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Bubonic Plague Dbq Essay

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The Black Death was a plague that overwhelmed Europe at the beginning of the 1350's. During the time of the plague, nearly half of Europe's population was killed by the Black Death. Many people believe that it was brought to Europe via the trade routes to and from Asia. As soon as it arrived, the Bubonic Plague spread vigorously, claiming the lives of all ages. The insufficient knowledge of the plague, the lack of help from people, and the extinguished hope people felt during the period helped lead to the devastation of European society. One of the factors that led to the devastation the Bubonic Plague caused was the insufficient knowledge of the time. People did not understand the cause of the plague which made it difficult to prevent it. In much of the art work done at the time, it depicted Angels of Death shooting victims with their arrows, as a representation of the plague (Document 2). The idea that arrows could bring about the plague shows the lack of knowledge of the real cause of the Black Death. Many people searched for help from physicians, but either from their basic understanding of medicine or the essence of the …show more content…

Family members abandoned each other when someone got sick, and when they died no one attended a funeral, the corpse was just thrown into a hole to be buried (Document 3). If a doctor was still alive in a town, they required high prices even though there was little they could do. When they did come, the physician would wear a mask to prevent the illness and a cloak, never directly touching a patient (Document 5). The most common practices used by doctors involved checking urine away from the patient or counting pulses with their heads turned away (Document 3). Although they tried, doctors were not successful in defending against the disease. Whole towns fled during outbreaks, and hardly anyone cared when another person died (Document

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