The Black Death Essay -- essays research papers

A plague is a bacterial infection that can take on more than one form. One of the greatest plagues that have stricken mankind throughout history was the Black Death. The Black Death was the outbreak of the bubonic plague that struck Europe and the Mediterranean area between 1347 and 1351. This plague was the most severe plague that hit the earth because of its origin (the spread), the symptoms, and the effects of the plague.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Scientists and historians are still unsure about the origins of the bubonic plague. Medieval European writers believed that it began in China, which they considered to be a land of almost magical happenings. Chroniclers wrote that it began with earthquakes, fire falling from the sky, and plagues of vermin. Like medieval travel literature, these accounts are based on a number of myths about life in areas outside of Europe. It now seems most probable that infected rodents migrated from the Middle East into southern Russia, the region between the Black and Caspian seas. The plague was then spread west along trade routes. Plague moved quickly along the major trade routes. From Pisa, where it had arrived early in 1348, it traveled to Florence and then on to Rome and Bologna; from Venice it moved into southern Germany and Austria; and from Genoa it crossed the Tyrrhenian Sea to Barcelona in Spain and Marseilles in France. It continued through the towns of southern Franc e, reaching Paris. From there the contagion spread to England and the Low Countries. Parts of Europe were initially spared the epidemic. Milan was almost unique among the major Italian towns. The lord of the city closed the gates to travelers coming from plague areas, and few people died. Many parts of Germany and Eastern Europe also escaped the epidemic in 1348 through 1351. Probably because of their relative isolation, Bohemia, Poland, and central Germany experienced no plague before the 1360s and 1370s. The people from these vast countries did not know this was carried by vermin, so they were scared of what they could do and could not have done to acquire the plague. This made the disease spread easily.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In bubonic plague, the first symptoms are headache, nausea, vomiting, aching joints, and a general feeling of ill health. The lymph nodes of the groin or, less commonly, of the armpit or neck, suddenly become painf... ... destroyed people and not possessions, the drop in population was accompanied by a corresponding rise in per capita wealth. Large increases in spending in the towns at this time are well documented. Profits, however, for landlords and merchants declined as they found themselves having to pay higher wages and getting less when they sold their products. Governments were forced to adjust to the social disruption caused by plague. First local governments, and then in the case of England, the monarchy, attempted to regulate the movement and price of foodstuffs as well as wages paid to laborers. The English Statute of Laborers of 1351 tried to hold wages at preplague levels. Similar statutes were passed in various parts of France, Germany, and Italy. Landlords tried to collect higher fees from tenant farmers as a way to increase declining incomes. Unrest among the peasants was one of the major causes of the English Peasants' Revolt of 1381. The English rebels objected to high payments to landowners and legal limitations on the rights of some peasants. Economic and political unrest occurred in most parts of Europe during the second half of the 14th century.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚