essay on the black plague

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Black Death

By: History.com Editors

Updated: March 28, 2023 | Original: September 17, 2010

The Black Death was a devastating global epidemic of bubonic plague that struck Europe and Asia in the mid-1300s. The plague arrived in Europe in October 1347, when 12 ships from the Black Sea docked at the Sicilian port of Messina. People gathered on the docks were met with a horrifying surprise: Most sailors aboard the ships were dead, and those still alive were gravely ill and covered in black boils that oozed blood and pus. Sicilian authorities hastily ordered the fleet of “death ships” out of the harbor, but it was too late: Over the next five years, the Black Death would kill more than 20 million people in Europe—almost one-third of the continent’s population.

How Did the Black Plague Start?

Even before the “death ships” pulled into port at Messina, many Europeans had heard rumors about a “Great Pestilence” that was carving a deadly path across the trade routes of the Near and Far East. Indeed, in the early 1340s, the disease had struck China, India, Persia, Syria and Egypt.

The plague is thought to have originated in Asia over 2,000 years ago and was likely spread by trading ships , though recent research has indicated the pathogen responsible for the Black Death may have existed in Europe as early as 3000 B.C.

Symptoms of the Black Plague

Europeans were scarcely equipped for the horrible reality of the Black Death. “In men and women alike,” the Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio wrote, “at the beginning of the malady, certain swellings, either on the groin or under the armpits…waxed to the bigness of a common apple, others to the size of an egg, some more and some less, and these the vulgar named plague-boils.”

Blood and pus seeped out of these strange swellings, which were followed by a host of other unpleasant symptoms—fever, chills, vomiting, diarrhea, terrible aches and pains—and then, in short order, death.

The Bubonic Plague attacks the lymphatic system, causing swelling in the lymph nodes. If untreated, the infection can spread to the blood or lungs.

How Did the Black Death Spread?

The Black Death was terrifyingly, indiscriminately contagious: “the mere touching of the clothes,” wrote Boccaccio, “appeared to itself to communicate the malady to the toucher.” The disease was also terrifyingly efficient. People who were perfectly healthy when they went to bed at night could be dead by morning.

Did you know? Many scholars think that the nursery rhyme “Ring around the Rosy” was written about the symptoms of the Black Death.

Understanding the Black Death

Today, scientists understand that the Black Death, now known as the plague, is spread by a bacillus called Yersinia  pestis . (The French biologist Alexandre Yersin discovered this germ at the end of the 19th century.)

They know that the bacillus travels from person to person through the air , as well as through the bite of infected fleas and rats. Both of these pests could be found almost everywhere in medieval Europe, but they were particularly at home aboard ships of all kinds—which is how the deadly plague made its way through one European port city after another.

Not long after it struck Messina, the Black Death spread to the port of Marseilles in France and the port of Tunis in North Africa. Then it reached Rome and Florence, two cities at the center of an elaborate web of trade routes. By the middle of 1348, the Black Death had struck Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon and London.

Today, this grim sequence of events is terrifying but comprehensible. In the middle of the 14th century, however, there seemed to be no rational explanation for it.

No one knew exactly how the Black Death was transmitted from one patient to another, and no one knew how to prevent or treat it. According to one doctor, for example, “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.”

How Do You Treat the Black Death?

Physicians relied on crude and unsophisticated techniques such as bloodletting and boil-lancing (practices that were dangerous as well as unsanitary) and superstitious practices such as burning aromatic herbs and bathing in rosewater or vinegar.

Meanwhile, in a panic, healthy people did all they could to avoid the sick. Doctors refused to see patients; priests refused to administer last rites; and shopkeepers closed their stores. Many people fled the cities for the countryside, but even there they could not escape the disease: It affected cows, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens as well as people.

In fact, so many sheep died that one of the consequences of the Black Death was a European wool shortage. And many people, desperate to save themselves, even abandoned their sick and dying loved ones. “Thus doing,” Boccaccio wrote, “each thought to secure immunity for himself.”

Black Plague: God’s Punishment?

Because they did not understand the biology of the disease, many people believed that the Black Death was a kind of divine punishment—retribution for sins against God such as greed, blasphemy, heresy, fornication and worldliness.

By this logic, the only way to overcome the plague was to win God’s forgiveness. Some people believed that the way to do this was to purge their communities of heretics and other troublemakers—so, for example, many thousands of Jews were massacred in 1348 and 1349. (Thousands more fled to the sparsely populated regions of Eastern Europe, where they could be relatively safe from the rampaging mobs in the cities.)

Some people coped with the terror and uncertainty of the Black Death epidemic by lashing out at their neighbors; others coped by turning inward and fretting about the condition of their own souls.

Flagellants

Some upper-class men joined processions of flagellants that traveled from town to town and engaged in public displays of penance and punishment: They would beat themselves and one another with heavy leather straps studded with sharp pieces of metal while the townspeople looked on. For 33 1/2 days, the flagellants repeated this ritual three times a day. Then they would move on to the next town and begin the process over again.

Though the flagellant movement did provide some comfort to people who felt powerless in the face of inexplicable tragedy, it soon began to worry the Pope, whose authority the flagellants had begun to usurp. In the face of this papal resistance, the movement disintegrated.

How Did the Black Death End?

The plague never really ended and it returned with a vengeance years later. But officials in the port city of Ragusa were able to slow its spread by keeping arriving sailors in isolation until it was clear they were not carrying the disease—creating social distancing that relied on isolation to slow the spread of the disease.

The sailors were initially held on their ships for 30 days (a trentino ), a period that was later increased to 40 days, or a quarantine — the origin of the term “quarantine” and a practice still used today. 

Does the Black Plague Still Exist?

The Black Death epidemic had run its course by the early 1350s, but the plague reappeared every few generations for centuries. Modern sanitation and public-health practices have greatly mitigated the impact of the disease but have not eliminated it. While antibiotics are available to treat the Black Death, according to The World Health Organization, there are still 1,000 to 3,000 cases of plague every year.

Gallery: Pandemics That Changed History

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The Black Death: The Plague, 1331-1770

Introduction.

Medieval people called the catastrophe of the 14th century either the "Great Pestilence"' or the "Great Plague." Writers contemporary to the plague referred to the event as the "Great Mortality." Swedish and Danish chronicles of the 16th century described the events as "black" for the first time, likely to refer to black as glum or dreadful denoting the terror of the events. The German physician Justus Hecker suggested that a mistranslation of the Latin atra mors (terrible, or black, death) had occurred in Scandinavia when he described "The Black Death in the 14th century." Black Death became more widely used in the German- and English-speaking worlds.

The Death Toll

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. Knowing what happened in Europe, this was probably an underestimate, because there were more people in Asia than Europe. Best estimates now are that at least 25 million people died in Europe from 1347 to 1352. This was almost 40% of the population (some estimates indicate 60%). Half of Paris's population of 100,000 people died. In Italy, Florence's population was reduced from 120,000 inhabitants in 1338 to 50,000 in 1351. The plague was a disaster practically unequalled in the annals of recorded history and it took 150 years for Europe’s population to recover.

The Plague Doctor Costume

The plague doctor costume consisted of an ankle length overcoat, a bird-like beak mask filled with sweet or strong smelling substances, along with gloves and boots. The mask had glass openings for the eyes. Straps held the beak in front of the doctor's nose which had two small nose holes and was a type of respirator. The beak could hold dried flowers (e.g roses or carnations), herbs (e.g. mint), spices, camphor or a vinegar sponge. The purpose of the mask was to remove bad smells, thought to be the principal cause of the disease. Doctors believed the herbs would counter the "evil" smells of the plague and prevent them from becoming infected. The costume included a wide brimmed leather hat to indicate their profession. They used wooden canes to point out areas needing attention and to examine patients without touching them. The canes were also used to keep people away and to remove clothing from plague victims without having to touch them.

Three Forms of the Plague

• Bubonic plague refers to the painful lymph node swellings called buboes, primarily found around the base of the neck, in the armpits and groin which oozed pus and bled. Victims underwent damage to the skin and underlying tissue until they were covered in dark blotches. Most victims died within four to seven days after infection. When the plague reached Europe, it first struck port cities and then followed the trade routes, both by sea and land. The bubonic plague was the most commonly seen form during the Black Death, with a mortality rate of 30-75% and symptoms including fever of 38 - 41 °C (101-105 °F), headaches, painful aching joints, nausea and vomiting, and a general feeling of malaise. Of those who contracted the bubonic plague, 4 out of 5 died within eight days.
• The pneumonic plague is an airborne plague that attacks the lungs before the rest of the body. Pneumonic plague was the second most commonly seen form during the Black Death with a mortality rate of ninety to ninety-five percent.
• The septicaemic plague is a form of deadly blood poisoning. The disease is contracted primarily through the bite of an infected insect. Septicemic plague can cause disseminated intravascular coagulation, and is almost always fatal; the mortality rate in medieval times was 99-100 percent. Septicemic plague is the rarest of the three plague varieties.

The bubonic plague mechanism was dependent on two populations of rodents: one resistant to the disease, which acts as hosts, keeping the disease endemic; and a second that lacks resistance. When the second population dies, the fleas move on to other hosts, including people, thus creating a human epidemic. The original carrier for the plague-infected fleas thought to be responsible for the Black Death was the black rat. The bacterium responsible for the Black Death, Yersinia pestis, was commonly endemic in only a few rodent species and is usually transmitted zoonotically by the rat flea. Brown rats may suffer from plague, as can many non-rodent species, including dogs, cats, and humans.

The Nuremberg Chronicle

The burning of Jews in the 14th century during the black death (bubonic plague). Jews were perceived as being less susceptible to the plague than their neighbours (likely the result of Jewish ritual regarding personal hygiene) and they were accused of poisoning Christian wells: thought to be the source of the plague.

"The miserable wretched Jews, in A.D. 1337, at Deckendorf, on the Danube, in Bavaria, in scorn and ignominy of the divine majesty and high veneration paid to our Lord Jesus Christ and to the holy Christian religion, stabbed the Holy Sacrament many times. They then threw it into a hot oven, and as it remained unconsumed, they finally placed it on an anvil and struck it with hammers. When this became known, the Jews were seized by Hartmann von Degenberg, the caretaker, and the citizens; and when the truth was established, they were deservedly condemned to death. And this same Host, being present at the Holy Sepulchre, is venerated for its many miracles.

Thereafter, in the year A.D. 1348, all the Jews in Germany were burned, having been accused of poisoning the wells, as many of them confessed.

At this time locusts and vermin passed through the sky from east to west like a thick cloud, devastating all vegetation and fruits; and after they were dispersed the stench caused a horrible pestilence.

A pitiful and lamentable pestilence began in the year 1348 and endured for three years throughout the world. It resulted from the aforesaid locusts or vermin. It started in India and spread as far as England, ravaging Italy and France, and finally Germany and Hungary. The mortality was so rapid and great that barely ten persons out of every thousand survived. In some regions only about one third of the population escaped. Many cities, towns, marts and villages died out entirely and remained void. Some said that the Jews increased this calamity by poisoning the wells."

• Plague is a scourge from God for your evil deeds—by scourging yourself with a whip like a flagellant, then God has no reason for scourging you with plague.
• Apply a mixture of tree resin, roots of white lilies and human excrements.
• Bathing should not be avoided, and be done with vinegar and rosewater—alternatively in your own urine.
• Drink the pus of lanced buboes.
• Quarantine people for 40 days (quarantine comes from latin for 40)—first done in Venice in 1348.
• Place a live hen close to the swellings to draw out the pestilence then drink a glass of your own urine twice a day.
• Grind up an emerald and drink it in wine.
• Injest snakeskin, bone from the heart of a stag, Armenian clay, precious metals, aloe, myrrh and saffron.
• Roast the shells of newly laid eggs, and grind them to a powder—add Marigold flowers and treacle—drink in warm beer every morning and night.

©2017 John Martin Rare Book Room, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, 600 Newton Road, Iowa City, IA 52242-1098 Image: Pieter Bruegel, The Triumph of Death (detail), c. 1562, oil on panel, 117 x 162 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid   Acknowledgements to Alice M. Phillips for her work editing the original exhibit material and subsequent web design.

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The Black Death and its Aftermath

• John Brooke

The Black Death was the second pandemic of bubonic plague and the most devastating pandemic in world history. It was a descendant of the ancient plague that had afflicted Rome, from 541 to 549 CE, during the time of emperor Justinian. The bubonic plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis , persisted for centuries in wild rodent colonies in Central Asia and, somewhere in the early 1300s, mutated into a form much more virulent to humans.

At about the same time, it began to spread globally. It moved from Central Asia to China in the early 1200s and reached the Black Sea in the late 1340s. Hitting the Middle East and Europe between 1347 and 1351, the Black Death had aftershocks still felt into the early 1700s. When it was over, the European population was cut by a third to a half, and China and India suffered death on a similar scale.

Traditionally, historians have argued that the transmission of the plague involved movement of plague-infected fleas from wild rodents to the household black rat. However, evidence now suggests that it must have been transmitted first by direct human contact with rodents and then via human fleas and head lice. This new explanation better explains the bacteria’s very rapid movement along trade routes throughout Eurasia and into sub-Saharan Africa.

At the time, people thought that the plague came into Mediterranean ports by ship. But, it is also becoming clear that small pools of plague had been established in Europe for centuries, apparently in wild rodent communities in the high passes of the Alps.

The remains of Bubonic plague victims in Martigues, France.

We know a lot about the impact of the Black Death from both the documentary record and from archaeological excavations. Within the last few decades, the genetic signature of the plague has been positively identified in burials across Europe.

The bacillus was deadly and took both rich and poor, rural and urban: the daughter of King Edward III of England died of the plague in the summer of 1348. But quickly—at least in Europe—the rich learned to barricade their households against its reach, and the poor suffered disproportionately.

Strikingly, if a mother survived the plague, her children tended to survive; if she died, they died with her. In the late 1340s, news of the plague spread and people knew it was coming: plague pits recently discovered in London were dug before the arrival of the epidemic.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder's 1562 painting "The Triumph of Death" depicts the turmoil Europe experienced as a result of the plague.

The Black Death pandemic was a profound rupture that reshaped the economy, society and culture in Europe. Most immediately, the Black Death drove an intensification of Christian religious belief and practice, manifested in portents of the apocalypse, in extremist cults that challenged the authority of the clergy, and in Christian pogroms against Europe’s Jews.

This intensified religiosity had long-range institutional impacts. Combined with the death of many clergy, fears of sending students on long, dangerous journeys, and the fortuitous appearance of rich bequests, the heightened religiosity inspired the founding of new universities and new colleges at older ones.

The proliferation of new centers of learning and debate subtly undermined the unity of Medieval Christianity. It also set the stage for the rise of stronger national identities and ultimately for the Reformation that split Christianity in the 16 th century.

Depiction of the Great Plague of London in 1665 (left) . A copper engraving of a seventeenth-century plague doctor (right) .

The disruption caused by the plague also shaped new directions in medical knowledge. Doctors tending the sick during the plague learned from their direct experience and began to rebel against ancient medical doctrine. The Black Death made clear that disease was not caused by an alignment of the stars but from a contagion. Doctors became committed to a new empirical approach to medicine and the treatment of disease. Here, then, lie the distant roots of the Scientific Revolution.

Quarantines were directly connected to this new empiricism, and the almost instinctive social distancing of Europe’s middling and elite households. The first quarantine was established in 1377 at the Adriatic port of Ragussa. By the 1460s quarantines were routine in the European Mediterranean.

Major outbreaks of plague in 1665 and 1721 in London and Marseille were the result of breakdowns in this quarantine barrier. From the late 17th century to 1871 the Habsburg Empire maintained an armed “cordon sanitaire” against plague eruptions from the Ottoman Empire.

Michel Serre's painting depicting the 1721 plague outbreak in Marseille.

As with the rise of national universities, the building of quarantine structures against the plague was a dimension in the emergence of state power in Europe.

Through all of this turmoil and trauma, the common people who survived the Black Death emerged to new opportunities in emptied lands. We have reasonably good wage data for England, and wage rates rose dramatically and rapidly, as masters and landlords were willing to pay more for increasingly scarce labor.

The famous French historian Marc Bloch argued that medieval society began to break down at this time because the guaranteed flow of income from the labor of the poor into noble households ended with the depopulation of the plague. The rising autonomy of the poor contributed both to peasant uprisings and to late medieval Europe’s thinly disguised resource wars, as nobles and their men at arms attempted to replace rent with plunder.

A depiction of the 1381 Peasant's Revolt in England.

At the same time, the ravages of the Black Death decimated the ancient trade routes bringing spices and fine textiles from the East, ending what is known as the Medieval World System, running between China, India, and the Mediterranean.

By the 1460s, the Portuguese—elbowed out of the European resource wars—began a search for new ways to the East, making their way south along the African coast, launching an economic globalization that after 1492 included the Americas.

And we should remember that this first globalization would lead directly to another great series of pandemics, not the plague but chickenpox, measles, and smallpox, which in the centuries following Columbus’s landing would kill the great majority of the native peoples of the Americas.

In these ways we still live in a world shaped by the Black Death.

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History of the Plague: An Ancient Pandemic for the Age of COVID-19

During the fourteenth century, the bubonic plague or Black Death killed more than one third of Europe or 25 million people. Those afflicted died quickly and horribly from an unseen menace, spiking high fevers with suppurative buboes (swellings). Its causative agent is Yersinia pestis , creating recurrent plague cycles from the Bronze Age into modern-day California and Mongolia. Plague remains endemic in Madagascar, Congo, and Peru. This history of medicine review highlights plague events across the centuries. Transmission is by fleas carried on rats, although new theories include via human body lice and infected grain. We discuss symptomatology and treatment options. Pneumonic plague can be weaponized for bioterrorism, highlighting the importance of understanding its clinical syndromes. Carriers of recessive familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) mutations have natural immunity against Y. pestis . During the Black Death, Jews were blamed for the bubonic plague, perhaps because Jews carried FMF mutations and died at lower plague rates than Christians. Blaming minorities for epidemics echoes across history into our current coronavirus pandemic and provides insightful lessons for managing and improving its outcomes.

Clinical Significance

• • The Black Death or bubonic plague killed more than 25 million people in fourteenth-century Europe.
• • Yersinia pestis (the plague bacteria) can be easily weaponized as a bioterrorism agent.
• • Early plague treatment is curative, but its symptomatology can be nonspecific. Modern outbreaks still regularly occur. The plague existed in the ancient world and has killed more than 200 million across centuries.
• • Familial Mediterranean fever carriers have plague immunity, which is an important evolutionary adaptation.

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Introduction

Killing more than 25 million people or at least one third of Europe's population during the fourteenth century, the Black Death or bubonic plague was one of mankind's worst pandemics, invoking direct comparisons to our current coronavirus “modern plague.” 1 , 2 , 3 An ancient disease, its bacterial agent ( Yersinia pestis ) still causes periodic outbreaks and remains endemic in some parts of the world. 4 , 5 , 6 Additionally, because it could be weaponized for world bioterrorism, understanding its clinical syndromes, epidemiology, and treatment options remains critical for medical practitioners. 5 , 6 Finally, recent molecular discoveries linking recessive familial Mediterranean fever mutations to plague immunity have revolutionized how scientists and historians alike view this novel evolutionary adaptation. 7 , 8 This history of medicine article sheds light onto the plague and provides insights that can help us manage the COVID-19 epidemic.

History of Plague Epidemics

The plague has afflicted humanity for thousands of years. 1 , 2 , 3 Molecular studies identified the presence of the Y. pestis plague DNA genome in 2 Bronze Age skeletons dated at roughly 3800 years old. 9 In the biblical book 1 Samuel from approximately 1000 BCE, the Philistines experience an outbreak of tumors associated with rodents, which might have been bubonic plague. 3 Scholars identify 3 plague pandemics. 10 , 11 The first pandemic or Justinian plague probably came from India and reached Constantinople in 541-542 CE. At least 18 waves of plague spread across the Mediterranean basin into distant areas like Persia and Ireland from 541 to 750 CE. 10 , 11

The second pandemic or Black Death arrived in Messina in Sicily, probably from Central Asia via Genoese ships carrying flea-laden rats in October 1347, which initiated a wave of plague infections that rapidly spread across most of Europe like a relentless wildfire. 10 , 11 , 12 In Europe, plague-stricken citizens were often dead within a week of contracting the illness. Ultimately, at least one third of the European population (more than 25 million people) died between 1347 and 1352 from the Black Death. 10 , 11 , 12 The plague spread to France and Spain in 1348 and then to Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. It decimated London in 1349 and reached Scandinavia and northern England by 1350. 10 , 11 , 12 The plague died out by the century's end, but outbreaks resurfaced and spread throughout Europe over the next 400 years. In 1656-1657, two thirds of the population in Naples and Genoa died from the disease. In 1665-1666, London lost about one quarter of its citizens to plague, about 100,000, and the same number died in Vienna in 1679. 3 , 13 , 14 Moscow recorded more than 100,000 plague deaths during 1770-1771. 3 , 13 , 14

The fourteenth-century bubonic plague transformed European society and economies, leading to severe labor shortages in farming and skilled crafts. 1 , 2 , 3 The geopolitical impact included a decline in power and international status of the Italian states. 15 During the Black Death, European Christians blamed their Jewish neighbors for the plague, claiming Jews were poisoning the wells. These beliefs led to massacres and violence. 2 , 16 At least 235 Jewish communities experienced mass persecution and destruction during this period, often preemptively in a futile effort at plague containment. 16 The ancient physicians Hippocrates (c. 460-c. 370 BCE) and Galen (129-c. 210 CE) promoted the miasma theory, or poisoned air, to explain disease transmission, which Medieval Europeans believed caused the Black Death. 11 , 17 People of that period thought warm baths permitted plague miasma to enter humans’ pores, so public baths were closed. Victims’ clothes and possessions were thought contaminated and were burned, and cats were killed as possible transmission agents. So-called “plague doctors” wore protective clothing with a long cape, mask, and a bill-like portion over the mouth and nose containing aromatic substances (partly to block out the putrid smell of decaying corpses), perhaps an early version of the modern hazmat suit 10 ( Figure 1 ).

Costume of the plague doctor. The plague doctor wore a black hat, beaked white mask, which contained aromatic substances to block out the smell of decaying bodies, and a waxed gown. The rod or pointer kept afflicted patients away. The earliest version of a protective hazmat suit. Courtesy National Library of Medicine.

The third plague pandemic began in Yunnan Province in southwest China around 1855, where outbreaks had occurred since 1772, and spread to Taiwan. 10 , 11 , 18 It hit Canton in 1894, where it caused 70,000 deaths, and then appeared in Hong Kong. Ships carried it to Japan, India, Australia, and North and South America between 1910 and 1920. 10 , 11 , 18 An estimated 12 million people died from the plague in India between 1898 and 1918. 19 Rats from merchant ships brought the plague to Chinatown in San Francisco in 1900. 20 Although few European cases of the plague were reported after 1950, isolated outbreaks still occur worldwide. 4 , 20 It is estimated that more than 200 million people have died from the plague throughout human history. 10

Plague Microbiology

Y. pestis is an aerobic, gram-negative coccobacillus in the family Enterobacteriaceae . 21 , 22 , 23 Genetic DNA analysis shows that it diverged from its enteric pathogenic relative, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis , up to 6000 years ago. 24 After incubation for 24 to 48 hours in blood or on MacConkey agar at 37°C, small bacterial colonies can be identified. 21 , 22 , 23 Its primary vector for transmission is the Xenopsylla cheopis flea, although roughly 80 species of fleas can carry it. During the Black Death, the flea was transported by the black rat or Rattus . 21 , 22 , 23 A controversial new theory argues that ectoparasites such as human fleas and lice also spread the disease during the second plague pandemic. 25 Fleas can also survive in infected clothing or grain. 11 , 19 , 20 , 21 The bacteria multiply in infected rodents (more than 280 mammalian species can serve as carriers) and block the fleas’ alimentary canal, causing the fleas to regurgitate the Y. pestis bacteria into its animal host. 11 , 19 , 20 , 21 The bacterium is named for the Pasteur Institute physician Alexandre Yersin, who provided the first, most accurate description of its causative agent in 1894 during the Hong Kong outbreak. However, the Japanese physician Shibasaburo Kitasato was an independent coinvestigator whose bacterial plates were unfortunately contaminated and led to erroneous observations. 19 In 1898, Dr. Paul-Louis Simond in Karachi showed that fleas from infected rats could transmit the disease to healthy rats, and Ricardo Jorge in 1927 reported that wild rodents serve as a plague reservoir. 10

Clinical Presentation, Treatment, and Prophylaxis

There are 3 major clinical forms of the plague. 10 , 21 , 22 , 23 In the most common bubonic subtype, infected persons develop sudden onset of high fevers (>39.4°C), terrible pains in their limbs and abdomen, and headaches generally between 3 and 7 days after exposure. The bacteria reproduce rapidly in lymph nodes located closest to the flea bites, leading to painful swellings (“buboes”) in the groin, cervical, or axillary lymph nodes, which can enlarge to the size of an egg (or up to 10 cm) ( Figure 2 ) 12 . About 60% of untreated victims die within 1 week of exposure as the pus-filled buboes suppurate and the patient succumbs to overwhelming infection. 10 , 21 , 22 , 23 During the time of the Black Death, it must have been truly terrifying to witness otherwise healthy individuals cut down rapidly by a seemingly invisible demon. The rarer septicemic plague form (10%-15% of cases) occurs when the bacteria multiply in the blood, often triggering disseminated intravascular coagulation and gangrene of the extremities, ears, or nose 10 , 21 , 22 , 23 ( Figure 3 ). Finally, the infrequent, fulminant pneumonic plague syndrome represents the only form with human-to-human transmission as inhalation of aerosolized droplets (much like coronavirus transmission) from infected patients or even cats leads rapidly to hemoptysis and death. Because this clinical subtype is specifically aerosolized, pneumonic plague could be used for potential bioterrorist attacks. 5 , 6 , 26 Its initially nonspecific, flu-like symptoms include sudden onset of high fevers and dyspnea within 4 days of plague exposure, progressing quickly to a purulent, frothy, or ultimately bloody cough. 21 , 22 , 23 Chest X-ray for primary pneumonic plague may show lobar pneumonia, which spreads rapidly throughout the lungs. The blood-tinged sputum is highly infectious. 21 , 22 , 23 The latter 2 clinical subtypes are invariably fatal without treatment.

Buboes (swellings). Cervical buboes in a patient with bubonic plague from Madagascar. From Prentice MB, Rahalison L. Plague. Lancet . 2007;369:1196-1207. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(07)60566-2. Copyright Elsevier 2007.

Gangrene from plague sepsis. A man from Oregon developed bubonic plague after being bitten by an infected cat, leading to sepsis and acral amputation. Courtesy Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Plague transmission is generally from infected fleas by rodent vectors or, rarely, in clothing or grain but may also occur through ingesting contaminated animals, physical contact with infected victims, or direct inhalation of infectious respiratory droplets. 21 , 22 , 23 Early recognition and treatment with streptomycin (or gentamycin) or a combination of doxycycline, ciprofloxacin, and chloramphenicol can cure the bubonic plague. 21 , 22 , 23 One study compared the plague fatality rate in the United States from 1900-1942 (before antibiotics were available) at 66% compared with cases after 1942 and the advent of antibiotic treatments with a death rate of only 13%. 20 Prompt identification of plague infections and the introduction of appropriate antibiotics will generally lead to a full recovery, but because its initial symptoms may include a nonspecific fever and often no clear exposure to infected animals or fleas can be identified, diagnosis may be delayed, leading to death. The gold standard for diagnosis is isolation of the bacteria from tissue or body fluids, which should only be done in a biosafety level 3 laboratory, although confirmatory serologic testing for antibodies to the F1 antigen may also be performed. 21 , 22 , 23 Empiric chemoprophylaxis with oral doxycycline or ciprofloxacin for 7 days is recommended for family members or others in close contact to victims of plague. 21 , 22 , 23 , 27 There was a whole-cell, formalin-killed vaccine, but it was discontinued because it was only protective against bubonic plague. Efforts continue to produce a vaccine effective against the rare pneumonic plague subtype, which potentially could be used for biowarfare. 5 , 6

Modern Plague Outbreaks

More than just a historical oddity, plague outbreaks continue to surface and cause occasional deaths throughout the world. 4 , 20 Plague reservoirs exist in animal hosts, including wild squirrels, rats, prairie dogs, marmots, gophers, and other rodents; cats can become infected and transmit Y. pestis via aerosolized droplets. 10 , 21 , 22 , 23 An outbreak hit Los Angeles in 1924, killing 30 people, when a man contracted the disease and died after handling a dead rat. A Catholic priest administering last rites to victims and mourners attending associated funerals all also died of pneumonic plague. 28 The “telluric hypothesis” proposes that plague bacteria can survive in soil and not simply on rodents, which may explain why plague foci persist despite aggressive efforts to eradicate its hosts. 11 One recent analysis reported that Madagascar, Congo, and Peru remain the most plague-endemic countries. 5 Indeed, between 2010 and 2015, there were 3248 cases and 584 plague deaths worldwide, with the majority (75%) being in Madagascar. 5 Plague eruptions can disrupt production in modern economies, just as it did in the Middle Ages. In 2005, 130 men working in a diamond mine in Congo contracted plague, causing 57 deaths. Similarly, 162 workers were sickened in 2006 at a gold mine in Congo, leading to 45 deaths and temporarily shutting down these operations. 23 The World Health Organization (WHO) has deemed plague to be a reemerging disease since the 1990s. 5 Two unrelated teens contracted plague in separate incidents in August 2015 while visiting Yosemite National Park in California, apparently from infected squirrels, although local bears also demonstrated antibodies against Y. pestis . 29 Indeed, a healthy 15-year old boy died in July 2020 from plague in Mongolia after eating an infected marmot (similar to a large ground squirrel), and Mongolia has had almost 600 cases of marmot plague since 1928, with an associated mortality rate of 74%. 5 , 30

Systematic attempts to destroy plague reservoirs largely failed. For decades until 1991, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) launched an impressive, aggressive plague-eradication program. Poisons were placed manually into thousands of rodent burrows, pesticides like DDT were widely deployed to kill plague hosts, and potential mammalian carriers were destroyed. 26 Although such laborious efforts decreased cases, the plague was never fully eliminated. The potential toxicity to humans and the native ecosystem from insecticides promoted a shift toward vector control (not eradication) and epidemiological sampling to monitor the presence of Y. pestis in local rodent populations. 4 , 5 , 6 , 26 Current programs balance ongoing surveillance among plague vectors with protecting the natural environment as a multipronged approach toward plague containment. 4 , 5 , 6 , 26

Plague and Bioterrorism

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classifies Y. pestis as a Category A (tier 1) biologic agent for potential bioterrorism. 5 It can be released and spread easily, which creates a major public health hazard and could lead to quarantines and potentially widespread economic devastation. 5 , 6 Pneumonic plague leads to death rapidly without prompt recognition and treatment. Its initial nonspecific symptomatology of flu-like illness coupled with a mistaken perception that plague is simply an obscure, dormant disease make it an ideal weapon for biowarfare. 5 , 6 Indeed, Tatars leveraged its lethality in 1346 by catapulting plague-ridden corpses into the Genoese-controlled seaport of Caffa, in one of the first uses of biological agents to wage war. 3 The Imperial Japanese Unit 731 during World War II developed and deployed biological weapons in Manchuria and China. On October 27, 1940, Japanese warplanes dropped plague-contaminated rice and fleas into Chuhsien, China, which led to an outbreak of pneumonic plague. 3 , 5 , 6 The World Health Organization estimates that if only 50 kg of Y. pestis were released in aerosolized form over a major city, the deadly pneumonic plague subtype could cause widespread devastation and death. The bacteria remain viable for up to 1 hour at a distance of up to 10 km from the drop point. 5 , 6 Because a main goal of bioterrorism would be to incite fear among its population, plague is an ideal biological tool because its victims die quickly in a horrific fashion (with hemoptysis, respiratory failure, high fevers, and the like).

Familial Mediterranean Fever and Y. Pestis

Molecular advances have linked familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) gene mutations to plague immunity. 7 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 FMF is a rare, recessive disease mostly seen in people of Arab, Armenian, Jewish, or Turkish ancestry. Symptoms of FMF include abdominal pain, arthritis, and fevers lasting 12-72 hours, although those affected are usually completely normal between spells. 32 , 33 Pyrin is its gene protein product, from the Greek word for “fever.” As an extremely important and versatile immune regulator, pyrin fights infection and cancer. When bacteria attack a cell, the immune system is activated. Pyrin is one of the major players in this immune system cascade and plays a crucial role in mounting and maintaining human defense systems against pathogens. Pyrin activates caspase-1, an enzyme that facilitates programmed cell death, and participates in IL-1β processing for fever production. 8 , 31 , 32 , 33 Y. pestis reduces production of IL-1β and IL-18, blocking the immune system from mounting a robust immune response. 8 , 31 , 32 , 33 The bacteria run unchecked as natural defenses are shut off.

Patients who carry the FMF mutation have a “gain-of-function” in the pyrin gene, as its activity is always “on.” Y. pestis shuts off pyrin in subjects who lack the mutation, which increases susceptibility to plague infections. 7 , 8 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 Like sickle cell trait and resistance to malaria, those harboring the FMF mutation have plague immunity, as an important example of an evolutionary adaptation. 35 Up to 20%-40% of Israeli Jews in some studies may carry a recessive mutation in the FMF gene. 36 , 37 , 38 This mutation is found throughout the Middle East, but during the Black Death, Jews were the only large European community with Middle Eastern origins. We hypothesize that the presence of the FMF mutation would have allowed fourteenth-century Jews to survive plague at higher rates than their non-Jewish neighbors, which may have led European Christians to blame Jews for spreading the plague. 2 , 16 , 17 It is unknown if FMF carriers possess resistance to other infections, including to coronavirus, which may warrant further investigation.

Conclusions

Plague represents a reemerging infectious disease with potential use for bioterrorism. 5 , 6 From prehistory to the modern era, Y. pestis has killed millions of people. Outbreaks of worldwide plague foci in both developed and underdeveloped countries continue to occur. 4 , 5 , 6 Although modern medicine has greatly improved therapies and limited its spread, many clinical practitioners remain unfamiliar with its symptomatology, thus preventing timely recognition and treatment. 10 , 11 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 Advanced technology has demonstrated the selective genetic benefit of protective FMF mutations, which likely provided plague immunity for many medieval Jews and perhaps contributed to violence against them during this period. 7 , 8 , 16

Our historical examination of plague provides important contemporary parallels with the COVID-19 pandemic. Both the coronavirus and the fourteenth-century Black Death pandemics likely originated in Asia. 3 , 39 During the Black Death, minority groups (Jews) were persecuted for supposedly spreading the disease. In a similar fashion echoing across centuries of history, Asians and other minorities have been blamed for spreading COVID-19, as one group marginalizes another amid a sea of anxiety, fear, and irrational hatred. 16 , 40 Reminiscent of the treatment of Jews during the plague, there have been acts of ethnic and racial hostility directed at Asians and immigrants based on the false belief that these individuals, because of their ethnicity, are responsible for the pandemic. 16 , 40 Studying the genetic, medical, and social science aspects of plague pandemics can lead us to greater understanding of the interplay among history, humanity, and science.

Funding: None.

Conflicts of Interest: None.

Authorship: Both authors had access to the data and a role in writing this manuscript.

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Europe 1300 - 1800

Course: europe 1300 - 1800   >   unit 2.

• Remaking a fourteenth-century triptych
• Introduction to Late Gothic art

The Black Death

• Gold-ground panel painting
• The Medieval and Renaissance Altarpiece

The plague hit hard and fast. People lay ill little more than two or three days and died suddenly….He who was well one day was dead the next and being carried to his grave,” writes the Carmelite friar Jean de Venette in his 14th century French chronicle. From his native Picardy, Jean witnessed the disease’s impact in northern France; Normandy, for example, lost 70 to 80 percent of its population. Italy was equally devastated. The Florentine author Boccaccio recounts how that city’s citizens “dug for each graveyard a huge trench, in which they laid the corpses as they arrived by hundreds at a time, piling them up tier upon tier as merchandise is stowed on a ship.

Trade was to Blame

"god is deaf nowadays and will not hear us", economic impact, did the black death contribute to the renaissance, want to join the conversation.

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Home — Essay Samples — History — Black Death — Black Death: Humanity’s Grim Catalyst

Black Death: Humanity's Grim Catalyst

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Published: Mar 6, 2024

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Introduction, economic impact, social and cultural impact.

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83 Black Death Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best black death topic ideas & essay examples, ⭐ good research topics about black death, 👍 simple & easy black death essay titles, ❓ research questions about the black death.

• Impact of the Black Death An obvious social impact of the plague is the fact that the Black Death led to a significant reduction in the human population of the affected areas.
• Black Death and COVID-19 Comparison The availability of highly complex treatment systems and the provision of medical care to the majority of the population alleviates the potential negative effects of the virus, allowing sick individuals to receive necessary medications.
• The Black Death and Its Impact on Early Modern Europe The decrease of the population had a considerable on commercial relations since due to the disappearance of the working class which the main basis in the medieval economy, peasants become more conscious and prudent.
• Flash Point History Documentary About the Black Death IN order to document the spread of the plague, a number of different maps and graphs are used, allowing the creators to showcase the spread of the plague throughout Europe.
• The Black Death: Causes and Reactions This paper discusses the causes of the Black Death, human contribution to the spread of the disease, and describes the responses to the Black Death.
• Comparison of Black Death and COVID-19 Decameron, the classic piece of medieval literature, starts with a depiction of the devastating plague the Black Death. Luckily, COVID-19 mortality rates are nothing in comparison with the Black Death.
• The Black Death in Europe: Spread and Causes The bacterium persists more commonly in the lymphatic system of the groin, armpits, and neck, and increasing pain of the bubonic elements is one of the central symptoms of the disease.
• The Plague (The Black Death) of 1348 and 1350 European population of nearly 30 to 60% has fallen victims to Black Death which indicates the death of 450 million in the year 1400. The objective of this agency is to track and probe the […]
• The Black Death in Medieval Europe According to the institution, the pestilence that affected France, Italy, Germany, and other countries was majorly a result of some configurations of planets. The Faculty added that the vapor and hot air were also a […]
• Economic Impact of the Black Death in the European Society This paper will focus on the economic impact of the Black Death and the changes that occurred to European society after the catastrophe. The most noticeable effect of the Black Death was the abrupt decline […]
• Black Death of Archbishop and Scientific Progress The death led to the development of potential domains in modern medicine. His closeness to the king would have contributed to the rapid development of science.
• The Black Death Effect on the Medieval Europe It is inappropriate to perceive the problem only in the light of sharply declining numbers of population, and changes in the patterns of settlement.
• Black Death’s Effect on Religion in Europe To fully understand the impact of the Black Death pandemic, it is important to establish the power of the Catholic Church in the years before the appearance of the plague.
• The Black Death and Michael Dols’s Theory The biggest problem is that many believed that it cannot be contagious because of religious reasons, and it has led to numerous casualties. However, the issue is that it was not possible to control the […]
• The Black Death Disease’ History The disease is also believed to have come to Europe from the black mice that were often seen on the merchants’ boats.
• The Demographics Impact of Black Death and the Standard of Living Controversies in the Late Medieval This article explores the property rights of the Europeans in the aftermath of the Black Death. In this article, Zapotoczny focuses on the effects of the Black Death.
• The Black Death, the Late Medieval Demographic Crises, and the Standard of Living Controversies Such claims make the name of the pandemic a moot point because another group of historians dispute the idea that the name originated from the discoloration of the victims’ skins, but it is instead a […]
• The Black Death and Its Influence on the Renaissance
• Plague, Politics, and Pogroms: The Black Death, Rule of Law, and the Persecution of Jews in the Holy Roman Empire
• Black Death and Its Effects on Europe’s Population, Economy, Religion, and Politics
• The Black Death and Bubonic Plague During the Elizabethan Era
• Before and After the Black Death: Money, Prices, and Wages in Fourteenth-Century England
• After the Black Death: Labor Legislation and Attitudes Towards Labor in Late-Medieval Western Europe
• The Black Death and Its Effect on the Change in Medicine
• Diseases and Hygiene Issues in England: The Black Death Plague
• The Black Death: Human History’s Biggest Catastrophe
• The Black Death: Bubonic Plague’s Worst Disaster
• Agricultural and Rural Society After the Black Death
• Economic Shocks, Inter-Ethnic Complementarities and the Persecution of Minorities: Evidence From the Black Death
• The Black Death: Key Facts About the Bubonic Plague
• Microbes and Markets: Was the Black Death an Economic Revolution
• The Black Death and Property Rights
• Confusion and Chaos in Europe During the Spread of the Black Death
• The Most Significant Pandemics -The Black Death
• The Black Death and the Comprehensive Outlook of Human Development
• Demographic Decline Black Death and the Ottoman Turks
• The Black Death: How Different Were Christian and Muslim
• The Black Death and Its Effects on Western Civilization
• Black Death and Its Effects on European and Asian Societies
• The Black Death: Long Term and Short Term Effects
• Black Death Slowly Creeps Across Asia, Europe, and Great Britain
• Adverse Shocks and Mass Persecutions: Evidence From the Black Death
• Pandemics, Places, and Populations: Evidence From the Black Death
• Socio-Economic, Political, Religious, and Cultural Consequences of the Black Death
• The Black Death: The Darkest Period of European History
• Agrarian Labor Productivity Rates Before the Black Death
• The Black Death Killed More Than a Third of the Population
• Black Death and the Devastation It Caused: Political, Economic and Social Structures of Medieval Europe
• The Black Death and Its Effects on European Culture
• European Goods Market Integration in the Very Long Run: From the Black Death to the First World War
• Political, Psychological, Economic, and Social Aftermath of the Black Death
• Social and Religious Changes Influenced by the Black Death
• Christian and Muslim Views on the 14th Century Plague, Known as Black Death
• The Destruction and Devastation Caused by the Black Death
• Reform and Relearn: How the Black Death Shaped the Renaissance
• The Black Death and the Transformation of the West
• Black Death: The History of How It Began, the Symptoms, and More
• What Caused the Black Death?
• How Did the Black Death Affect European Societies of the Mid-Fourteenth Century?
• How the Black Death Greatly Improved the European Society?
• How the Black Death Left a Lasting Impression in the Medieval Society?
• What Is the Black Death Called Now?
• How the Justinian Plague Paved the Way to the Black Death?
• How Different Were the Christian and Muslim Responses to the Black Death?
• Was the Black Death the Largest Disaster of European History?
• What Was More Significant to Europe: the Black Death or the Peasants Revolt?
• Why Did the Black Death Kill So Many People?
• Will HIV and Aids Be the Black Death of the Twenty-First Century?
• Is the Black Death Still Alive?
• How Did the Black Death Spread So Quickly?
• Who Discovered the Cure for the Black Death?
• Is There a Vaccine for the Black Death?
• What Was the Chance of Surviving the Black Death?
• Did Anyone Recover from the Black Death?
• What Was It like Living during the Black Death?
• How Is the Black Plague Similar to COVID-19?
• In What Country Is the Black Death Believed to Have Started?
• What Were the Positives of the Black Death?
• Who Was Affected the Most by the Black Death?
• Which Country Was Hit Hardest by the Black Death?
• Are Some People Immune to the Black Death?
• Which Countries Were Not Affected by the Black Death?
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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Black Death - List of Essay Samples And Topic Ideas

There is probably no person who has not heard of the most devastating pandemics in history. This tragic epidemic is known as the Bubonic Plague. It ravaged Europe during the 14th century, leaving a trail of death and destruction in its wake. Exploring this topic allows people to gain insight into the profound impact of this disease on society, culture, and medicine. If this theme is close to you, you can choose it among many other essay topics. As a sample paper, you can take someone’s research paper about the Black Death. There you can find valuable information about the origins of the bacteria that caused the plague. Alternatively, explore free essays about the Black Plague.

It is known that the infection of this disease spreads extremely quickly. It caused the death of 30% to 60% of infected people. Presenting such statistics in your text is an example that can be used for good hooks. A crucial element here is also the thesis statement for the Bubonic Plague. For instance, it could highlight the profound societal and economic upheaval caused by this deadliest pandemic. An essay on the Black Death is an opportunity to explore the social structure of the time, changes in medicine, and hygiene practices. Since a lot of literature has been written about this pandemic, you can easily find many examples to create a meaningful outline. Remember that the essay introduction and conclusion should reflect your thoughts and views on the topic.

Black Death DBQ

The Black Death happened in the context of immense trade network. It originated in China, in about 1346, but due to the many trade routes, it was able to spread to many parts of Europe and Asia in just 4 years. Large trade networks such as the Silk Road and the Indian Ocean trade have lots of people, from different backgrounds, travelling back and forth. The plague was composed of three parts; bubonic, pneumonic, septicemic, no matter what they had, […]

Famine and the Black Death

The famine set the stage in the Black Death, by infecting a lot of Europe's people into hunger and starvation. The famine made people more aware of what is happening around them and in European in the 1300's. Furthermore, in the 1347's, there was a horrible turning point that occurred in Europe called the Black Death. The plague began in a hot, dry summer, which caused a multitude of fleas and rats to come out from other places. The rats […]

Transition to a Better Life, a Better World

Viewing the world as is was from medieval to modern, there are various factors that conditioned the transition. The first part of knowing the factors of transition is the knowledge of when the transition took the first steps. The Renaissance, which is the improvement of economics and politics between the two time periods. This time came after Rome had fallen and the Black Death had swept the European region. The increase for wealth, land, and importance of political power, shaped […]

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The Black Death and its Effect on the Change in Medicine 

Historians have argued if the Black Death in the 13th century advanced science and medicine or if it was just a terrible plague that wiped out most of the European population. The Black Death did in fact bring many discoveries to most of Europe. The aftermath of the plague led to advancements of medications and swayed everyone from their hardcore beliefs. Medical practices went from being theoretical, based on their theories of the human body, to being more based on […]

The Black Death and the Effects on Society

Introduction The focus of my essay is on the Bubonic Plague also known as the Black Death that struck Europe in 1348, and its many effects on the daily lives of the people. Specifically understanding how the churches came to lose their influence over the European people due to the epidemic and the medical advances that came from this. It is interesting to see how drastically the people's beliefs changed from something that they so deeply believed in, and to […]

West out of the Dark Ages and Modern Western Society

There was a chain of events that brought the West out of the Dark Ages and into Modern Western Society. The term “the Dark Ages” is affiliated to the time period taking place in the European Middle Ages from 5th to 15th century AD. Firstly, the Dark ages started with the fall of the Roman Empire which was then followed by the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery with a few major events in between. All these events led the […]

The Spread of the Black Death

The Black Death was a catastrophic event that caused many people to die, because of 3 different strains of plague. The plague was so strong it killed almost 60 percent of Europe's population, around 25 million people. The most common plague people would get was the Bubonic plague. The Bubonic plague is a bacterial infection that is transmitted by fleas or rodents, causing inflammation in the victim's lymph node. It presented swollen lymph nodes that grew as large as a […]

The Black Death the Importance to World History

The Black Death was a monumental epidemic that took millions of lives and spread its devastation throughout Europe and Afro-Eurasia countries. This devastating event began in the 1330s and didn't end up dying out until the mid-1350s. It was an infectious disease that affected a large part of Afro-Eurasia in the mid-fourteenth century with millions of people dying from the Black Death. This brought about a great change in many ways from culture to the general way of life in […]

Columbus Day as a National Holiday

Its Columbus Day. Let's talk about history. Columbus day is actually on October 12th every year because that's the anniversary of when he reached America. But the reason we're celebrating Columbus day 4 days early this year is because congress changed the official date to the Second Monday of October in 1971. Incidentally, October 8th is the absolute earliest that Columbus Day can take place. The day didn't start off as Columbus Day. Initially it began in 1792 as the […]

Plague: the Black Death in Europe

The Black Death began in Europe in 1347 and had an estimated death toll if 75 to 200 million people. The Black Death, also known as the Bubonic Plague was carried by fleas living on the back of rats, which were normally found on the merchant ships. The plague reached Sicily in October 1347. People gathered on the docks were met with sailors aboard the ships were dead, and those still alive were gravely ill, and covered in black boils […]

About the Black Death in History

Plague is one of the three epidemic diseases that is still a problem to the International Health Regulations and is reported by the World Health Organization. The bacteria Yersinia Pestis is said to be the agent that causes this disease. This type of bacteria is a zoonotic bacteria that is embedded in small animals and fleas (Plague, 2017).Yersenia Pestis bacteria is recognized by humans as being able of causing a pathogenic disease (Stenseth, et al., 2008). The plague has led […]

Muslims and Christians during the Black Death

As the Richter Scale measures earthquakes, the so-called ‘Foster Scale’ tries to quantify disasters. Conceived by Canadian geographer Harold D. Foster, it ranks calamities by tallying death tolls, physical damage, and emotional stress. According to Foster’s calculations, World War II (somewhat expectedly) tops the list of human disasters, but is closely followed by the Black Death, a plague epidemic of cataclysmic proportions, which repeatedly struck Europe in the second half of the fourteenth century. The disease wreaked such havoc that […]

Black Death in the Late Roman Empire

IN OCTOBER 1348, GENOESE TRADING SHIPS dropped anchor at the port of Messina, Sicily. The ships had come from the Black Sea port of Kaffa, now called Feodosiya. On board were goods from Central Asia, which was then controlled by the Mongol Empire. The sailors were afflicted with strange black swellings (buboes) the size of eggs that oozed blood and pus. These swellings followed by fevers, boils, and black blotches on the skin caused by internal bleeding, After four or […]

The Black Death and Ebola

In the 1300's a mysterious disease struck Europe, this disease was unknown to the people of Europe which left many people terrified. This mysterious disease spread throughout Europe like a wildfire and between 1347-1375 it infected European cities numerous times and virtually wiped out the European population (Fiero). Similar to this tragic ailment, a mysterious disease erupted in West Africa. In 2014 when this mysterious disease began to spread like the mystic disease in the 1300's it left many people […]

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Essay About Black Death Have you ever been so sick that it hurt just to move and technology did not provide a cure? The black death did that to people every day of the dark ages and it killed over one-third of the population. It was during the Renaissance Era so there were not many medicines for much of anything back then. Most people were using home remedies to try and cure their loved ones while getting infected with the same terrifying virus. They fought against the disease for their family instead of protecting themselves, and sadly for a lot of them, it cost them their lives. The Black Death killed many people and was a ruthless virus that stopped at nothing to kill everything in its path. The Black Death first came around in the early Renaissance period and wreaked havoc on the people of Europe and all over the eastern side of the world. It was transferred by fleas that came off of mice that came in on the ships that supplied towns. The fleas carried bacteria that resulted in an infection that later turned into the plague. The mice were the breeding ground for the fleas which spread the disease from person to person. ¨The Black Death is widely believed to have been the result of plague, caused by infection with the bacterium Yersinia pestis¨ (“Black Death”). (¨Pandemic in Medieval¨). It was believed to have been transferred from China and Asia destroying everything in its past as it rolled across the Earth. Having originated in China and Inner Asia, the Black Death decimated the army of the Kipchak Khan Jani Beg while he was besieging the Genoese Trading port of Kaffa (now Feodosiya) in Crimea (1347). With his forces disintegrating, Jani Beg catapulted plague-infested corpses into the town in an effort to infect his enemies (¨Pandemic in Medieval¨). The Chinese people used the plague to their advantage in battles with a village that had walls. They would catapult the bodies over the walls so that the people inside would be infected. It was a war tactic that worked really well, except for the flaw that the army that threw the bodies over was already infected. The armies or even civilians would also get sick by taking the clothes of the deceased, not knowing it would infect them because of the passengers on the fabric. This was another fatal mistake that helped in spreading the disease. The Black Death was not the only disease killing people during the renaissance period, but it was the most well-known. ¨Most infamous of all diseases of the time was the Black Death, a medieval pandemic that swept through Asia and Europe. It reached Europe in the late 1340s, killing an estimated 25 million people¨ (“Plague”). (National Geographic). The Bubonic Plague was relentless and the most common caused bubonic boils around the lymph nodes. ¨Bubonic plague, the disease's most common form, refers to telltale buboes—painfully swollen lymph nodes—that appear around the groin, armpit, or neck. Septicemic plague, which spreads in the bloodstream, comes either via fleas or from contact with plague-infected body matter¨ (National Geographic). The Plague does different things to different individuals, mostly because there are three types, but also because everyone's body works differently to protect itself. The third type of Plague is known as Pneumonic Plague and it is the most significant form of the disease. This form is the only form that can be transferred from person to person through air droplets. ¨Yersinia pestis is extraordinarily virulent, even when compared with closely related bacteria. This is because it is it's a mutant variety, handicapped both by not being able to survive outside the animals it infects and by an inability to penetrate and hide in its host's body cells¨ (National Geographic). The Bubonic Plague automatically makes everyone think of the Dark Ages whenever it is mentioned by anyone. ¨The very idea of the bubonic plague is something we associate with the Dark Ages when tens of millions were killed in the wake of the 'Black Death' which consumed Asia, Africa, and Europe in the 14th century¨ (Kugler). When the disease woke up, it did not intend to go back to sleep without causing too much hurt during the century. The disease is still around today but back then technology was not advanced enough to cure it as well as the recent medical technologies can. The reason it was such a deadly disease is that it traveled through the infected person´s lymphatic system. ¨When a human is infected with Y. pestis, the bacteria travel through the lymphatic system and end up in the lymph nodes where it causes painful, boil-like enlargements called buboes¨ (Kugler). These buboes were probably the most painful part of dying from this disease, and they would cause pain every time the person coughed, sneezed, or even moved.¨Without treatment, the bubonic plague will result in death in 60 percent to 90 percent of cases, usually within 10 days¨ (Kugler). In reality, the Bubonic Plague, or the Black Death as it is widely known, was an incredibly ruthless pathogen that spread across the European continent. It caused a lot of pain and suffering that could have been prevented with the current medicines we have today. Today’s technology has discovered that the Black Death could have could've been cured so easily if the right medicines existed back then. The world population at the time was severely threatened and a lot of the human species was decimated. All hope was lost and some people even thought that it was the end of times, but luckily, after years in turmoil, the disease lifted its hold on the human race.

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