Black Plague Essay Research Paper Much of

Black Plague Essay, Research Paper

Much of history is a record of the disasters men bring upon themselves. But some of the worst misfortunes of mankind–floods, earthquakes, famines, and plagues–seem to be inherent in the natural scheme of things or acts of God. The most terrible of these of which we have knowledge of was the Black Plague, which ravaged Europe in the fourteenth century (Cohen 106).The Bubonic Plague, which is a disease that has troubled the world for many years, is thought of by many as just an event that happened for only a few years, a long time ago. It is also thought that this disease, while deadly, did not take a very big toll on the people and communities of Europe. This is not the case. The Bubonic Plague was, and still is a very deadly and devastating disease that had a huge effect on Europe from 1346 to about 1700.What is the Bubonic Plague. There are many names for it. It has been called the Black Plague, Black Death, the Pest Plague, and the Oriental Plague. There are three different types of the Bubonic Plague, all having different scientific names. First there is Pastuerella pestis, then Bacillus pestis, and lastly Versinius pestis ( Black Death ). Even though these are all a little different from each other, they still have many similar characteristics, and can manifest themselves in two different ways- In the bloodstream, or in the lungs, the latter being much deadlier (Harrison 2). When the bloodstream is infected from the bite of a flea, the lymph nodes in the body swell to the size of an apple or golf ball, and ooze blood and pus (Harrison 2). Since the flea usually bites on the legs, the sores will most likely appear in the groin area and armpits, making it painful to even walk (Rice 1). Also, black blotches appear on the skin from internal bleeding, and there is a white coat on the tongue (Harrison 2). When the lungs are infected, other symptoms include heavy sweating, intolerance to light, spitting of blood and continuous fever until death, which is in just one to three days (Harrison 2). All of these symptoms are very painful, and after a couple days of having this disease, death is a welcome relief. Black Death spreads in two ways. First, it starts in unsanitary conditions where it can be spread by fleas, who are carriers of the disease. It starts when they bite an infected rat. The bacteria then blocks their digestive system, making them regurgitate the infected blood into a human when they bite ( Black Death ). Second, in crowded, unsanitary urban areas where the disease is widespread, it can be passed from man to man through microscopic drops of saliva when a person coughs or sneezes. This leads to the before mentioned lung infection ( Black Death ). When people think of the Bubonic Plague, they usually think of the plague which devastated Europe in the mid 1300 s, but the history of the plague goes much further back than that. There were accounts of the plague in the Old Testament, and then again in Athens in 430B.C. ( Plague ). The plague was dormant for many years, but then reappeared in China in the 1330 s ( Plague ). It finally hit Europe in 1347 when Genose trading ships whose sailors were infected, landed in, and infected, almost every major port in Europe (Cohen 2). It stayed in Europe and swept through for many years until it finally reached England in 1664 and caused what is known as the Great Plague of London ( Plague ). Europe had heard of the plague, but didn t know how bad it really was until it got there, and when it did, it had huge effects on the economy and the communities of Europe. The effects that the Bubonic Plague had on the economy are these. Since there was a greater number of deaths in the city than in the country because of the crowded conditions, there was a labor shortage, and many people moved into the city to find work (Harrison 2). However, the number of workers were limited to help drive up salaries, and this made a vast number of the people who came into the city unemployed (Harrison 2). Guilds had regulated memberships, and once a person was in a guild, he found it very hard to move up because the guilds were very protective of their members (Harrison 2). In the country, however there was a very small farmer population because of the plague, which drove the grain prices up and lessened competition (Harrison 2). This made for a very good grains market (Harrison 3). What this meant was that if a peasant wanted to go into the farming business for himself by hiring other workers, he found that he could make a very profitable living (Harrison 3). Overall, however, the plague brought in its wake a recession from which Europe did not recover until the fifteenth century (Harrison 3). The effect of the plague on communities was devastating. Families and friends were set against each other–the well rejecting the sick (Rice 1). Some people withdrew from all contact with others, hoping to avoid getting the dreaded disease (Chilton 24). As the disease became more and more widespread, many people wanted to have a final confession or write up their last will and testament, but the priests and lawyers would not even get close enough for them to do it (Chilton 24). The death of many judges and administrators from the plague made it so that law and order hardly even existed in some areas. The reason was that there simply were not enough people to catch lawbreakers. If one was caught, however, there was little chance of him goi