The Black Death PDF

The Black Death A lot of people called it the Black Death, because after that the tips of your fingers and toes and your nose often turn black. But the real name is “bubonic plague”. It was one of the most feared diseases of the ancient and medieval worlds. Nobody could tell what caused it, and most...

The Black Death A lot of people called it the Black Death, because after that the tips of your fingers and toes and your nose often turn black. But the real name is “bubonic plague”. It was one of the most feared diseases of the ancient and medieval worlds. Nobody could tell what caused it, and most people who got it died within a few days, screaming in pain. And when one or two people in a village got it, usually it spread to everyone else, and many of them died. The plague caused a fever and black spots (called buboes) sometimes on your chest, and sometimes great big black swellings on your armpits and at the top of your legs. These swellings got hard like rocks and hurt, and then in a day or two people usually died. There was no effective treatment, though of course people tried all kinds of things, from magic to religious practices or surgery. Sometimes medieval inhabitants did get better on their own, if they had good nursing care and were very healthy, to begin with. But most of the infected medieval beings died, especially the poor ones (one out of three at least, mainly those who didn't have good food to eat). Today we do know what causes bubonic plague: it's a bacterium. Fleas carry it in the blood they suck; if a flea bites an infected human or animal (usually rats) and then it bites you, then you'll get it too. People do still get bubonic plague, even today. But today we can cure it with antibiotics, and so most beings that get it live. Feudal circumstances were ideal for poverty & disease conditions. It was because, as the main source of wealth was not production but fights, in those long wars –as the Hundred Years' War- most soldiers fighting the war for too much time had completely wrecked their farms. Besides, trade had to do with this terrible sickness since it was being spread along Mongol trade routes from China through Central Asia and finally to Europe beginning in 1328 AD. Partly because of this plague, the Mongol Empire collapsed in Central Asia. It may also be true that because so many people had died in Europe, the survivors were richer and better fed and that is what led to the Renaissance. In Britain, the plague’s arrival in 1348–1349 had a catastrophic impact, with estimates suggesting that more than a third of the population perished. Entire villages were emptied, and some towns were almost abandoned as the Black Death ravaged the land. The fourteenth century saw not only the plague but also other natural disasters, including earlier plagues among animals and years of famine due to exhausted farmlands, which had been overworked to meet the demands of a growing population. The population of Britain, which exceeded four million in 1300, dropped by half by century’s end and would not return to pre-plague levels until the seventeenth century. However, the dramatic population decline had significant social consequences. Landlords, faced with a labor shortage, saw workers demand higher wages, leading to a collapse in the system of serfdom as wages rose. Despite repeated efforts by the king and Parliament to control wages, workers successfully improved their earnings. As a result, landlords increasingly opted to lease land to free farmers, marking the end of the serfdom system. This restructuring of labor relations and land ownership helped reshape the economic landscape, ultimately leading to the emergence of a more flexible and dynamic agricultural system.