(Credits):
-employer is Florida South Western State College
-written by tgthewriter1
Intro
During the year of 1346-1353, a plaque spread across Europe that was quite deadly (Benedictow). The plaque was called “The Black Death”. This plaque was able to infect people in many ways (Benedictow). It spread from European city to European city in an amount of weeks (Benedictow). People living in the cities were terrified and believed that the end of the world was near(Benedictow). There were many people infected and a cure for the disease was not available (Benedictow). The Black Death may have been one of the deadliest moments in history.
What is the black death
The Black Death is a disease caused by a bacterium yersina pestis (Benedictow). A bacteria that was found in rodents living under European cities (Benedictow). The rodents lived with humans and in dark areas like the sewers (Benedictow).
How did this plaque start
The Black Death started from an infection that came from black rats. Groups of rats that were living in the sewers were being bitten by fleas (Benedictow). The origin of the fleas is unknown, but scholars predict that the fleas came from other countries. Some of the rats living in the European sewers were traveling with European ships (Benedictow). When the European ships came back to Europe, the rats brought a new species of fleas to the area (Benedictow).
How did the plaque start part 2
The new species of fleas contained a new virus that was capable of spreading to humans (Benedictow). First, the virus started killing the rats and then the fleas decided to find a new host (Benedictow). Next, the fleas decided to jump on the neck of humans and start infecting them (Benedictow). The humans thought it was just a itchy rash. So, the humans ignored the spots that on the back of their necks (Benedictow). Then, it started to make the humans sick and cause them to die in weeks (Benedictow).
How many people did it kill
Many people were killed by the Black Death (Benedictow). Millions of Europeans was killed by the plaque (DeWitte). It targeted elderly people and people that were victims of simular diseases first (DeWitte).
How many people did it kill (part 2)?
The number of people infected by the Black Death was in the millions (Benedictow).
During the 1300s, Europe’s population was around 80 million (Benedictow). The plague infected about 50 million people (Benedictow).
What did people believed caused it
Because people were dying left and right thougout portions of europe, people were beggining to think that the black plauqe was act from Christian God (Herman). People believed that God was punishing them for committing so many sins (Herman). There was a group of people that some called the “poltergiest” that was torturing themselves (Herman). They wore strange clothing that made them seem almost naked (Herman). They struck themselves with a whip and other contraptions to different parts of their body (Herman). They would bleed and and cry out words of forgiveness to make the Christian God stop the Black Plauqe (Herman). In general, the people of europe was starting to belive that the end of the world was near due to the amount of deaths and bodies that appeared.
What did people believed caused it part 2
There was people believing that everybody should abide by Christian God’s words (Benedictow). People begin punishing other people for acting in the way of God (Benedictow). Some people were killing other people and others were shouting words (Benedictow). People thought that God was going to destroy man once and for all.
There were many bodies that was buried
There many dead bodies lying around because of the Black Death (Benedictow). Many citicens from europe and other countries that had been infected were carrying dead bodies on their back (Benedictow). The dead bodies had to be burned to prevent them from causing more harm to everybody else (Benedictow). Churches had to dig large holes to dump the bodies in (Benedictow). The poor were the first to be dumped into the pits (Benedictow). Sometimes the pits would be full of bodies and then they had to put more dirt on top of them (Benedictow).
There were piles of dead bodies in other places of the world also (Benedictow). There were so many bodies being piled in the pits that the dogs were begining to bite on the dead people (Benedictow). The dogs were also dragging the dead bodies throughout each city (Benedictow). Some were burrying their loved ones. Others were burrying their dead children (Benedictow). There were many people during the years that lost people to the Black Death (Benedictow).
How did it affect resouirces
The Black Death affected the resources and agriculture in many ways (Benedictow). The disease was spreading and reaching almost every inhabitant (Benedictow). Animals and crops were being infected with the Black Plauqe (Benedictow). Food supplies were being diminished and they had to throw alot of food away (Benedictow). It made it difficult for people to trade animals for iron, grain, and other resources (Benedictow). Obtaining food became very difficult for countries that had been infected with the Black Plauqe (Benedictow). The knowledege of the epidemic made people not want to trade with victims of the Black Death (Benedictow).
6. How did it affect the resources part 2
The Black Death was infecting the enviornment as well (Benedictow). There were forest that were being diminished (Benedictow). Villages had to move to a safer location due to the spread of the disease on the enviornment (Benedictow). The plague was spreading over large distances across forest (Benedictow).
How far did it spread
The Black Plaque spread from town to town at a rate no one expected (Benedictow). It traveled from ship to ship with the help of the black rats (Benedictow). During the winter, the speed of the infection was slowed down due to the cold climate (Benedictow). But, it spreaded to the Constinopole, Italy in a couple of weeks (Benedictow). Then, it started spreading to countries that were further then Europe (Benedictow). It started spreading to parts of the Middle E East and North Africa (Benedictow). Week after week, it invaded town to town and no one living in city areas could escape it (Benedictow).
Symptoms of the black plaque
The symptoms of the black plaque were very disturbing (Benedictow). The disease caused people to cough (Benedictow). Also, it caused people to have many bubble features on their body (Benedictow). It caused the victims to experience breathing problems and have internal bubble features (Benedictow). The Black Plaque gave people deep pain inflictions and body distortions (Benedictow).
Who did the plague infect the most?
The children had a higher chance of being infected with the Black Death then adults (Benedictow). Average houshold populations reduced from 4 to 3.5 in urban areas in Europe (Benedictow). In rural areas, average household areas reduced from 4.5 to 4 (Benedictow).
Some scholars believe that the disease was not spread by rats
There are scholars that believe the Black Death was spread by airborne (SCOBLIC). Modern scientist are actually still investigating the original source of the Black plague (Patel). Scientist found out that while the plague was infecting people through rats, it was also created somkething in the air called miasma (Patel). A miasma is something in the air that has a really bad smell (Patel). The scientist also found something interesting in the bodies of the plague (Patel). There a y genome strand in the bodies that might have be invented by the fleas that carried the black plague (Patel). A genome is a piece of DNA strand that can be found in humans. Scientist also discovered that the unknown strand of Y is no longer present (Patel).
Life After the Black Death
After the disease left the wortld, business startede to pick up in European countries (Keating). People decided to raise the price of the products due to the plague killing a large group of people (Keating). Incomes in Europe between 1500-1700 have been estimated to increased in wages and overall development by 30 percent (Keating). When a population rises, the amount of resources tend to decrease which means a smaller amount of income for each person (Keating). On the other hand, if the population decreases then more resources are available which means more income for each person (Keating). This simple logic could be the reason why money is increased after the great plague.
Every plague like the black death is temporary
Some people believe that incidents like the Black Death is necessary for survival (Keating). Events that are epidemic are ment to remove a group of people in order for the rest of the population to prosper (Keating). Less people in the world means more resources and money for everybody else (Keating). In a sense, profit will only increase if people continue to die (Keating). In my opinion, this is a cold hearted way to look at the event of the Black Death. It caused profits to go up and resources to increase, but it killed millions of people in the process. Sadly, we are still living in the world today with the term of profit being above all other problems and causalties. For example, most people on earth today believe that we are at peace because of a peace treaty. However, that is not the truth that is written in print. What a person watches on T.V. Is just what the government wants the public to know. The truth is that the reason the world is at peace is because of nuclear bombs. Nuclear bombs is the next Black Death that is sitting at a launch facility. All the nuclear bombs and guns should be destroyed in order to preserve the human race. If this happens there will be more wars but the human race will live on. If somebody pushes the button on the nuclear bombs, the only people that will live are the people that live on the islands and have no idea about a nuclear war.
Works Cited
Benedictow, Ole J. "The Black Death." History Today 55.3 (2005): 42-49. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.
DeWitte, Sharon N. "Mortality Risk And Survival In The Aftermath Of The Medieval Black Death." Plos ONE 9.5 (2014): 1-8. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.
Herman. Lecture From Professor Herman At Florida South Western State College. Oct. 2013. Lecture.
Keating, Joshua E. “Life After Death.” Foreign Policy 199 (2013): 30-31. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
Patel, Samir S. “DNA Of The Black Death.” Archeology 64.6 (2011): 18. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
SCOBLIC, SACHA Z. “Of Overcredited Rats And Undiscovered Nuclear Wastes.” New Republic 244:28 (2014): 10-11. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
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