One similarity between smallpox and the black death was that they both established new trade with countries they had rarely traded with before. With smallpox, the Americas were faced with a labour shortage due to the amount of people smallpox had killed. The labour was needed to work in silver mines and sugar plantations.To fill the shortage of labour, slaves were traded from the Guinea Coast, somewhere there was not much trade in before, but now was a bustling center of trade due to the demand for slaves. Similarly, during the black death, there was a shortage of people because of the shrunken population. There were less people buying wool, wine, and cheese, so merchants from Europe sook out customers in different areas. Some such areas were
Modern scholars suggest an array of causes for the Black Death. Some cite Malthusian theory by arguing that the disease was a natural result of the overwhelming population increase in the two centuries before the plague struck, a factor which caused the outstripping of the food supply. While the population increased by 300% in these two centuries, the food production stayed relatively the same. As to the origin of the disease, some theorists believe that rodents native to the foothills of the Himalayas had carried the disease for ages, and, after transmission to central Asia via Mongol armies, the disease was then transferred to major port cities in Europe after trade routes were established with the East following the Crusades.
The Black Death, also known as the Bubonic Plague is perhaps the greatest and horrifying tragedies to have ever happened to humanity. The Plague was ferocious and had such a gruesome where people would die in such a morbid fashion that today we are obsessed with this subject.
During the expansion of trade European traders traveled the black sea region regularly which was a sea located between far southeastern Europe and the far western edges of Asia. The Black Death was introduced to Europe in October 1347 when twelve Genoese The disease was caused by a bacteria called Yersinia Pestis which was carried by fleas that lived on the black rats. These rodents helped spread the plague. The diseases spread one of two ways.
The perspective the author gives to this book is a unique. Smallpox according to most histories does not play the role of a major character, but a minor part. In my opinion smallpox was a major factor during the Revolutionary War, and Feen focuses on several key areas which allows us to see just how bad this epidemic was and the grip it had not only on the soldiers, but the colonist as well.
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
Transportation and migration has been important to Homo sapiens since the time of the hunter-gatherer. Humans have used the different methods of transportation since this time for a number of reasons (i.e. survival in the case of the hunter-gatherer, to spread religion, or in order to search for precious minerals and spices). What few of these human travelers failed to realize is that often diseases were migrating with them. This essay will look at the spread of the disease smallpox. In the following I hope to reveal the history of smallpox as well as why it devastated the New World.
The Black Death started with a bacterium called Yersinia Pestis. “Yersinia Pestis, or known as pasteurella pestis, causes severe illness but more commonly death upon infection unless implanted with antibiotics,” (Sutyak). This bacteria spread quickly. ‘On average, bacteria can double every 4-20 minutes,” (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory). That means that when one person was infected, during the day 72 others could be infected if the rate was one person every 20 minutes. If the rate was one person every 4 minutes, there could be 360 people infected in a day. That rate is extremely horrendous rate of infection. Imagine if one person in your town got a terrible disease. Then the disease spread during one day. Three hundred sixty people infected in one day. That is exceedingly disgusting from my point of view. Now, lets take it broader. “Pandemics can affect 20% to 40% of the entire world's population”, (U.S Department of Health & Human Services). The Black Death caused 75 to 200 million people to die. That was a huge chunk of the population at the time. When all the people died, many places had little t...
The American Revolution was started in 18th century based on the political, social and economical reasons in the thirteen colonies. The colonists discovered the United States of America by refusing the nobility and monarchy of the Great Britain. During the Revolution, an epidemic disease called smallpox was spread devastatingly and frequently. Smallpox was an enormously contagious disease caused by a specific type of virus variola which spread into the thirteen American colonies. The disease was new in the country to take place in Boston, Massachussetts first and by spreading the virus made a severe threat all over. It began with infection mainly in the blood vessels of the human skin and mouth, resulted in different kinds of symptoms for
The Black Death, or Bubonic Plague is a highly contagious disease that was spread by rats and other rodents that killed more than one third of the population in Europe. This disease is called the Black Plague because its symptoms produced black, skin around its swellings. This started in Europe in 1328 and lasted till 1351, although it still had prevalent outbreaks. Some of the symptoms are high fever, bleeding in the lungs, vomiting and painful swellings (buboes) of the lymph nodes. These would appear throughout would appear in various parts of the body. The colors of the buboes would start off red, and over time turn turn black. Victims in the Middle Ages and doctors had no idea what caused these disease. Doctors used various herbs to try to heal its victims, but sadly, there was no cure.
Although the Columbian Exchange allowed for the beneficial exchange of cultures, ideas, foods, and animals around the world during the 1450-1750 time period, it also had a dark side. One detrimental result of the Columbian Exchange would be the spreading of smallpox from Europe to the New World.
The Black Death first appeared in Sicily around October 1347, abroad Genoese trading ships that had sailed from the port of Caffa. The men on these ships were diseased and dying with black swellings and boils all over their body and most died within five days. The Black Death had made its way to Europe, and started to wreak havoc on the population. By January 1348, the plague had reached Paris and by August it was in England. Populations sharply decreased as the plague took its toll, indiscriminate in its killing. Worse of all, it wasn’t just one disease that was killing off whole populations- there were two differ...
A devastating widespread disease that resulted in about 75 million deaths was known as the Black Death. The disease came from fleas that came off of rats that were commonly found in towns and cities. The fleas would bite the victims, injecting them with the disease. Fleas and rats could be found almost anywhere but they were mainly aboard ships of all kind. This is how the Black Death made its way through European ports. This disease could also be spread through the air from person to person. According to one doctor “instantaneous death occurs when the aerial spirit escaping from the eyes of the sick man strikes the healthy person standing near and looking at the sick” There was no medical knowledge to help the people neither cure nor stop the disease. This sent all of Europe in a panic and changed many of their lives forever.
Small pox. Tuberculosis. AIDS. These diseases have been considered epidemics at various points throughout the history of the world. None of them, however, had such an impact on the population and culture of the people than did the Black Death. The Black Death was a disease that invaded England in the middle of the fourteenth century. Reports on the total amount deceased have varied from between twenty-five percent and fifty percent of the European population. However, it is known that many millions of people were eliminated from the English population, and that the Black Death was a catalyst for social change within Europe. The culture and lives of all people rich and poor was changed forever due to the effects of the Black Death.
“I think a rat just climbed up my leg, Dad. And I’ve got fleas, too.” “John, there’s all this Black Death and all you care about is a few fleas and a rat.
In order to learn how societies were impacted by the Black Death, it is significant to note the situation prior to the epidemic. Britain and France had been at war since 1337, by August 1347 France was devastated. Many of the French people were left without homes, food or livestock, they were about to face a harsh winter and were unsure if they had enough seeds to plant crops the following year. The climatic changes that occurred over Europe had drastic consequences for agriculture, resulting in malnutrition which pre-disposed the populaces to disease. Inflation increased and famine soon spread across Europe, resulting in many deaths. Around 1339, Europe’s population began to increase, this growth began to surpass the capacity of the land to feed its populace. Therefore a severe economic...