The Black Death

The Black Death

Imagine a monster coming through a city killing millions of people inside it. The Black Death, also known as the Bubonic Plague, was a natural disaster that hit Europe in the early thirteen hundreds acting as the monster. In 1348, northern Europe was hit, and then after that, the plague spread eastward. It struck without warning, shocking members of every class of society. All of this chaos started with little rats and fleas. The Black Death hit Europe in the fourteenth century leaving everyone devastated with the huge population decrease, peasant revolts, and lack of agriculture which led to the long term effects including the collapse of the feudal system, increased wages, and government taxation.

The Black Death turned into an epidemic in no time. By the end of 1348 France and Italy were covered in the Black Death. Then in August, Switzerland and England got hit as well. By the end of 1349, Scotland, Ireland, and Denmark were covered too (Davis 142). Even though the plague started in the fourteenth century, it ultimately lasted until the seventeen hundreds. "While in particular times and places later epidemics were as great as those of the Black Death, the burdens of mortality, and disruption to ordinary life events fell most heavily upon those who could not escape to safe locales. Privileged

McCarty Adams 2

sectors of the population typically had choices among fairly reliable strategies for avoiding exposure to plague" (Wilson).

There was no one cause of the Black Death. Multiple things contributed to it. According to Norman Wilson, Jupiter was wet and hot at the time of the Black Death. Mars was unmorally hot and dry. All of this caused "evil" vapors from the earth, resulting in the Black Death (Wilson). Due to the unknown cause, people were starting to be blamed. "Jews had already been implicated in the spread of leprosy earlier in the fourteenth century, so the onslaught of plague merely provided a new excuse for an established social practice" (Wilson). The main factual cause was the fleas living on rats. They traveled easily in clothing and gain shipments making it easy to catch the disease (Wilson).

The population was the biggest factor that decreased. So many people died that bodies were piling up in the villages and cities, leading authorities to create separate plague cemeteries (Wilson). "Estimates of mortality for initial wave of Black Death range from an astounding 30% to 50%, but individual locations could be passed over entirely or suffer 100% depopulation through death and subsequent abandonment" (Wilson). The reason for the huge population decrease was due to it being combined with other epidemic diseases such as typhus, influenza, tuberculosis, and smallpox (Wilson).

In result of this epidemic, peasants felt they were not being treated fairly. At the end of the Black Death there was a law passed that forced peasants to work for the same wages as before, leaving land owners profiting from their shortages ("The Peasants'

McCarty Adams 3

Revolt 1381"). "During the course of the Black Death and the years following it, England has a strong and war like king, Edward III. However, his son, the Black Prince, died before him, leaving his grandson