The Black Death

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The Black Death in the Middle Ages was it what the people and even scientist of that time thought that it was “God’s will intervening” or was it just circumstance that combined to make it the perfect breeding ground for the disease to spread? Even though the people of that time didn’t know the disease as the Black Death they did know that there was a sickness that was going around and by the end of it about 50 percent of the population would be killed from it (Rhodes 2013). The Black Death did shatter the population but it also lead to many benefits for those that survived such as improved environmental, health, economic and social changes.
To really understand what lead to the perfect storm for the plaque one would have to look back to a few years before it reached Europe. By the 1300s, population growth had increased so much that the European countries were having difficulties with feeding its people. Forest had been cleared, marshes drained, and pastureland reduced but it still wasn’t able to keep up the demand. Along with the increase in population there was a change in climate or weather which lead to increase rainfall, shortening growing season, and a huge problem with food production. With these changes it developed a great famine from about 1315-1322 (Coffin, et al. 2011). With the famine came great consequences for the people of Europe which weakened them by the malnutrition which made them more susceptible to diseases. Along with the famine the people of Europe live in poor over populated conditions such as the streets being used as sewage, homes weren’t kept clean, animals lived in the homes, and it was easy for rodent to gain access into the home (Rhodes 2013). It wasn’t long after the Great Famine that the f...

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...nce, was one of the first to enact labor legislations in order to restrict laborer’s mobility and curb their demands for higher wage, they also did it to try and attract immigrant labor with the promise of attractive conditions. There was also evidence that women began to take advantage of the changes from the Black Death such as delaying marriage and childbirth so that they could obtain employment. The English Peasant’s Revolt of 1381 helped with the changing the manorial economy from serfdom to a rent paying class (Aberth 2005).

Works Cited

Aberth, John. 2005. The Black Death: The Grat Mortality of 1348-1350. Boston, New Yew York: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Coffin, Judith, Joshua Cole, Robert Stacey, and Carol Symes. 2011. Western Civilizations. New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company.
Rhodes, Chessie. 2013. "Class Lectures/Notes." Huntington, November, December.

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