Impact of the Bubonic Plague on Renaissance Europe

The Renaissance was a time period that started around 1300s C.E. and lasted to the 1500s and began in Italy and over time spread to Europe (Frey 316). The Renaissance was known for adopting new ideas, the study of humanism, breathtaking art, and the era of deadly diseases that spread rapidly from one person to another and killed people within days.

Although the Renaissance consisted of discovering new and exciting topics, a major outbreak had occurred. This outbreak was known as the Bubonic Plague or the “Black Death” which had arrived in Europe in 1348 (Woodville). The Bubonic Plague impacted Europe and Europeans negatively economically, politically, and socially.

To begin the Bubonic Plague affected Europe economically by impacting trade

and commerce, medicine, doctors, and technology. The plague affected goods to get from one person to another because people did not want to spread the disease to each other because they were trading from different regions (“Virginia.edu”). Although they planned to stop trading goods they did not, and it caused the plague to spread to even more people and cause those people to become very sick and died within days. Manufacturing was disrupted because so many people had died and this caused lots of jobs to open up, and so many jobs opened up with not a lot of people in the region businesses could not get enough people to work for them (Woodville). Frey stated “Trade and commerce slowed almost to a halt during the plague years” (57). Besides trade and commerce being affected by the Bubonic plague, doctors and medicine also had an affect too. When somebody had the plague, they had no official way to cure it, but people believed that plague doctors had to come to that person with plagues home and cut open the veins in the victim's arm and drain all of the bad blood out of their body to stay alive (Dunn 8). Since plague doctors drained their blood it caused people to lose a large quantity of their blood and they would have to find a way to clean their own blood or get new blood which was very dangerous to do. Back then the doctors did not have any technology to help them find out where the plague came from, this event caused the plague doctors and scientist to believe that the plague came from other planets such as Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn (Macdonald 15). Avoiding the plague was a difficult task, but plague doctors had some idea of how to prevent it, they told people that there were no treatments or medicine, but to help avoid the plague they told people to avoid baths, sex, and to eat and drink heated and cool foods (Macdonald 15). From this it restricted people from doing what they want to do and now they cannot do these actions anymore because of the plague. Europeans were affected negatively by the Bubonic Plague in an economic way by trade and commerce, doctors and medicine.
Secondly the Bubonic Plague affected Europe negatively in a political way because it impacted their jobs, rank, and social status.

The Bubonic plague did not affect the lower classes as much because they consisted of peasants which there was a large quantity of, and when people from the lower class usually died they had enough people to fill their job. Lower classes still had freedoms when the plague was around, and better pay that was driving the revolts (Whipps). When the plague first struck about a quarter and a half of Europe's population had decreased because everybody had died, this caused jobs to open up and for other people to find a job and move there way up the social ranks (Frey 57). Moving up the social ranks was a difficult task, but while the population decreased people's jobs had changed power to go to different people easier than ever at this point. Wendy Frey cited “There was a shift in power from nobles to the common people” (57). This caused people to either move up in the social class or to move down because people do not need them any more because they are not that important anymore. Also a lot of serfs that owned farmland depended on their manors, but because of the plague they could not depend on them anymore so they tried to sell their land or most of the serfs that owned the farmland ran away (Dunn 18). This happened to almost every single farmer, and the effect of this caused not enough food to be grown and people in Europe now did not have enough food to eat. Europeans were affected by the Bubonic Plague negatively in a political way by job, rank, and social

status.
Lastly, Europe and was affected by the Bubonic Plague in a social way too, for example prejudice, segregation, population, and their daily life. When the plague first broke out in Europe Christians and other people thought the Jews went out and poisoned their water to try to kill them (Macdonald 15). Poising water was a crazy thought the Christians had, but it caused the Christians to go out and kill and burn thousands of Jews for thinking that they tried to poison them because Christians were “better” than Jews (Woodville). Later on, people found out that the plague was not because of the Jews, it was because people were not properly sanitary and their houses and areas they worked in were infested with dirty rats and animals carrying diseases. When Jews were being blamed for supposedly bringing the plague they then moved east to Poland and Russia (Whipps). This caused almost every single Jew to leave Europe and most of the population was wiped out because of the plague, a quarter and a half of Europe's population had then decreased (Woodville). This did not just happen to Europe, it also happened to places in China, India, and other lands to the east of Europe. Europeans daily life did not help from trying to prevent getting the Bubonic Plague. People were not sanitary and had lots of rats and invested animals that lived in their homes, and not to mention people shared their beds and clothing which caused diseases to spread more rapidly from one person to another (Orent 144). Sharing beds and clothing showed that Europeans in their daily life did not understand the importance of sanitation, and how important it was not to share things which is one of the major reasons why the Bubonic Plague spread rapidly and affected almost everybody in Europe at the time. Macdonald stated “Less dramatically… citizens from leaving garbage and dead animals to rot in city streets, causing revolting smells and miasma” (15). From this activity, the dead animals and dirty trash polluted most of the area and this caused more germs to spread to people and diseases like the plague to spread to even more people. People crowded roads because they did not know what to do because the plague was basically killing everybody in Europe (Woodville). From doing this it caused more germs to spread from one another because everybody was in the middle of the road close together not knowing that germs and diseases spread from being very close to people too. Europeans were affected by the Bubonic Plague negatively in a social way by people being prejudice, segregation occurring, population decreasing, and people's daily life changing.
To conclude the Bubonic Plague or the “Black Death” impacted Europe negatively economically, politically, and socially. The plague impacted Europe economically because for example it slowed down trade and people were not being able to buy commerce because the plague would spread to even more people in different places. The plague impacted Europeans politically because for instance some people were not needed as much as others because so many people had died, this caused power to shift from nobles to common people and change people in their rank and/ or social status. The plague impacted Europeans socially for illustration other people and Christians were prejudiced towards Jews because they thought they brought the plague to kill Christians, so the Christians went out burned and killed thousands of Jews for literally doing nothing. Killing and the burning of Jews was one of the worst effects of the plague. The Bubonic Plague or the “Black Death” is the worst event to occur in Europe's history.