The Black Death Produced the Modern World: Essay

The Black Death took place between 1347-1350. It was a plague that affected countries throughout Europe, killing around a quarter of the people. The Black Death consisted of three strands of the plague which were easily and quickly transmitted to one another. The disease could kill you in a matter of days or even hours. The sanitary practices among the Europeans made them much more susceptible to falling ill with the disease. When someone in the area contracted the disease, they were usually quarantined or if the whole town was infected then they would quarantine the whole area, sealing them off from the rest of the country. People were placing blame on physicians and even the Jews and witches. Some believed that God was punishing them. Others took advantage of this vulnerable time and committed crimes of robbery of those who were sick or had died. As the Black Death ended, it led to some serious economic changes and reforms and ultimately the end of the Middle Ages. In this essay, I will discuss how the Black Death played out, how the people of Europe dealt with the disease, and how it affected society.

Although the Black Death mainly took place in Europe, it originated in China. Trade with Asia was the main cause for it spreading throughout Europe and even Africa and the Middle East. After these people from Asia traveled to ports in Italy, most of them were dead or fatally ill with the plague. Although these people were told to leave, the plague had already spread and would continue to spread throughout the next few years traveling through the entire continent of Europe. The plague struck unsanitary and crowded areas the most, making for the rapid spread of the disease among most cities. The originally wealthy and stable Europe was now quickly becoming consumed by the plague.

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The Black Death had many symptoms that made the lives of the infected extremely difficult and painful. There are three types of plagues which are Bubonic, Septicemic, and Pneumonic. These three strands of the plague all originate from the same bacteria, Yersinia pestis; however, their symptoms were slightly different, and they affected different parts of the body. The Bubonic plague was characterized by the swelling of the lymph glands producing buboes. However, other symptoms include fever, vomiting, headaches, muscle pain, and weakness. The Septicemic plague was when the bacteria entered and infected the bloodstream which led to abdominal pain, fever, weakness, shock, and bleeding in skin and organs. This bleeding in the skin and organs can cause the color of your skin to turn black, which could be the reason for the name, the Black Death. The Pneumonic plague infected one’s lungs causing difficulty breathing, chest pain, fever, nausea, and weakness.

The plague spread very easily and rapidly creating a deadly environment. Both the Bubonic plague and the Septicemic plague were transmitted from a bite from an infected flea or rodent. It rarely spreads from human to human contact. Symptoms usually take around two to seven days to appear. If the Bubonic plague or Septicemic plague goes untreated, it can often lead to the Pneumonic plague developing. The Pneumonic plague can be contracted through close contact with an infected human or animal and is highly contagious. Symptoms can appear within hours of exposure, which means it can quickly become fatal. After the bacteria enters your body, it typically takes another three to five days for the infected to die. Because the disease was easily transmitted to others and people became infected and dying quickly, it spread quickly throughout Europe traveling between 1.5 to 6 kilometers a day.

Sanitary practices among the Europeans left them even more vulnerable to contracting the Black Plague. Instead of having a sewage system, sewage was dumped into the streets where everyone was walking. This guaranteed that the plague would spread throughout the area. The commoners also were not able to bathe very often leading to bad hygiene, which could also be a factor for spreading the disease. Most families lived in very tight quarters, sleeping right near each other. Houses were usually cold and damp which left people at an increased risk. The lack of sanitary practices also leads to an increase in fleas and rodents who carry the disease making me much more likely to be affected. The poor were especially at risk because they could not leave the infected towns, they had horrible living conditions, weakened immune systems, and overall more exposure to the disease leading them to be more likely to become infected. The rich on the other hand could afford to flee the infected areas lessening their risk and with that having much cleaner and healthier living conditions also lessened their risk.

If you or someone in your area contracted the disease, several measures were taken to prevent more from becoming infected. If you were the only one who was sick, you would most likely be quarantined, and often if a whole town was infected, troops would be sent to quarantine the area and prevent people from entering and leaving. As the disease became more ramped, people took even more precautionary measures to prevent them from falling ill. Some steps they took were isolating the sick, avoiding unnecessary skin contact, and being cautious with food and water. If possible, people would flee to the countryside where they could isolate themselves. Within a town, shops closed, doctors stopped seeing patients, and people avoided each other. People were living in constant fear for their lives making for a very chaotic few years.

During the time of the plague, people stopped relying on doctors to help and even became suspicious of them. People often accused them of helping spread the plague rather than treating it. In some areas, physicians were even stoned by the people. Some practices that were performed to help treat the plague were bloodletting and boil lancing. Bloodletting is the practice of withdrawing blood from a patient to cure them. Boil lancing is the practice of draining buboes. Both of these were very dangerous and unsanitary practices. It was very easy for the physician and others nearby to become infected. Some other treatments that resulted from superstition were burning herbs and bathing in vinegar. As the disease ran more ramped and there was no known cure, doctors stopped seeing patients, and people became even more desperate. Today, the plague is extremely rare and if you were to fall ill from it, there are antibiotics to cure it.

Along with physicians, people also blamed the Jews and witches. With so many people dying and no cure, people often wanted to place the blame on someone. The people started to hate the idea of letting the practicing Jews live with them and there was a fear that the Jews were evil because they did not catch the disease as much as others. To combat this, they either would exile or kill all of them. Many neighborhoods of the Jewish were attacked and killed. By the end of it, almost all of the Jews were gone. The idea of the mass murder of the Jews reminds many of the Holocaust which shows persecution of Jews was happening long before then. In addition to the Jews being blamed, people were accused of witchcraft. Any type of coincidence or out-of-the-norm behavior was thought to be witchcraft. This blaming and accusing people of witchcraft is very much similar to the Salem Witch Trials which occurred later on.

Although some focused their energy on blaming others for the plague, some turned to God during these desperate times. Because there was no known cure for the disease, people started to believe that the plague was God punishing them for their sinful behavior. In their eyes, the only way to stop the plague was to receive forgiveness from God. They believed they could receive this by sending gifts to the church, vowing to be holier in the future, and by riding the area of heretics such as the Jewish or witches. Some men even repented in the way by beating themselves and others publicly, multiple times a day. These practices although tolerated in the beginning were soon stopped by the pope. Although people turned to prayer in this time of need, many people’s faith declined after the plague ended because their prayers for health were not answered.

While some prayed for health and wellness, others took the opportunity to commit crimes. Some people took advantage of the fact that families who have died left valuable possessions in their houses. Robbery and looting were extremely common. In extreme cases, some people even murdered those with the plague and stole their possessions. There also was an issue with people stealing possessions from the sick that they may fall ill themselves due to the exposure. With food also being scarce due to the famine in earlier years, unlawful behavior was already fairly common. With fewer and fewer people able to work the farms and agriculture declining, this perpetuated food insecurity, the crimes committed, and further death. Not only are people being killed by the plague, but they are being killed by starvation.

The Black Death began to fade out around 1350 but it left a fourth of Europe dead and a lot of recovering to do. The population was not able to generate until about 200 years later. Areas of greater population in dense areas were hit the hardest and lost the most people while some areas in a more rural setting had lesser death. Overall the Black Death, in a way signified the end of the Middle Ages. However, it began at the start of the Renaissance. Renaissance means ‘rebirth’, so this gave the people of Europe an opportunity to reinvent themselves and change their outlook on life. It also led to many new cultural and scientific developments furthering society towards modern times.

The aftermath of the Black Death took a huge toll on the economy. The population was greatly decreased, which meant that they did not have enough people in the workforce. The area with the most devastating decline was in agriculture. With much of the work gone, workers were highly in demand, especially among the upper class who needed people to take care of their land. This made for the disruption and decline of the feudal system. These landowning elites did not have control over those who took care of their land, so their land was not protected or maintained. Also, even if they received help from people, they would have to pay them a very high wage because workers were extremely in demand. With the higher wages, peasants were now able to receive more money and then be able to move up in the social classes. Thus, putting them and their family in a better economic position when the population was to regenerate in the future. Also, the landowners were forced to treat the peasants nicely because they were so in demand that they desperately needed them and did not want them to leave. In addition to the economy failing within Europe, they also were not able to trade with others for some time because they could not produce any goods to trade with.

Another factor to consider with so many people dying was who received their possessions. With a great amount of people dying in each family, those who survived were often left with many possessions and wealth. This is a factor that could raise people’s social class and allow them to live a more extravagant life. With all of this extra wealth and money, people were able to buy more things creating work for manufacturing artisans. However, due to the scarce amount of manufacturing artisans still living, the prices for things were much higher than they were previously. Although people had a lot more wealth than before, there was also a fear and possibility that they would have almost all of their newfound wealth on possessions. After surviving something like the Black Death, people may be more predisposed to taking bigger risks because they were the ones who lived so they should take advantage of their life. This could lead to a new problem with people becoming poor again. In addition to the commoners receiving possessions, the churches and some other public institutions were able to thrive with all of the wealth they had acquired through the plague. They spent their money on building extremely lavish and elegant buildings.

In conclusion, the Black Death was an extremely traumatic event that changed Europe forever. The disease started in 1347 as a result of trading with China. As the disease spread rapidly throughout Europe, it hit areas that were crowded and of high populations the hardest. The disease could be spread from rats and fleas or even human contact. Treatments like boil lancing or using herbs proved ineffective causing people to become very angry with physicians at the time. People began blaming doctors, the Jews, and witches. Some people believed that the plague was a punishment from God for their sinful behavior. They began to repent, donate to the church, and even hurt themselves to try to receive God’s mercy. While some prayed or placed blame on others, others took advantage of the opportunity and began to steal the possessions of the sick or those who had already died. When the plague ended in 1350, around a fourth of Europe had died causing serious problems for the economy as fewer people were working. It also caused problems in the feudal system because there were not as many people available to maintain the land. The Black Death ultimately led to the end of the Middle Ages; however, it led to the start of the Renaissance and the ‘rebirth’ of new ideas.

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