fear, and religious superstition. During the course of the plague these beliefs and concerns underwent change. During the outbreak of the plague fear dominated Europe, and as time passed fear became more irrational and superstitious.
The Bubonic Plague, a Turning Point in World History During the 14th century CE, in Medieval Europe, the Bubonic Plague started in Mongolia (China) spreading west through trade routes bringing illness and death. The Bubonic Plague is an epidemic disease that resulted in big swellings in the armpits and couldn’t be cured with medicine. Based on an evaluation of the Bubonic plague, it can be considered a turning point in world history because it was a major factor in the decline of population, economy, and affected religion.
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
One of the biggest summer nuisance would be the mosquito, but more specifically the Ades aegypti mosquito. The Aedes aegypti is the vector for yellow fever and the cause of the numerous deaths. In her book The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, The Epidemic the Shaped Our History, Molly Caldwell Crosby presents the idea that the mosquito is not just the only reason an epidemic occurred in the 18th century. This story accounts for the disease that broke out across the world and nearly destroyed almost all of North America’s population, which some believe could have been avoided by simple quarantine analysis and sanitary methods.
There has been many outbreaks of the plague from the first time it developed and the time it stopped causing mass epidemics, which can be attributed to huge advances in medicine. There were three major outbreaks of the plague throughout history. The first came in the 500’s called the Justinian Plague, The European Plague which is the most known of the three major epidemics. The European Plague is where the Plague got its famous nickname “The Black Death”. The final major outbreak of the Plague was known as The Great Plague of London which occurred in the 1600’s.
The black plague was a very successful disease in the mid 1350’s due to the low medical ability and knowledge of the people populating the city or town. I will start off by saying people often run away from the danger to others, where with this you have to stay away from people. If you want to get to switzerland because
The Black Death was a disease that had a catastrophic impact on Europe. Reaching Europe in 1347, the plague killed an estimation of one-third of the population in the first wave. Each document varies with its reasons for the cause of the plague and how to deal with it. The first document Ordinances against the Spread of Plague seemed to blame Pisa and Lucca for the plague and thus, began to forbid contact with those places. It was forbidden for citizens of Pistoia to go to, or have contact with anyone or anything from Pisa or Lucca.
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
It was the Spring of 1348, and the citizens of Europe were malnourished due to limited food supplies for such a large population. This made them more susceptible to the outbreak of the Black Death. The Black Death originated in Asia, then moved westward into Sicily. From Sicily, the plague crept its way up through Europe infecting millions of people, in total killing more than one third of Europe’s population. In fact, over fifty percent of the population of Siena died, along with fifty percent of Paris, eighty percent of Florence, and over two thirds of Venice.