The Mediaeval Period: The Dark Ages

The Mediaeval period was a very well-known era with many achievements like trade and law codes. It was also known as the Dark Ages, because of tragic events like the rising of a disease that killed 1/3 of the European and Central Asian populations known as the Black Death. The Black Death was a huge pandemic that took place from 1346-53 mostly taken place in Europe, because it was a lethal virus that killed nearly one third of the European population of 25 million people and there was really no knowledge at the time to stop the plague with a cure and it is still out there today but we now have control over it. The Mediaeval period was an amazing time period in history filled with great achievements such as the rise of Christianity, law codes and trade, but also known as the Dark Ages. Everything was going great until a huge pandemic hit Europe, killing nearly 25 million people. This pandemic was called the Black Death Spreading like wild fire from Central Asia to Europe. This disease killed the host within days and left then breaking apart. The Black Death began with those nasty rodents and their infected fleas. The actual start of the disease was not in Europe, but in Central Asia (Facts on File- Black Death).
The disease that ravaged most of the European population did not originate Europe its place of origin was Central Asia.
The plague stayed Asia and India for 15 years until it began to move to Constantinople in 1347. Within days the infectious disease had gotten further west infection Nepal, India, and other Mediterranean regions. In 1380 it had infected most of Europe and Russia and there was to stop it (Facts on File- Black Death). The plague followed all the trade routes to every single country. No one has any explanations, but Christians thought that it was God’s punishment for all its sins but the church could not conclude this either (Black Death
website). The Black Death was a started with a bacillus called Pasteurella pestis that spread through the bites of infected fleas from rodents that live all around us and it also spread to sneezing and other bodily fluids (Facts on File- Black Death). Once the disease is transmitted into the host’s body it starts with a swelling in the groin or armpit and will begin lung bleeding symptom. The groin in the beginning would be a red color and after a while it would be a dark purple or even black. Then the body part infected like fingers and had a black swelling the body part would just fall off. After this you would get a high fever, delirium, vomit, muscular pains and after 2- 4 days of infected the disease would just kill the host. People died like crazy there were 7500 deaths a day. There was no one way to stop the disease but there were treatments (Black Death website). Many people a day died and the deathly disease has no stop but there were treatments that the middle ages had to treat the symptoms, but not cure you from the disease. The treatments worked on separate cure like fever and headaches. One treatment was for headaches and it was a mixture of roses, lavender, sage and bay. For nausea it was wormwood, mint, and balm that was drunk and relieved it. Problems with lungs were treated with liquorice and comfrey. Back then, they thought that vinegar was a good thing to use to beat the disease and they also thought that blood clotting was a good way as well. The treatment that was used to try and kill of the disease was to lance the buboes and put warm butter, onion, and garlic. All this kinds of treatments were used as well in England when spread (Black Death website). As the Black Death started to spread it finally reached England in 1348 in the Bristol. Then it began to reach London in 1348 and the sanitation at this time was very poor and that made it more likely for the plague to spread. The Thames River brought in more ships spreading more black death and spreading throughout all of England. Because of the rapid spread around 20000 people of London had died this was around 30% to 40% of the English population.(Britannica Black Death ) The oldest, poorest and young died first that were thrown into communal pits. People were then quarantined for this and it kind slowed down the rate, but did not stop it quite enough everyone was dying. People were given the right to go to church and report their sins before they died. The rate of death in England was almost 50%. The pope at the time which was Clement VI was forced to cleanse all sins of those who were dying from the plague. People had thoughts on the church because they could not explain what was happening and people thought it was a gods punishments for their sins. They were giving up on the church completely. Because of the plague and no explanation there were accusations and the crippled, nobles, and Jews and said they were the ones to blame for the disease and they were burnt alive and tortured. A lot of villages and towns went instinct because of the Black Death. There wasn’t just population decline problems but also economic problems as well (Black Death website). A lot of places that had the disease where going into total anarchy and were falling apart completely. The plague brought many consequences and effects that all the way to England. The prices and wages on things rose, a bigger price was put on labor. Then because the church has no explanation so the church power lost its power and the Feudal system also went down in power as well. The peasant that had to work moved into the towns getting more infected in the cities. Farming changed because there was no one to work on them too. All of these consequences resulted in the English reformation that fixed some problems that the country ran into because of The Black Death (Black Death website). The Black Death was one of the most devastations ever to happen in the mediaeval history it killed almost 1/3 of the European, Asian and Indian populations. Places went into anarchy killing some nations. This thing brought many loses but also great things with the English reformation.