The Black Death in Medieval Europe Essay

I was observing the spread of the plague right before my eyes. I knew how the three types of plague were transmitted but the humans did not. The three types were the Bubonic, Pneumonic and Septicemic plague. The Bubonic plague was the most common plague in medieval Europe. It was transmitted by infected fleas that were carried by rats, when the rat died the flea would jump to a human to feed from their blood. The human bitten by the flea, was then infected and faced certain death, the flea would then find a new human to feed off. The Pneumonic plague, being the second most common type in medieval Europe, was far more deadly and contagious than the Bubonic plague. The Plague would attack a human's respiratory system and was spread through the air by a victim's cough. The last type of plague was the Septicemic, it was the rarest and deadliest form of the Black Death. The Septicemic plague was also spread by fleas, like the Bubonic plague, but moved directly to a human's

Doctors responded with a series of changes are to thank for the development of modern science. Gottfried succeeded in convincing me that his thesis was truth. The opening chapters gave me a solid background of plague, explaining why he believes it had such an impact on medieval population and culture. Next, it delves into the affect that changing weather had on the plagues, explaining the European environment during 1050-1347; the time of plagues greatest destruction. That complete, Gottfried describes the consequences immediately following the plague. It is said that the disease killed 25% to 40% of Eurasia and part of Africa. By this point, it is more than obvious that plague had a tragic affect on Medieval Europe, but it is unclear as to the causes, and the effect plague had on society, which seemed to be his theses in the opening chapters. But he does not ignore these topics. After giving a full background on plague and European culture and environment, Gottfried gives solid details to support his theses. According to Gottfried, the Medical structure of Medieval Europe, adopted from that of the Romans, was nearly eliminated in the search for ways to cure plague. The spread of plague, successfully stated by Gottfried, directly depends on climate. Plague can only spread under certain climate conditions. In order for Y. Pestis, a series of complex bacterial strains, to survive, it mustn't be too hot nor too cold.

The causes of the Black Death – the flea, the rat, and the bacillus Yersinia pestis– have been labeled the “unholy trinity” (Boeckl). The flea is able to live in environmental conditions of about 74° Fahrenheit and 60% humidity (Ibid). Before the Black Death reached Europe, they were experiencing those same types of weather conditions. The rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis and the human flea, Pulex irritans, are both capable of transmitting plague (Boeckl). Sometimes, an infected flea cannot ingest blood because Yersinia pestis obstructs its digestive tract. The blockage causes a flea to regurgitate into a bitten host rather than ingest the host’s blood, thereby infecting the host with plague (Boeckl). Unable to eat, the famished flea will bite with more frequency, accelerating the spread of plague. A flea can be carrying Yersinia pestis without it blocking the flea’s digestive tract, in which case the flea does not transmit plague when it bites a host. Also, Yersinia pestis can only enter a victim through a bite, as the bacilli cannot pass through intact skin (Gottfried).

The black death affected Europe because it killed over a third of its population. In all, the black death killed twenty million people in Europe. People fled their homes, families, and friends because they did not want to get infected with the plague. The Plague reduced the population of the world from 450 million to 375 million. Seven thousand people died per day in Cairo. Three Fourths of Florence’s residents were buried in makeshift graveyards. The disease even spread to the isolated outposts Greenland and Iceland. However, the Black Death set the scene for modern medicine. Growing increasingly frustrated about diagnoses with the Black Plague, educators began to place a greater emphasis on medicine.

The transmission of this disease is through the fleas. As soon as the ships docked the rats would have fled from the close quarters of the trade ships and out into the cities filled with people. The rats would either rid some of the disease bearing ticks to humans or bite the humans themselves. The ticks would bite the humans contracting the disease into the human body. As soon as a human is bitten and the bacteria builds up in the human body the disease could end up being transmitted not only physically, but possibly by the fastest and most deadly way of transmission: airborne.

The mortality rate of the Black Death was horrendous. It is estimated in various parts of Europe at two-thirds to three-quarters of the population. In England it was even higher during the first wave. Some countries were less seriously affected. Shrewsbury, the author of ‘History of Bubonic Plague in

by Yersinia pestis. Several species of rodents host this bacterium, usually contracted from flea bites. There

Chaos struck all-over Europe in the 14th century; no social class or individual was immune from this mysterious disaster. Historians estimated that this unidentifiable disease killed “more than 20 million people in Europe–almost one-third of the continent’s population,” by the 1350’s (Black Death). Now in today’s society scientists classify the unidentifiable disease as the bubonic plague, also referred to as the Black Death. During fourteenth century European-society, there was no logical medical knowledge; instead, people resorted to supplementary explanations, such as God punishing misbehaving religious groups and sinners (Black Death). In this time period, oral tradition was still common among the illiterate. Luckily, for the upper

The plague was spread by fleas, which were not effected by the disease. Fleas first infected the rats, which lived off garbage and sewage. The rats then spread the infection to the humans. Rats were a common sight in the cities, due to the poor sanitary conditions, so no one

Through the years, plague has been seen through many epidemics in different time periods and continents. Plague comes from the bacteria Yersinia pests. The disease is transmitted through infected fleas and small mammals such as mice, rats, and squirrels, through the handling of infected tissues or materials, or droplets in the air.

Very little is known about where the disease originated. A. Rats and fleas were not suspected of carrying the disease because they were so common to the people of the 14th

The pandemic known to history as the Black Death was one of the world’s worst natural disasters in history. It was a critical time for many as the plague hit Europe and “devastated the Western world from 1347 to 1351, killing 25%-50% of Europe’s population and causing or accelerating marked political, economic, social, and cultural changes.” The plague made an unforgettable impact on the history of the West. It is believed to have originated somewhere in the steppes of central Asia in the 1330s and then spread westwards along the caravan routes. It spread over Europe like a wildfire and left a devastating mark wherever it passed. In its first few weeks in Europe, it killed between 100 and 200 people per day. Furthermore, as the weather became colder, the plague worsened, escalating the mortality rate to as high as 750 deaths per day. By the spring of 1348, the death toll may have reached 1000 a day. One of the main reasons the plague spread so quickly and had such a devastating effect on Europe was ultimately due to the lack of medical knowledge during the medieval time period.

During the time of 1346 through 1353 a mysterious illness had swept through Asia and Europe. This illness killed about 25 million people over the 13 years it was prominent. This deadly illness was then identified as the plague. A pandemic that swept through Europe but originated in China. It was a rodent disease where an infected flea, with the bacteria Yersinia Pestis, would bite the rodent making it ill. The rodent population was starting to die off, due to the plague, resulting in mass quantities of fleas. Since Humans and rats were in such close quarters, and there were fewer rodents around, the flea would jump to human. The way the plague spread was by zoonosis, this is where a disease is transmitted from animal to Human. The plague

The Black Death, the most severe epidemic in human history, ravaged Europe from 1347-1351. This plague killed entire families at a time and destroyed at least 1,000 villages. Greatly contributing to the Crisis of the Fourteenth Century, the Black Death had many effects beyond its immediate symptoms. Not only did the Black Death take a devastating toll on human life, but it also played a major role in shaping European life in the years following.

It has traditionally been thought to have been a mixture of bubonic, septicaemic, and pneumonic plague. It’s lethal and vast spread was ushered in and implicated by rats and fleas. After an animal has been contaminated with the disease and entered its bloodstream, a flea would come along and feed off of the tainted host. The disease would then accumulate inside of the flea, which then transmits the disease through its bite. The flea effectively becomes a syringe administering lethal doses of the disease spreading and killing in abundance, but more so in