The Black Death - 2711 Words

Throughout history there has been many events that caused changes in the culture and livelihood of the human race. The Black Death was one such event. The spread of the disease killed millions of people, and caused many religious, social and economic upheavals. The pandemic is thought to have first originated in Central Asia and travel along the Silk Road by the means of trade. The shifting climate patterns at the start of the Little Ice Age may have contributed to the severity of the disease. The Black Death has occurred more than once in the years since the middle ages, but hardly caused a high mortality rate. It would take Hundred and fifty years till Europe would reach the population it once had prior to the pandemic. At the†¦show more content†¦The fact that there were three different types of Y. pestis which strike at different times of the year, caused the death toll to rise. â€Å"The bubonic, which was only transmitted through fleas that fed on brown rats was comm on in the spring and autumn months. Pneumonic plague can strike at any time of the year, by the transmission through human contact. The last type is Septicemic which kills each victim and tends to happen with localized epidemics (Stock).† The idea that rats caused the spread of the plague is widely believed to today but in the medieval world this was not considered. Instead people believed that they were being punished by god and or Jews and witches were behind the disease. In the Medieval world there was no explanation for the Black Death. Many saw it as a punishment from god for committing sin. On the other hand, people also started to blame the Jewish population, they were arrested and even killed. The movement known as the Flagellants started in Germany. The people of this movement believed that the Black Death was the work of God and walked town to town. They would then congregate in the town square and whip themselves in order to cleanse through self-mutilation to ask fo r forgiveness, but instead only spread the disease more. The Black Death almost immediately had economic impacts. A power shift from the landlords to the peasants occurred due the lack of people to work the fields. Landlords had to offer better incentives then