Origin Of The Plague Dbq Essay

Thesis: In the middle of the fourteenth century in Europe, an airborne, highly contagious disease or plague struck, which killed about third of Europe. Due to severe illnesses across the continent, many people began to flee from Europe, especially the nobles and the clergymen. Fear of the plague predominately grew from uncertainty of the origin of the plague and how to cure it.
6 Documents:
• Document 1 – talks about how people are leaving to avoid disease, just like the nobles and church people
• Document 2 – since the rich people fled, the poor people (regular folk/serfs) were left to deal with the plague; however, the serfs eventually became free from restrictions from the nobles
• Document 5 – refers to how people got struck with high fevers,
Documents 5, 6, 9, and 16
b. What the disease done to people (headaches that result in death)
c. Fear and panic of disease spreading
d. Fear leads people to look for answers through religion

Four Documents with POV
• (Document 1) Because this document is talking about how people are leaving to avoid disease, it is likely to be reliable because, during the mid-fourteenth century, many people fled Europe, including royalty and nobles, and clergymen and church people.
• (Document 2) As a French writer, Nicolas Versoris would have naturally said that since the rich people fled, the poor people (regular folk/serfs) were left to deal with the plague because he saw that happen where he lived.
• (Document 5) Because this document is referring to how people got struck with high fevers, bringing them to die, it is likely to be reliable because, during the mid-fourteenth century, 1/3 of the population of Europe died from the plague.
• (Document 16) As a physician at Marseilles, A Historical Relation of the Plague at Marseilles in the Year 1720, M. Bertrand would have naturally believed that a plethora of people turning to religion to find an answer as to why the disease came because of the fear running through the minds of residents in