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May 26, 2024 · Black Death, pandemic that ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1351, taking a proportionately greater toll of life than any other known epidemic or war up to that time. The Black Death is widely thought to have been the result of plague, caused by infection with the bacterium Yersinia pestis.
- Effects and Significance
The population in England in 1400 was perhaps half what it...
- Cause and Outbreak
Black Death - Bubonic Plague, Europe, 1347: The plague...
- Key Facts
The Black Death originated in Asia and was transmitted to...
- Yersinia Pestis
Yersinia pestis, bacterium in the family Yersiniaceae (order...
- How Did The Black Death Affect Europe
The effects of the Black Death were many and varied. Trade...
- Facts & Related Content
Black Death, pandemic that ravaged Europe between 1347 and...
- European History Quiz
The Black Death is widely believed to have been the result...
- Effects and Significance
- Arrival, Spread, & Effect of The Plague
- Socio-Economic Effects
- Effect on Medical Knowledge & Practice
- Change in Religious Attitude
- Increased Persecution & Migration
- Women's Rights
- Art & Architecture
- Conclusion
The plague came to Europe from the East, most probably via the trade routes known as the Silk Road overland, and certainly by ship oversea. The Black Death – a combination of bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic plague (and also possibly a strain of murrain) – had been gaining momentum in the East since at least 1322 and, by c. 1343, had infected the...
Before the plague, the king was thought to own all the land which he allocated to his nobles. The nobles had serfs work the land which turned a profit for the lord who paid a percentage to the king. The serfs themselves earned nothing for their labor except lodging and food they grew themselves. Since all land was the king's, he felt free to give i...
The challenge to authority also affected received medical knowledge and practice. Doctors based their medical knowledge primarily on the work of the Roman physician Galen (l. 130-210) as well as on Hippocrates (l. c. 460 - c. 370 BCE) and Aristotle(l. 384-322 BCE), but many of these works were only available in translations from Arabic copies and, ...
Doctors and theoreticians were not the only ones whose authority was challenged by the plague, however, as the clergy came under the same kind of scrutiny and inspired the same – or far greater – doubt in their abilities to perform the services they claimed to be able to. Friars, monks, priests, and nuns died just as easily as anyone else – in some...
The frustration people felt at their helplessness in the face of the plague gave rise to violent outbursts of persecution across Europe. The Flagellant Movement was not the only source of persecution; otherwise peaceful citizens could be whipped into a frenzy to attack communities of Jews, Romani(gypsies), lepers, or others. Women were also abused ...
Women, on the other hand, gained higher status following the plague. Prior to the outbreak, women had few rights. Scholar Eileen Power writes: Neither the medieval Churchnor the aristocracy held women in very high regard. Women of the lower classes could work as bakers, milkmaids, barmaids, weavers, and, of course, as laborers with their family on ...
The plague also dramatically affected medieval art and architecture. Artistic pieces (paintings, wood-block prints, sculptures, and others) tended to be more realistic than before and, almost uniformly, focused on death. Scholar Anna Louise DesOrmeaux comments: The most famous motif was the Dance of Death (also known as Danse Macabre) an allegorica...
It was not only the higher wages demanded by the peasant class, nor a preoccupation with death that affected post-plague architecture, however, but the vast reduction in agricultural production and demand due to depopulation which led to an economic recession. Fields were left uncultivated and crops were allowed to rot while, at the same time, nati...
- Joshua J. Mark
The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Europe from 1346 to 1353. It was one of the most fatal pandemics in human history; as many as 50 million people perished, perhaps 50% of Europe's 14th century population. The disease is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and spread by fleas and through the air.
Apr 5, 2023 · The Black Death was a plague pandemic that devastated medieval Europe from 1347 to 1352. The Black Death killed an estimated 25-30 million people. The disease originated in central Asia and was taken to the Crimea by Mongol warriors and traders.
- Mark Cartwright
In October 1347, a ship came from the Crimea and Asia and docked in Messina, Sicily. Aboard the ship were not only sailors but rats. The rats brought with them the Black Death, the bubonic plague. Reports that came to Europe about the disease indicated that 20 million people had died in Asia.
Key points. In 1348 - 49, the Black Death swept across Europe, killing up to half of the population. There were two main types of plague: bubonic and pneumonic. Treatments and cures were...
Apr 25, 2019 · Plague pandemics hit the world in three waves from the 1300s to the 1900s and killed millions of people. The first wave, called the Black Death in Europe, was from 1347 to 1351. The second wave in the 1500s saw the emergence of a new virulent strain of the disease.
