The mid-fourteenth century witnessed one of the most destructive natural disasters in the history of mankind - the Black Death. This paper will describe the Black Death that killed one third of the European population. This great plague caused the economic crisis, social and political upheavals, and also peasant revolts. It took next two hundred years to the European population to return to the level before the Black Death.
Into the thirteenth century Europe had experienced a very good time in the history. Good harvests and expanding of the population. Everything changed by the end of the century. “Symptoms of bubonic plague, known as Black Death included high fever, aching joints, swelling of the lymph, and dark blotches caused be bleeding
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beneath the skin.” The plague reached Europe in October 1347. It was brought to the island of Sicily from China by the Genoese merchants. The plague spread very quickly. The Italian writer Boccaccio said its victims often: "Ate lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestors in paradise." In 1348 the plague spread through France and Low Countries into Germany.
It had reached England by the end of the year. In 1349 the plague had reached the Scandinavia. Easter Europe and Russia were affected by 1351. “It has been estimated that European population declined by 25 to 50 percent between 1347 and 1351, this means 19 to 38 million people died in four years“.
Reactions to the Black Death were extreme at times. “Because fourteenth century healers were at a loss to explain the cause, Europeans turned to astrological forces, earthquakes, and the poisoning of wells by Jews as possible reasons for the plague's emergence.” The worst organized pogroms against Jews were in Germany. More than 60 Jewish communities had been exterminated by 1351. Many Jew escaped to Russia and especially to Poland, where the Polish king offered them
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protection. All this brought economic and social consequences.
Both peasants and noble landlords were affected. Many people had died and that caused serious labor shortages all over Europe. This led workers to demand higher wages, but landlords rejected those claims. “For example, a farm laborer who had received 2 shillings a week in 1347 was paid 7 in 1349and almost 11 by 1350“. Also the decline in population depressed the need for agricultural produce. By the end of the 1300s peasant revolts broke out in England, France, Belgium and Italy. In 1358, Jacquerie – a peasant revolt broke out in France. The Black Death and economic dislocation was very important causes of the revolt, but also the Hundred Years War that affected French peasantry. Class tensions were also important factors that brought peasant anger. The French aristocrat said, “Should peasants eat meat? Rather should they chew grass on the health with the horned cattle and go naked on all fours”. Castles were burned and nobles were murdered. The most noticeable peasants’ revolt had place in England in 1381. After the Black Death, the peasants’ situation in England had improved. They had more freedom, higher wages or lower rents. Due to that the aristocratic landlords wanted to bring back old feudal dues. However, the immediate reason of the revolt, was the attempt to raise the revenues by imposing a poll tax. Peasants in England refused to pay the tax and they expelled the collectors from their villages. The revolt was
at first successful and after the peasants marched in London, the king agreed to accept their demands if they go back to their homes. The poll tax was eliminated, and most of the hundreds of the arrested rebels were pardoned. The fourteenth century observed many of the revolts of the peasantry against noble landowners. The distraction of the normal order by the Black Death and economic dislocation were very important elements that have begun the revolts. The revolts also affected the cities. Commercial and industrial activity was affected immediately from the Black Death. “Florence’s woolen industry, one of the giants, produced 70,000 to 80,000 pieces of cloth in 1338; in 1378, it was yielding only 24,000 pieces. “ Workers tried to form their own protective organizations to win higher wages and better working conditions. But the manufacturers were able to prevent workers from forming such organizations. That anger the workers who outbreak in violence. The most serious was the revolt of poor laborers called Ciompi that took place in Florence in 1378 and followed a course similar to other popular revolts of the time. It is the initial success, and eventual victory for the authorities. Medieval society never recovered from the results of the plague. The disease also affected the Church. People throughout Christendom had prayed deeply for deliverance from the plague. For many people the plague had been sent by God as a punishment for humans’ sins or was caused by the devil. Before the Black Death struck, the Church throughout Europe had almost absolute power. But the people started to blame God for the plague. “[The plague] shook people’s confidence in conventional beliefs and authority”. The Church began to suffer very quickly. Before the pandemic, the Church had thousands of followers. When disaster struck, the people wandered away from the Church. The Church couldn’t explain why this all happening. The followers thought of the Church as omniscient, so when the clergy could not give them the answers, the Church began losing spiritual authority over its people. As the Church lost spiritual authority, the priests began leaving the Church. This caused the convents to be run by less educated people. As the Church lost their power, the people’s hope weakened. The prayers were not working and the Church had lost almost all its respect and authority. Since the followers believed God was punishing them, they started to look for something new to believe in. As the people gained more personal freedom, they began to question the Church. Corruption became so widespread that less people were motivated to follow the Church. Famine, plague, economic crisis, social upheavals were not the only problems of the fourteenth century. However, the Black Death and everything what came with it, was the most destructive and dramatic in the history of mankind. This tragic natural disaster wiped out at least one-third of the European population. Reactions varied. People escaped into alcohol, and crime, as well as turning into another direction to extreme asceticism to cleanse themselves from sin and gain God’s forgiveness. It took next two hundred years to the European population to return to the level before the Black Death.
Another piece of evidence to go along with it states,” Due to the shortage of workers all labor became very valuable and in-demand (Document 7).” The effects that the bubonic plague had on 14th Century Europe were that faith in religion had fallen, the demand for labor was high, and the economy had taken a toll. The Black Death devastated Medieval Europe, causing many uncontrollable effects, both good and bad. However, despite these effects, the European people were able to overcome this period of desolation, and move on with life.
The Black Death struck Europe in a time of great despair. "Although a `Great Famine' struck northern Europe between 1315 and 1322, nothing prepared Europeans for the horrendous onslaught of the Black Death" (Aberth, 2). The famine had caused a massive hunger shortage from which Europe had yet to recove...
The years 1348 through 1350 had been an extremely gruesome and miserable time in our world’s history. During this time period, one of the most devastating pandemics in history had struck half the world with an intensifying and deadly blow. It had been responsible for over 75 million deaths and 20 million of these deaths were from Europe alone. Out of the countries that were hit hardest in Europe from mortality rates and economic downturns, England was one of them. This grave disease that marked the end of the middle ages and the start of the modern age is known as the Black Plague.
In the midst of the chaos it created, the Black Death weakened the archaic system of manorialism by causing an increase in the incomes of peasants. Manorialism was an economic system where a large class of serfs worked in the fields of the nobles in exchange for a small share of the crops. Due to the outbreak of the plague, however, there were not enough serfs for this approach to remain viable. The death of many serfs due to the Black Death meant that the ones who remained were able to ask for larger shares of the crops since their services were rare and thus more valuable. Further adding to the increase, many peasants whose requests were denied would often s...
In the 1340’s, an epidemic named the Black Death, erupted through Europe, killing nearly ⅓ of its population. The Black Death originated in China, rapidly spreading to western Asia and Europe. It killed about 30 million people in Europe plummeting its population. A lot of these people were peasants. This was because they had the least money, therefore putting them in the worst living conditions. There were so many of them that no individual could make a substantial amount of money. When the plague hit, the peasants were strongly affected. A huge population of them were killed. After the epidemic, the population of peasants was far less than before. This provided them with a chance to really improve their lives. The Black Death caused a change
In 1300, multiple out breaks of the Black Plague arised. For example, in the thirteenth century an outbreak in China killed one third of the population. Several dates before this time showed the disease was present years ago in Europe. Dying from the Plague was scary to most people and Jordan Mcmullin, an author stresses, “Whenever the Plague appeared the sadness of death was terrifying” (Mcmullin n.pag.). Death has always been frightening, but when a country plagues with disease, death becomes a terrible fear, the Plague scared the people of 541, and 542, when their outbreak of the Plague spread. Therefore, while other outbreaks of the Black Plague took place, the fourteenth century outbreak in Europe was certainly the worst.
"In less than four years the disease carved a path of death through Asia, Italy, France, North Africa, Spain and Normandy, made its way over the Alps into Switzerland, and continued eastward into Hungary" (Microsoft Bookshelf, page 1). After a brief respite, the plague resumed, crossing the channel into England, Scotland, and Ireland, and eventually made its way into the northern countries of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and even as far north as Greenland. In other words, the plague touched almost the entire known world.
The destruction and devastation caused by the 'Black Death' of the Middle Ages was a phenomenon left to wonder at in text books of historical Europe. An unstoppable plague swept the continent taking as much as eighty percent of the European population along with it (Forsyth).
The Black Plague, perhaps one of the worst epidemics in history, swept its evil across Europe in the middle of the 14th century, killing an estimated 20 million people. This major population shift, along with other disasters occurring at the time, such as famine and an already existing economic recession, plunged Europe into a dark period of complete turmoil. Anarchy, psychological breakdowns, and the dissipation of church power were some of the results. As time passed, however, society managed to find new ground and began its long path of recovery. The plague, as catastrophic as it was to medieval Europe, had just as many positive effects that came with this recovery as it did negative effects prior. An end to feudalism, increased wages and innovation, the idea of separation of church and state, and an attention to hygiene and medicine are only some of the positive things that came after the plague. It could also be argued that the plague had a significant impact on the start of the Renaissance.
No other epidemic reaches the level of the Black Death which took place from 1348 to 1350. The epidemic, better regarded as a pandemic, shook Europe, Asia, and North Africa; therefore it deems as the one of the most devastating events in world history. In The Black Death: The Great Mortality of 1348-1350, John Aberth, compiles primary sources in order to examine the origins and outcomes of this deadly disease. The author, a history professor and associate academic dean at Vermont’s Castleton State College, specializes in medieval history and the Black Death. He wrote the book in order to provide multiple perspectives of the plague’s impact. Primarily, pathogens started the whole phenomenon; however, geological, economic, and social conditions
The Bubonic Plague, or more commonly known as ‘The Black Death’ or ‘The Black Plague,’ was one of the most devastating and deadliest pandemics that humans have ever witnessed in the history of mankind. The disease spanned two continents in just a few years, marking every country between Western Europe all the way to China. During the reign of the plague, which is estimated to be the years between 1347-1352, it is estimated that “20 million people in Europe–almost one-third of the continent’s population” was killed off due to the plague. The Black Plague would change the course of European history since the plague knew no boundaries and inflicted its wrath upon the rich and the poor alike. As a result, not only did the plague have a devastating demographic impact which encountered a massive social disruption, but also, an economic and religious impact as well.
The Black Death plague had disastrous consequences for Europe in the 14th century. After the initial outbreak in Europe, 1347, it continued for around five years and then mysteriously disappeared. However, it broke out again in the 1360s and every few decades thereafter till around 1700. The European epidemic was an outbreak of the bubonic plague, which began in Asia and spread across trade routes. When it reached Europe, a path of destruction began to emerge.
The 14th century saw the emergence of an extremely contagious and deadly disease, bubonic plague, which was also known as the “Black Death”. This savage disease affected people from all classes of the society, regardless of their wealth, religion, gender or age (as seen in the Document 6). In that day and age, there was almost no one who didn’t lose a relative, a friend, or a loved one to the illness. During this dark age, people reacted to the disease with mass fear, endless grief, and quandary.
"The Black Death" is known as the worst natural disaster in European history. The plague spread throughout Europe from 1346-1352. Those who survived lived in constant fear of the plague's return and it did not disappear until the 1600s. Not only were the effects devastating at the time of infection, but during the aftermath as well. "The Black Death" of the fourteenth century dramatically altered Europe's social and economic structure.
The 14th century is ranked as one of the most distressing epochs in the history of Western culture. With the transformation of the Holy Roman Empire into a greatly destabilized elective monarchy, the transfer in political power from Germany to France and the escalation of England's power comes the end of the High Middle Ages in which Europe sank into a time of despair. Many events were responsible for this decline and loss of hope. Among them, three deserve special attention: the Great Schism, the Hundred Years War, and the Black Plague.