Download The Black Death - AP European History at University High School

The Black Death
Contributing Factors
• Italian sea trade expanded around 1300
– Opened Strait of Gibraltar
– Advances in shipbuilding
• Year-round, far-reaching trade
• Mongols controlled Eurasian landmass –
facilitated long-distance trade (Silk Road)
• “Great Famine” from 1315-1322
– Greater susceptibility to disease
Pathology
• Bubonic plague =
bacillus Yersinia pestis
• Fleas – Rats –
Sometimes Humans
• Pneumonic transmission
(coughing, sneezing)
The Disease Cycle
Flea drinks rat blood
that carries the
bacteria.
Bacteria
multiply in
flea’s gut.
Human is infected!
Flea bites human and
regurgitates blood
into human wound.
Flea’s gut clogged
with bacteria.
Symptoms
• Boils grow in armpit, groin,
neck – nut or apple sized
– Very painful!
• Boils could be lanced and
drained of pus – higher
chance of recovery
• High Fever
• Black spots/blotches caused
by bleeding under the skin
• Coughing blood = dead in 23 days
Spread of the Disease
• First description – SW China 1331
• Mongol armies and merchants carried rats across
Central Asia
• Reached Black Sea by 1340s
• Chemical warfare – Mongols catapulted plague
bodies into Kaffa - 1346
• 1347 – Genoese ships brought plague from Kaffa
to Sicily
• 1348 – Plague hit Italian ports, spread through
Europe
• Poor urban conditions
contributed to spread
of disease
• Low standards of
personal hygiene –
weakened immune
system
• Estimate of 1/3 of
European population
killed in 1348
• Recurrences of plague
from 1360s to 1400
Various Forms of Care
• 14thC Physicians could ease pain, but no cure
• Crowded cities + warm/moist conditions =
higher death rate
• “Corrupted air” caused imbalance of fluid –
bloodletting
• Burning herbs, church bells, cryptograms
Reactions
• Wealthy fled to countryside
• Towns isolated themselves
• Scapegoats – Jews poisoned the wells!
– Led to persecution
• Some areas had hospital facilities – limited
availability and comfort
• Many saw plague as punishment from God
Pograms against the Jews
“Jew” hat
“Golden Circle”
obligatory badge
Social and Economic
Consequences
• High mortality rate for clergy – stayed to care for sick
• Helped agrarian economy – population decline led to
increased productivity
– Balance between labor, land, capital
• New members brought into urban guilds
• General inflation
– High mortality = Fall in production, shortage of goods, rise
in prices
– Shortage of workers = demand for higher wages, higher
standard of living
– Pop. decline = increase in per capita wealth
Intellectual and Cultural
Consequences
• Pervasive pessimism
• Various reactions
– Party time!
– Severe asceticism &
religious fervor
– Flagellants
– Blame the Jews
• Pogroms, persecution –
caused flight to E. Europe
•
•
•
•
Fancy funerals to mass graves
Holy pilgrimages – got them out of the city!
Quarantine of travelers and ships
More endowments to universities = new
colleges
• International character of medieval culture
weakened
Death Triumphant !:
A Major Artistic Theme
Boccaccio in The
Decameron
“The victims ate lunch
with their friends and
dinner with their
ancestors.”