Black Death Dbq

The Black Death was one of the deadliest and most impactful events that the world has ever witnessed. It is believed that the plague originated in Asia and it began to spread to other parts of the world around 1345 to 1346 when the plague struck water for the first time. Supposedly, this happened when Yanibeg, a khan of the Golden Horde, which was a part of the Mongol Empire, began catapulting the bodies of plague victims over its walls into the Black Sea. Once the plague hit the Black Sea, there was no hope of stopping it from its inevitable onslaught. The Genoese and Mediterranean coastline now laid open to an attack from the disease. The Black Death began to spread all over the world, but it did most of its damage throughout Europe. By the end of the fourteenth century, Europe had lost nearly half of its total population that it contained prior to the plague. However, the plague brought more consequences than just widespread death. The economy and social structure of Europe would
The Malthusian idea was based on the belief that a reckoning was inevitable when a human population tends to expand up to and beyond the limits of their food supplies. This idea points to the reckoning of the Black Death. The Black Death greatly thinned out the population of Europe and it ultimately helped Europe escape its pattern of society and culture that it had been experiencing throughout the thirteenth century. David Herlihy presents this idea in his book The Black Death and the Transformation of the West by stating, “after the plague, the economy of Europe became more diversified, [there was] a more intensive use of capital, a more powerful technology, and a higher standard of living for the people” (Herlihy, David. The Black Death and the Transformation of the West. Pg.31,