Download Powerpoint for Lecture, 06 October

The Black Death
Pt. I
The World around 1300
• Where we left of last time, Europe was not only growing in
population, and securing its unity under the banner of the papacy,
but also setting its sights on conquests outside of its borders – it was
a time of confidence in Europe
• Since at least 1000 AD there had been growing commercial
connections between the civilizations of China, India, and Muslim
world, that relied on overland trade and the development of new
marine technology throughout the Indian Ocean
• From the perspective of infectious disease, the separate disease pools
of the main civilizations had now come be unified
The Mongol Empire
• The most significant shake-up in the thirteenth century was the rise
and rapid spread of a vast empire stretching across Eurasia – the
Mongols
• Large portions of China, Northern India, Russia and the Eastern
Islamic World were very quickly disrupted and subsumed into this
new Empire
• Within a century the Empire had expanded across Eurasia, but once it
reached its peak under Kublai Khan it very quickly receded
• Some see the Mongol Empire as a significant element in the process
of globalization, and as such, the spread of global pandemics
Who were the Mongols?
• Nomadic tribes from the steppes– nomads because they needed
pasture land for their horses
• The steppe refers to an unbroken range of open grassland that
stretches from Mongolia to Europe -- that can be quickly traverssed
on horseback
• The Mongols had emerged in the twelfth century as a powerful tribe,
defeating competing nomads and forcing the Northern Chinese Jin
Empire to pay tribute, but subsequently were shattered by
neighboring Tartars
Chingis (or Ghengis) Khan c. 1167-1227
• In the beginning of the thirteenth century one
leader untied all of the Mongol tribes to begin a
new empire
• The basic idea of his empire was a military
superstructure made up of warriors who would
ensure cooperation of subjugated peoples and to
bring stability to their government
• His powerful armies would keep the peace and
subjugated governments were forced to pay
tribute to the Khan, which allowed him to pay his
armies
Conquests of Chingis Khan
• His first conquests were in
Northern China of the
powerful Jin Dynasty of
Northern China; this conquest
was complete by 1215
• After that, he turned his
attention west towards the
Kwarazmian Dynasty who
ruled over a large section of
present-day Iran
Conquests of Kublai Khan (ruled 1260-1294)
• Chingis’s grandson, Kublai
Khan, made great
expansions to the empire,
defeating the Southern Song
in China and pushed to the
gates of Vienna in Europe
• The empire encouraged
trade across its vast expanse,
providing protection for
traders
An Empire on horseback
• Horses were an integral part of Mongol life
• They could provide food, and their milk
could be fermented into an alcoholic spirit
(airag)
• Horses gave them an advantage in warfare,
but also in administering a vast empire
• From the perspective of infectious disease, it
was the great expanses traveled on
horseback that brought the disease of the
steppes to the rest of the world
Where did the plague originate?
• Most scientists today say that the starting point of the plague – or the
“plague focus” or “plague reservoir” –was in the the steppe region,
stretching from the northwestern shores of the Caspian Sea across
ssouthern Russia
• It used to be believed that the plague originated in China, but most
scientists today argue for the steppe region
• Historians argue that plague, which had already spread to areas of
China and India by 1345, was brought by Mongol soldiers beseiging
the port town of Kaffa on the Black Sea
• There they encountered Italian soldiers who beat a hasty retreat,
taking the plague with them back to Sicily
The Advance of the Black Plague Year By Year 1346-1353
What was the plague?
• Although there are some deniers, the
consensus today is that the Black Death
was caused by the bacillus (a type of
bacteria) known today as Yersinia pestis
• It was discovered in 1894 by the
Swiss/French physician Alexandre Yersin
• It was originally named Pasturella
pestis, but was renamed Yersinia pestis
in 1944 to commemorate Yersin’s
discovery
Disease reservoir
• Scientists believe that the marmot, a type of
burrowing rodent that is common in central
Asia, is the main reservoir
• Other types of burrowing rodents are also a
reservoir for Y. pestis, which has now spread to
all parts of the world
• The nests and burrows of rodents, squirrels,
chipmunks and prairie dogs are places where
the bacillus can survive
Why the outbreak around 1346?
• Recently scientists and scholars have been studying how climate may
have played an important role in disrupting the bacillus that can help
to explain why it appeared in 1346 and why it kept recurring for the
next 400 years
• Y. pestis is endemic to Asia, and when weather becomes hotter and
wetter, the rodent population drops, so their fleas seek out new hosts
– whether they are domestic animals or humans
• A change in climate in Asia, so the theory goes, results in the bacillus
being reimported into Europe in successive waves, rather than rats
acting as a reservoir for the disease
Disease vectors
• The oriental rat flea bites an infected rodent
• This causes a blockage in the flea’s throat
where it stores the infected blood
• Once the rodents die out, the fleas seek a
new host
• When the fleas try to feed of the new host,
they inject the bacillus into them
xenopsylla cheopis, oriental rat flea; the
darkened area in the gut shows the
infection of Y. pestis
Three types of plague
• Bubonic plague
• This was the most common type in the second pandemic; there is no human
to human contagion
• Pneumonic plague
• Once the bubonic plague was established in a population, it started to travel
from the lymph nodes to the lungs; in this form there is human to human
transmission through airborne droplets containing bacterial cells
• Septicemic plague
• This occurs when the plague bacteria enters the bloodstream; this form is
almost always fatal, sometimes on the same day that symptoms appear
Great famines of the fourteenth century
• In the decades leading up to the Black Death Europe experienced
several famines that were brought on by poor harvests that were
themselves the result of unusually cold and rainy weather
• This had resulted in food scarcities that led to famine
• Northern Europe experienced a ‘great famine’ between 1315 and
1217
• Southern Europe experienced a great famine between 1339 and 1340
• No doubt, the famines put social and economic pressure on people
that would be exacerbated by the arrival of the plague
European Population on the eve of the Plague
• The three centuries preceding the Black Plague saw unprecedented
growth in European population
• Some historians have argued that at this point the population had
exceeded the available resources, and that ensuing famines in the
first half of the fourteenth century were a natural balance to
overpopulation
• Other historians have argued that the drop in population was the
result of a breakdown in the social order
• Most historians today see the plague as the real factor behind the fall
in population – in other words European population dropped not
from internal factors, but from disease introduced from outside
Looking ahead …
• When we come back after the break we will get more deeply into
iconography and iconology as we carry on with Boeckl’s book, chs. 4-7
• In the lecture on Thursday we will look more in more depth at the
reactions of Europeans to the arrival of the Black Plague