Black Death Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Black death wa s an epidemic that spread to Western Europe and Britain in 1347-50. It caused havoc because about one-third of the European population died from the disease. The plague was weather related, because temperature and humidity were associated with multiplication of the carrier insects-Oriental rat fleas-which transmitted the bacteria from rats to human beings. After a flea fed on blood from the skin of an infected rodent, the ingested plague bacteria (Yersinia pestis) multiplied in the flea’s upper digestive tract, blocking the flea’s stomach. When the flea fed again on a human or another rodent, the blockage caused the freshly ingested blood to be regurgitated back into the bite, along with the plague bacteria. The infected human beings then carried these bacteria throughout their circulatory system. The first signs of illness in humans appeared within about a week. The plague caused a high fever, and the lymph nodes throughout the body, especially those in the groin and the thigh, become swollen and extremely painful. The enlarged lymph nodes, called buboes, become filled with pus, and the disease spread through the infected bloodstream and the lymphatic system. The disease also caused spots on the skin that were initially red and then turned black, which some believe inspired the name Black Death. In 60-90 percent of untreated victims, the inflection became overwhelming, leading to death within a few days.

Pneumonic plague is caused by the same bacteria, as in the case of bubonic and septicemic plague. It is acquired when plague bacilli, discharged into the atmosphere via infected droplets during coughing or heavy breathing, is inhaled by the victim. This form of plague is highly contagious; the largest epidemic occurred in Manchuria in 1910 and 1911, when 60,000 people died.

This urban community plague, originating in China, first spread with the movement of the Mongol armies and traders. In the beginning, Caffa-a Crimean port on the Black Sea was afflicted by the disease in Europe in 1346. The Italian traders from Genoa brought the disease to the western European soil, from where sea traders and caravans carried the disease to France, Germany, Denmark, Poland, Finland, and Greenland. From its central Asian foci it diffused southward to Africa, eastward to China, and northwestward to Russia. Within three years, the disease reached the British Isles, and the first afflicted ports were Bristol and Southampton.

The impact of Black Death in England was not only immediate; it also lasted for at least two centuries. About half of the English population died during the bubonic form of plague that first appeared in the summer of 1348 in England. The bacteria also mutated into a dreadful pneumonic form in the winter, and London was attacked by both pneumonic and bubonic plague. The Parliament was prorogued; three archbishops of Canterbury died in quick succession.

Plague, which killed both rich and poor alike, could not be treated by the physicians. The monks were also of no help. Many blamed the disease to be a curse of the God. As a result, a group of people, Flagellant Brahren, inflicted punishment on themselves. Others tried to find a scapegoat, such as the Jews, who were in turn persecuted; many were forced to move from western Europe to eastern Germany, Poland, and western Russia.

The effect on economy was staggering. Large numbers of farmers who tilled and harvested the land died. There was a tremendous dearth of working people, and an acute shortage of skilled craftsmen of any kind. Many building programs were abandoned. The feudal society that had created serfs started to crumble; domesticated animals roamed unattended. As there was a shortage of law enforcement personnel, lawlessness prevailed. People had witnessed so much death that even funeral processions became subjects of jokes. The mass death changed the nature of art. Coffins bore the pictures of corpses on the cover. Sculptures displayed worms and snails; paintings contained skeletons. Christian based idealistic paintings were replaced by paintings of sad and dead people.

The first episode of the Black Death plague epidemic died out by 1350. The second episode occurred in 1361-64, the third in 1368-69, and the fourth in 1371-75. The later episodes were less destructive. Eventually, by the 15th century, incidents of plague declined and virtually disappeared from Europe. The reasons attributed are the replacement of the black rats by brown rats (the former were associated with human beings as they preferred to live in homes), and the fact that such devastating plagues occur in a time span gap of between six hundred to one thousand years. Thus, this pandemic had its own cycle.

The causative organism, Pasteurella pestis, was discovered by a Japanese, Shiramiro Kitasato, and a Swede, Alexander Yersin, during an outbreak in Hong Kong in 1884. Prevention of plague is achieved by inoculation with a killed vaccine; antibiotics cure infected patients. Rats and fleas can be killed with pesticides. The possibility of a Black Death-type of pandemic reoccurrence is remote, because the scientific knowledge has advanced to the level that plague can be prevented and cured.

Bibliography:

F. Cartwright, Disease and History (Mentor Books, 1972);
C. Dyer, Making a Living in the Middle Ages: The People of Britain 850-1520 (Yale University Press, 2002);
C. Platt, King Death: The Black Death and its Aftermath in Late-Medieval England (UCL Press, 1996).