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The Black Plague

The black plague first emerged in the Middle Ages and caused a devastating pandemic in Europe between 1346-1347 that killed around half the population. It was caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium, which was transmitted via rat fleas or infected materials. People attempted to quarantine the sick and isolate ships with infected crew for 40 days, but no medicines could cure it. The plague spread widely due to increased trade and travel, with infected rats traveling on ships and fleas spreading it from person to person, regardless of social status. It continued to have occasional outbreaks for centuries.

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13 views

The Black Plague

The black plague first emerged in the Middle Ages and caused a devastating pandemic in Europe between 1346-1347 that killed around half the population. It was caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium, which was transmitted via rat fleas or infected materials. People attempted to quarantine the sick and isolate ships with infected crew for 40 days, but no medicines could cure it. The plague spread widely due to increased trade and travel, with infected rats traveling on ships and fleas spreading it from person to person, regardless of social status. It continued to have occasional outbreaks for centuries.

Uploaded by

Kevin Morales
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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THE BLACK PLAGUE

The black plague first occurred during the Middle Ages, but. What is the Middle
Ages?
The Middle Ages is a historical period spanning from the 5th century, with the fall of
the Roman Empire, to the 15th century (with the fall of the Byzantine Empire,
discovery of America, invention of the printing press, etc.) the greatest plague
epidemic of Europe, which exploded specifically between 1346 and 1347, taking
about half of the total population of Europe. This disease, known as "The Black
Death", had had a first appearance during the eighth century in the time of Justinian
by the Balkans, and since then there has been no further news of it.

How is this plague produced?


Black plague is produced by Yersina Pestis, a bacillus found in rat fleas, when the
flea bit a person, or the person suffered a cut in the skin of the contaminated
materials, the bacillus was transmitted and suffered This disease Once the person
was infected, they began to have fever, headaches, nausea, chills, weakness, and
the lymph nodes due to bacteria swelled and ached and moved to a lymph node.
This bubonic plague is called black plague because the infected had dark marks on
the skin.

What is the origin of the pandemic?


The origin of this disease was known in 1894, by Alexandre Yersin but at that time,
due to the unknown and the need to find a culprit, it was attributed various origins
such as for geological or astral reasons (all of them caused by divine punishment),
or they even thought it was due to poisoning by the Jews, since the number of
infected Jews was lower than that of Christians, but this was due to their better
hygienic conditions. Foreigners and pilgrims were also blamed.
How did people live through this epidemic?
People lived through a time of great horror due to the black plague, it is reflected in
different texts, such as that of the Florentine chronicler who recounts "All citizens did
little more than carry bodies to be buried (...). In each church deep ditches were dug
up to the water table; and so those who were poor and died at night were quickly
picked up and thrown into the pit. In the morning, when a large number of bodies
were in the pit, they took some soil and shoveled it over them; later other corpses
were deposited on them and then they put another layer of earth, as one makes
lasagna with layers of pasta and cheese. "

Why was this epidemic so widespread?


Its great extension was due to the rise of international trade relations, the affected
rats traveled on ships and spread throughout different countries, sometimes causing
the death of all the crew before reaching land. The black plague caused great chaos
in the population, affecting all people regardless of their age or social rank, this
caused different reactions in the population: Some gave themselves more to God
when they thought that he was punishing them for bad behavior on the part of the
Humanity and many others fled, however they used to carry the disease-carrying
flea with them in their clothes or luggage, thus contributing to its spread.
Can medicine cure this virus?
No medicine failed to do anything and could not find an explanation for this fact, and
many doctors were infected by caring for their patients. It was taken as a measure
to isolate infected patients for a period of forty days (where the term quarantine
comes from) and until then, when they considered that it was no longer dangerous,
they did not come into contact with it. They did the same with those ships where
there was a sick crew member, they left them forty days on the high seas and if there
were any survivors they let them return.
This disease had occasional outbreaks of no more than two years and local and
reappeared every few years, extending until the eighteenth century and today there
are some controlled cases, most of them in the United States, Madagascar, China,
India and South America. South.

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