Short And Long Term Effects Of The Black Death

The Black Death was a plague that spread across Europe during the fourteenth century. It swept the continent and baffled millions of European citizens. I chose this topic because the idea of the past epidemic intrigues me. In elementary school, we touched on the topic and barely discussed the possible outcomes. I was fascinated by what could've happened those years of peril. I am of Polish descent, so I am also learning how this plague could have affected by ancestors and what they were put though during that era.
This disease that was spread had fatal symptoms. It appeared almost suddenly from nowhere, believed to first begin in India. Guy de Chauliac, the physician of the Pope, explained that the disease caused high fever, expectoration of blood, and death in no more than three days. Later on, more symptoms and other forms of the disease were detected. People did receive high fevers, but no bleeding from the respiratory tract. Instead victims of the plague experienced chills, headaches, and other symptoms. The most obvious symptom that stood out to all the citizens was the lumps that appear on the neck, armpit or groin. Usually they appeared after five to seven days after being infected. The epidemic was later called the Black Death because one of the symptoms caused blackening of the skin.
The epidemic was caused by a bacteria Yersinia pestis.
The bacteria can come in four, different forms: bubonic, pneumonic, enteric, or septicemic plague. This plague usually is discovered living in a flea known as Xenopsylla cheopis. The particular flea lives on mammals, especially rodents. The Yersinia pestis living in the flea’s stomach grows multitudinously and blocks the flea from swallowing. The flea then will regurgitate the bacteria onto the rodent, which will eventually kill it. Once the host is dead the flea goes to find another host; if that host is human and he or she receives the plentiful amount of Yersinia pestis, then the epidemic will start once
more.
Doctors and physicians during the time of the plague were in awe because of the disastrous results something so mysterious could bring. They tried to pinpoint what were the causes for the disease but had no clue. The University of Paris developed a report that read, “We say that the distant and first cause of this pestilence was and is the configuration of the heavens. In 1345, at one hour after noon on 20 March, there was a major conjunction of three planets in Aquarius. This conjunction, along with earlier conjunctions and eclipses, by causing a deadly corruption of the air around us, signifies mortality and famine. . . ." Analysts and most commoners interpreted the disease to be a punishment from God to discipline the misbehaving communities. Scientific and political beliefs also surfaced. Astrologists, including the few from the University of Paris believed that the reason for the plague was "the conjunction of Mars and Jupiter causes a great pestilence in the air, especially when they come together in a hot, wet sign, as was the case in 1345. For Jupiter, being wet and hot, draws up evil vapours from the earth, and Mars, because it is immoderately hot and dry, then ignites the vapours, and as a result there were lightnings, sparks, noxious vapours and fires throughout the air."
The disease is first believed to come up in Asia. It infected people in India and China; then the pestilence crossed the ocean through rodents on a ship to Europe, which was how the Europeans were first affected. The first place in Britain to be hit was Bristol, the second largest city in Britain and was a major trading port with the West Country. The plague struck the area in the summer of 1348. It took on the area with an astonishing force; people died in days. 'Then the dreadful pestilence made its way along the coast by Southampton and reached Bristol, where almost the whole strength of the town perished, as it was surprised by sudden death; for few kept their beds more than two or three days, or even half a day” (Knighton, Chronicon). It was the beginning of a terrible era in which 25 to 45 percent of Europe's population perished. All social classes experienced the same tragedy: contaminated water, fish, ale, and the epidemic disease that would sooner or later infect them.
The next main city consumed by the plague epidemic was London, late September 1348. It became so overpowering that 200 people were dead after a few months. London underwent two types of the plague: the bubonic and the pneumonic plague. With both forms of the plague lurking through the villages, the death rate skyrocketed. By April, there were approximately 2,000 people buried in a single cemetery. Civic reports read 290 citizens died daily on average. The Black Death lasted in London until the spring of 1350, killing off 35 to 40 percent of London’s population. However, the most affected region in England would be East Anglia.