Social And Cultural Effects Of The Black Plague

The Black Plague is one of the most infamous and destructive diseases in the history of the human race. Those infected usually died within three days, and suffered horrible symptom such as black welts that grew to the size of apples and were filled with blood and pus. To make matters worse, increased trading between Asia and Europe on the Silk Road cause the disease to spread at an alarming rate (Benedictow) . Doctors had no way to treat infected patients and created new phesdo remedies that were often harmful.(sciencemuseum.org.uk/) With nearly 20 million people killed, the social, economic, and cultural effects of the disease were massive. From the plague’s origin and spread, to treatment methods and cultural effects, the impact of the Black
However it is believed by historians that the disease originated in the steppes north of the Black Sea 1330s’.(Centers for Disease Control) Until the mid 1300s’, the Plague was mostly contained in Asia, where the effects were substantial. In the province of Hebei, an estimated 90% of the population died because of the disease. (Szczepanski) However, as a result of increased trading between Europe and Asia, the Plague quickly spread West. The Silk Road was a main factor that lead to the Plague reaching Europe. The many food goods being traded and eaten by merchants attracted rodents which vector fleas and subsequently the bacteria that causes Black Plague. They made the trip to Europe though caravans and ships, as a result, the Plague was progressively infecting more people across Asia.
Europeans had slowly grow reliant on foreign trade, and now, shipping goods was severely dangerous. Inflation was a very concerning issue as well, the price of almost everything went up because of dwindling trade, but wages also increased due to a lack of workers. Serfs, who were usually not paid much, became very hard to find by reason of peasants being the highest demographic killed by the Plague; masters were forced to increase pay to their workers to find people willing and able to work. For the first time, peasants found a higher level of entitlement, they were able to buy luxuries such as upscale clothing, as a result, fashion of the time for nobles became more extravagant as they wanted to set themselves further apart from the newly well dressed peasants. There were also a number of peasant riots that were in part fueled by the social and economic changes brought about by the Plague, the most famous being the Jacquerie in France,