Preview

Theories On The Black Death

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
626 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Theories On The Black Death
The Black Death
“The Black Death was the first catastrophic outbreak from the 14th to the 18th century” (Hallen, 254). The Black Death was such a catastrophic outbreak because the black death claimed over 75 million lives. A person could not even go near the sick or touch their clothes because if they did they would catch the plague (The Black death, 1348).
The Black Death first arrived in Europe by sea and the sailors aboard were mostly dead by the time they reached the dock (Black Death). When the black death arrived in October 1347 there were 12 Genoese trading ships docked at the sicilian port of Messina after a long journey through the Black Sea (Black Death). When the Genoese trading ships docked within three year it had spread throughout the continent (Hallon, 254). Even before the “death ships” pulled into port at Messina, many Europeans had heard rumors about a “Great Pestilence” that was carving a deadly path across trade routes of the near and far East (Black Death). The sailors that had died or were near dying were covered with black boils that oozed blood and pus (Black Death).
…show more content…
Including many thought the nursery rhyme “Ring around the Rosey” was written about the symptoms of the black death (Hallon, 254). Some other people thought you could get the disease by over eating or sex with older women (Hallon, 254). Some people thought carrying flowers or scented herbs or perfumes in their hands, in belief that it was an excellent thing to comfort the brain with such odors (Hallon, 254). Although many people thought those thoughts most people believed it was God punishing them for sins such as greed and hersery (Black Death). Today scientists understand that the Black Death is spread by a bacillus called yersinia pestis (Black

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Imagine one half of the world 's population by wiped out in a space of less than a ten years. You probably cannot imagine such an event occurring; it seems unreal. Yet, this very thing happened in the between the years 1347 and 1351 in Europe. This massive destruction of human life was known as the Black Death. This Black Death was an ecological disaster on a global scale. The effects of the plague on human and certain animal populations from East Asia to as far west as Greenland were catastrophic. All facets of society, from peasant to king were affected; no one was safe. All of society was affected; nothing would ever be the same. Thus, there were many economic, social, and political effects of the Black Death.…

    • 1259 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Around 1339 in northwestern Europe, the population was beginning to outgrow the food supply and a severe economic crisis began to take place. The winters were extremely cold and the summers were dry. Due to this extreme weather, very low crops yielded and those that grew were dying. Inflation became a common occurrence and as famine broke out, people began to worry. The time period of approximately 1339 to 1346 is now known as the famine before the plague (history). These seven bad years of weather and famine lead to the greatest plague of all times. In 1347, endemic to Asia, The Black Death began spreading throughout Western Europe. Over the time of three years, the plague killed one third of the population in Europe with roughly twenty five million people dead (bbc.co). The Black Death killed more Europeans than any other endemic or war up to that time, greatly impacting the Church, family life, and the economy. These three social pillars were changed forever.…

    • 1720 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Black Death is one of the most deadly epidemics in human history, and is taught in schools throughout the world. Though it is most known to have killed 50 million people in Europe it also ravaged Asia killing 25 million people. The Black Death is a type of plague called the Bubonic plague. Encyclopedia Britannica defines the Bubonic plague as, “an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Bubonic plague is the most commonly occurring type of plague and is characterized by the appearance of buboes—swollen, tender lymph nodes, typically found in the armpits and groin.” The Bubonic plague has surfaced nine times in human history: the Plague of Justinian (541-542), the Black Death (1346-1353), the Great Plague of Milan (1629-1631),…

    • 1230 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Plague: The Black Death

    • 267 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The black plague: The black plague also known as the black death started in the years 1346-1353 leading in the deaths of 75 to 200 million deaths, almost a third of the population. The black plague is also known as the black death because, of the dark patches on the skin caused by subcutaneous bleeding. The black plague was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history. A deadly epidemic known as the Sixth-Century Plague or Justinian's plague struck Constantinople and parts of southern Europe 800 years earlier. The Black Death returned several times throughout the rest of the century. (mid 14 century)…

    • 267 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bubonic Plague Dbq Analysis

    • 3206 Words
    • 13 Pages

    The Black Death also known as the Bubonic Plague and many other names, devastated European society by affecting its economy, social structure, government, and church in a series of outbreaks taking place years apart for over 300 years. When the Black Death began to surface for the first time people panicked and believed in supernatural reasons that had caused the plague but during the course of time different groups of people such as the state or government, the middle class, and the church either began to have a different attitude towards the plague like a rational or selfish point of view or they kept believing in supernatural beings that caused the plague.…

    • 3206 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Black Death Cause and Effect

    • 3181 Words
    • 13 Pages

    Cited: "The Black Death." Welcome to Utah State University. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 July 2013.…

    • 3181 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    This is where the Black Death received its name. The nursery rhyme "Ring a Ring o' roses" is related to the Black Death. " Ring a-round the rosie" refers to the rosy circular rash which was one of the symptoms of the plague. The posies refer to the different herbs and flowers people used to protect themselves from the Black Death. " Ashes, ashes" would refer to the burning of the infected bodies.…

    • 1010 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Black Death The black death also known as “ The Black Plague” arrived to Europe on October 1347. This happened when sailors from 12 trading ships arrived at Sicilian port of Messina. The people from Messina gathered on the docks to greet the sailors from the 12 ships, but what they found was a horrifying surprise. Some of the sailors from the ships were ill, and most of them were dead, part of the sailors that were alive had black boils. The Black Plague was caused by an infection called Yersinia Pestis which could come from a rat flea…

    • 99 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At the time, this seemed to be the most logical and valid theory for many people but that was due to the lack of scientific and medical knowledge that the people had during the fourteenth century. We now know that the Black Death was caused by rats that were carrying the Yersinia pestis bacterium and that oriental rat fleas would bite the resistant carrier rats and become infected with Yersinia pestis. After a few days the Yersinia pestis would multiply creating blockage in the flea’s midguts starving the fleas. The fleas would then begin to feed aggressively and would continuously try to rid of the blockage by regurgitating, causing hundreds of bacterium to enter the wound. This would infect the host, and as the population of non-resistant rats died out, the fleas would then move on to different hosts such as humans, causing a human pandemic.…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Black Death started in 1347 and raged on for some years, wiping most of Europe as it spread. Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) wrote of the plague’s symptoms: swellings or tumors in the armpits and groin, which led to blackness on different parts of the body. There’s no doubt that the Europeans had their own opinion on the cause of the plague and how to contain it. The Black Death was a plague that very unfamiliar to the victims.…

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Who were the “winners” and “losers” in the plague years (other than the immediate survivors and victims’)?…

    • 357 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Black Death

    • 1498 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Black Death is the most significant natural phenomenon in human history and continues to be the subject of medical, historical and sociological analysis . The ‘first epidemic of the second plague pandemic’ devastated Europe between 1347 and 1351, killing 25 to 45% of Europe’s population (over 75 million people across the three continents affected) and created dramatic cultural, economic, political and social upheavals to mid-fourteenth century European society. The disease was caused by three different plague types, consisting of bubonic (60% fatal), pneumonic (100% fatal) and septicaemic (100% fatal); bacterial infections caused by Yersinia Pestis . The first records of Black Death in Europe, was October 1347 when a Genoese fleet of ships landed in a Sicilian port in Messina. Within six months the Black Death was rampant in all of Italy which was the most economically sophisticated and urbanized hub of all Europe at this time. From Italy, the disease had struck France, Spain, Portugal, England, Germany, Scandinavia, and by 1351 it had spread to north-western Russia . Italian scholar and poet, Francesco Petrarch best describes the epidemic and aftermath as, “O happy posterity who will not experience such abysmal woe, and will look on our testimony as fable” . The following essay will examine how the Black Death affected the cultural, economic, political and social parameters of Europe throughout the mid-fourteenth century.…

    • 1498 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The main causes of the black death all typically tie up to poor hygiene, as the black death was an infection related to bacteria. The most common way to catch the black plague was to receive it from being in physical contact with an infected flea that carried the plague. Another way would be being in contact with the body of an infected person. If the flea’s was finished with it’s victim it would leap of it onto the closest person. In a matter of 7 years (1946-53) an average of 60% of Europe had been infected from these causes.…

    • 100 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    From the time William Shakespeare was first published on paper in 1592, to the time he died in 1616, was one of the worst and best time periods if you ask me. Ranging from the Black Death plague to the greatest love story of all time,”Romeo and Juliet,” made the Elizabethan Era very unpredictable.…

    • 311 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Black Death wreaked havoc across most of medieval Europe for nearly a decade. While in the modern age, we know that the disease originated from fleas carried on the backs of rats, the cause of the pandemic remained completely unknown to the people of Europe from a period between 1346 and 1353 AD. As the Europeans were overwhelmingly Catholic at the time, a historian can make the argument that Europeans believed that the Black Death was the wrath of God and punishment for their sins, based on the sources provided. Such evidence includes how Boccaccio recorded in The Decameron…

    • 367 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays