BLACK DEATH

Black Death

Abstract

In this study, we try to explore the history of Black Death in a holistic context. The main focus of the research is on the plague and its relation with the affected region. The research also analyzes many aspects of Black Death and tries to gauge its effect on Europe. Finally, the research describes various factors, which were responsible, for the plague and tries to describe the overall effect of Black Death on the population of Europe.

Table of Contents

Abstractii

Historical Perspective1

Population affected2

Medical Response4

Morbidity and Mortality Patterns7

Communication Issues10

Conclusion12

References15

Black Death

Historical Perspective

In 541, the first bubonic plague pandemic occurred on the surface of the earth. Earlier waves of bubonic plague had occurred in the area of the Mediterranean between 541 and 767. They were so severe that some historians have seen them as a contributing factor in the shift of political power from southern to northern Europe, where the deadly bacillus had failed to travel, given the black rats' short range of movement of not more than 200 meters and the lack of naval contact with the south. In the summer of 1346, in Europe began to receive disturbing rumors from the East. The merchants, who conducted business with the caravan, bringing the spices and tea from India and China have told horror stories, which at first no one believed. Allegedly “in the east, near the Great India, fire and smoke smelly burned all the towns”, or how "between China and Persia, heavy rain of fire fell in large flakes, like snow and the burning mountains and valleys with all residents' and accompanied by an ominous black cloud that "whoever saw that died during the afternoon", but then there were witnesses and some plague, fled from Scythia. They testified that they started "punishment from God," and she was struck by the Genoese in the colonies on the shores of the Black and Azov Seas, where people die in three days, covered with sores and painful spots, and immediately turn black after death. However, the winter passed quietly, and tried not to think badly. In the spring of 1347, the situation has changed and will never return to its former state. In January 1348, a wave of epidemics swept to Avignon, and then the plague has spread rapidly throughout France. In the spring of 1347, the situation has changed and will never return to its former state (Emery, 1967).

In 1347, the Black Death bubonic plague began in Europe. By the time it ended in 1351, the plague had killed an estimated 25% to 60% of the population of Europe. By the beginning of 1348, the Black Death spread throughout Spain. By the end of January, the plague was raging in all major ports of southern Europe, including Venice, Genoa. Terrible disease left behind dead bodies, black as coal, first appeared in the “land of the Scythians Hyperborean” (Taurian Peninsula) and spread along the coast of Pontus, and then it penetrated into Thrace, Macedonia, Greece, Italy, the islands of the Mediterranean, Egypt, Libya, Judea and ...