Black plague

The Black Death During the fourteenth century there were some major disasters that plagued Europe and would result in everlasting changes. War caused by peasant revolts, French and English battle for throne, religious conflicts, famine caused from flooding by heavy rains and devastating arctic weather, were some of the massive dilemmas that Europe faced. â€Å"But the cruelest blow of all was the Black Death. This was the name given In Europe to a pandemic (universal) outbreak of a deadly disease, the bubonic plague. † (Lewis, 247).This disease was nothing new for Europe, during the sixth century Europe, the plague had already caused massive damage. But this time around it effected more people's lives than ever before. (Lewis, 246-247). Human resistance to disease was lowered from the famine and malnutrition. The spike in Rupee's population during the agricultural boom finally came to an end. â€Å"By about 1347, the plague reached the Black Sea region; from there, merchants from the city of Genoa brought it to Italy; and In about four years, It spread across Europe. (Lewis, 247). All people from the bottom of the social latter such as the peasants' right up to he top with the nobility such as lords and princes, had to deal with the drastic changes. No man, woman, nor child were safe from this tragic outbreak. The social effects that the Black Death that changed the most were that of the serfs and peasants who worked the fields to keep the agriculture flowing–significantly decreased. The members of the Church thinned along with the royal members of European kingdoms had also reduced their numbers.The clergy now needed to find new members but because of the decrease In population this left an opening to get more corrupt Individuals Involved. Many people Interpreted the plague as a punishment from God that called for severe personal penitence; some thought the end of the world was at hand. (Lewis, 247). The psychological effects alone were enough t o change Europe forever. The change in the economy eventually led to a new form of an economic system, capitalism.The need to make more money off the goods that needed to be sold or traded, caused more lengthy travel. These travels led to the contact with many new people more specifically, International merchants. â€Å"Independent craftspeople, in trouble because of trade stoppages, might become employees of wealthy merchants who were better able to survive until times improved; kings fighting expensive wars, and popes moving money to Rome, both needed services of bankers. † (Lewis, 253).The rise of bankers and a new method of transferring currency by the usage of paper money also started in the aftermath of the depopulation of Europe. The success of these International bankers, contributed to them augmenting both political and social Influence. Technology progressed due to the rise of capitalism, and because of the contact between Arabs, Chinese, and the Europeans, all new innovations were forming a new lifestyle for any people. â€Å"Sea transport, warfare, book production, the measurement of time–all were revolutionized by the Europe of the late Middle Ages. Lewis, 256). The invention of gunpowder by the Chinese and the improvement with it by the Europeans would and technical change enabled rulers to gain more control of their governments and armed forces than before. † (Lewis, 258). The central government treasury no longer paid the officials, causing more taxes to be collected from the public. This did open the gates for more corruption and fraud in the European societies. With all of the inheritance from the dead that the living received, most likely fueled some of the changes.The peasants also wanted higher wages for the work they had to do, which can cause all new problems. This plague also left many towns and villages abandoned and never to be rebuilt again. In a sense the Black Plague contributed to the end of feudal rule and no w rulers had a little more direct control over their lands. With all things considered, the Black Plague was not the only reason for all the changes that occurred in Europe, but it was one of the larger contributors. The league killed perhaps a quarter of all the inhabitants of Europe during the fourteenth century (25 million out of a population of 100 million). (Lewis, 247). The political, religious, economic, and social changes of European society after the Black Plague have had everlasting effects, with the reformation of Europe, in which some of the changes are still seen in present day. The humanism movement and Renaissance era in Europe were also about to surface. It's very interesting to think about, that everybody alive today have had the lucky ancestors that survived the horrors of the fourteenth century. Black Plague DBQ-Black Plague During mid-fourteen century, a terrible plague hit Europe and wiped out a third of the population, 25,000,000 people of Western Europe. This plague was named the Black Plague since when people got the disease they got bumps that oozed black liquid and different body parts would turn black. The plague was spread by infected fleas on rats that bit humans. Since the Europeans lacked medical knowledge, the Plague caused hysteria and hopelessness to spread across Europe. Therefore the Europeans turned to the one stable unit in their lives, the Church. The Europeans lack of medical knowledge really hurt them.They had all types of perceived causes and treatments that they thought would work. People just kept dying and they couldn’t find a cure for something that they didn’t know the cause. According to Heinrich Truchess von Diessenhoven, Jewish people were one perceived cause that the Europeans believed. They spread a rumor that the Jews poisoned the wells and rivers for people had â€Å"confessed† to the crime. The Report of the Paris Medical Faculty states another perceived cause to be the configurations of the heavens and the major conjunction of three plants in Aquarius to be blamed.Another excerpt states that an earthquake that occurred on St. Paul’s day in 1347 corrupted and infected the air above the earth and killed people in various parts of the world. In the excerpt from an anonymous poem, the vices rule is indicted as a cause. The Europeans tried many treatments in which most of them failed. However, Lisavetta Centenni wrote that her husband, Ottavio, had a fatal fever. She believed he would die but Sister Angelica sent her a little piece of bread that had touched the body of St. Domencia. Her husband was a lucky one and his fever broke.Other methods didn’t work so well and patients died anyway. For example, H. de Rochas, a French physician states that patients would hang toads around their neck either dea d or alive, in which they believed the venom would draw out the poison of the disease. Furthermore William Zouche, an Archibishop of York, wrote to his official that he believes the plague was surely caused by the sins of men so in order to stop the plague they should pray to the Almighty God and ask him to drive away the infection. In addition Dom Theophilus of Milan, a priest, suggests a few things to do if a person is struck by the plague.First let him gather as much as he can of bitter hatred towards the sins he committed, and the same quantity of true sorrow of heart, and mix the two into an ointment with tears. That is just one example of his unrealistic treatments. As you can see now this is why the plague had spread and killed so many people. The lack of medical knowledge led to hysteria in Europe as well. The first example is a letter from a schoolmaster saying the plague had taken twenty of the boys and this kept people from coming to them at all.The plague affected the ed ucation of the people as well. The hysteria only got worse. Heinrich von Laden stated that people were dying in their own houses of starvation for they were so afraid to leave and get food, and if a person had died within their home they were buried there. Imagine being as afraid as to leave your home, children must’ve been terrified. Then people started turning to more murderous options. According to the ‘Motto of Giovan Filippo, Sicilian physician of Palermo,’ gold, fire, and the gallows were being used.The gold was used for income for the pest houses to quarantine the sick, the gallows to punish those who violated the health regulations and bonfires to eliminate the infected. People were just turning to anything to try and get rid of this horrid plague. In an English Puritan’s diary, the father Nehemiah Wallington writes, â€Å"Who would I be willing to give up to the disease? Then would I say the maid. Who next? My son John. Who next? My daughter Eliz abeth. Who next? Myself. People were going mad in their homes, and willing to give up anyone but themselves.I don’t even know if I’d be able to keep my head either. The document from Heinrich Truchess von Diessenhoven comes up again for the hysteria was causing people to spread rumors that really hurt the Jew’s reputation and caused a huge decline in their population. Even some people confessed to it because they were starting to actually believe the untrue rumors. Some Christians confessed that the Jews had induced them to carry out the deeds. Even though an excerpt from an anonymous poem argues that everyone should rejoice with each other.People were obviously not listening to that poem if they were pointing out certain people who â€Å"caused† the plague. I already spoke about Dom Theophilus’ ridiculous methods of getting rid of the plague but I just wanted to bring it up again to show how hysterical people were getting by making up absurd remed ies like that. Therefore, Europeans suffered greatly from this plague and lost a third of their population which is 25 million people. I would’ve liked to see a death chart rate over the years in Europe. With all of this death and exposure education and centralization was very hard to recover.Even through all of this havoc the people always turned to the church in their time of need. An example is Lisavetta Centenni, an Italian housewife, whose husband survived from the blessed piece of bread from St. Domencia. It was probably out of luck, or good immune system that helped him survive, but people looked at this in a very serious and reliable manner. Furthermore, Father Dragoni states he has accompanied danger with compassion and charity and paid guards and gravediggers with alms the lordships sent him.They depended a lot on alms and holy charities would help. The Church not only had a religious role but a secular one as well. Peasants were taught how to farm and how to use to ols. Noble’s daughters were taught to farm as well. As I mentioned before, William Zouche said that people believed that if they prayed to the Almighty One, he would stop the spread of the plague and go to church every Wednesday and Friday. Once again, the document with Dom Theophilus of Milan appears for he believed if you used these remedies you could save yourself.Overall, you could see how important the Church was to the people. The lack of medical knowledge really didn’t help the Europeans against the plague. It led to hysteria and all kinds of disasters. The people turned to the Church in a time of need, but even the Church was little help in this catastrophe. The Bubonic Plague still exists in countries today but with our advanced medical knowledge, people can get the right medical attention and medication they need. Doctors never want to have a repeat in history like the Black Plague in Europe and lose millions of people again.