AP Euro DBQ Essay There were numerous responses to the plague, such as fear, greed, and looking for a cause. The plague is a zoonotic disease, one of the three rare types of diseases that is created from Yersinia Pestis, a part of Enterobacteriaceae. This was a devastating time for people in Europe from the late 1400s to the early 1700s and there were many responses about how the plague was affecting society during this time. This disease killed about 25 million people which caused all of these mixed reactions. Mixed responses and different point-of-views spread all throughout Europe. One response to the plague was fear. Fear was common in these times due to the mass killing caused by the plague. The plague eventually managed to slow business in schools down dramatically and some children never bothered coming again as shown in document 1. The Schoolmaster at Deventer said this because as a school teacher he was concerned for his job. According to N. Versoris, the rich people ran from the plague leaving all of the poor people to die. As shown in document 5, drastic measures had to be taken to keep everyone safe from the plague. Boarding up a house that was infected with the disease was a way of creating a barrier between the uninfected people of society and the diseased society members. Most travelers feared the plague in Europe and stayed home instead of traveling to new places such as Italy (doc. 12). According to D. Defoe, no trading nations with Europe would trade with them because they feared they would bring the plague over to their country, infecting all of their people. As you can see, the plague sent a common fear through many nations including Europe. Another response to the plague was that people were looking for a cause. According to Erasmus of Rotterdam, the filth and waste in the streets was causing this infectious disease. Erasmus said this because he was a humanist, therefore he was always looking for a logical cause for things that were happening. As shown in document 4, spreading ointment on the bolts of the gates started to spread the disease faster which, in turn, gave people more money from inheritance. Johann Weyer said this because as a doctor, he was looking for a reason why people were getting sick. Some people believed that offending and sinful people caused the plague because a god punished them for their actions therefore releasing the plague (doc. 15). Obviously many people responded with causes for the spreading of the plague and tried to find out what created it. A final response to the plague was greed. Like fear, greed was a common response to the plague in Europe. According to N. Wallington, he would rather give up all of his family members to the plague first before he gives himself up. Nurses didn’t really help the infected patients at all. Usually they just killed them quicker so they could collect their money and leave (doc. 11). According to S. Pepys, people were not buying wigs anymore, for they feared that it was made of other people’s infected hair. He was concerned about this because as a naval bureaucrat, he was concerned about the wigs because he wears them. There were many greedy people during this time just trying to make a living off of other people’s misfortune. During the time of the plague many people were in fear, tried to find a cause, and were greedy. Europe suffered greatly from this extremely infectious disease and it took them a long time to recover completely. It was a devastating time of horror and disbelief. This is certainly an incident to learn from.
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