What Was The Significance Of The Bubonic Plague

The Bubonic Plague (or as it is more famously known, the Black Plague) is one of the first documented plagues in history to have such a high mortality rate. Over 20 million people died in the outbreak of the Black Plague from 1347 to 1351. It not only devastated the United Kingdom but also reached down into Africa and even originated from Asia. In Asia, this epidemic was used as a weapon during a war, spreading the horrible death even further. The Black Death still holds major significance today as it is believed that the strain is the beginning of modern diseases. The significance of the Bubonic Plague, otherwise known as the Black Plague, was how infectious and catastrophic it was. According to the third source, the plague “Had
The first source states that “it reached Europe in the late 1340s, killing about 25 million people”. The Black Plague was not only terrifying in its grotesque symptoms, but also terrifying for the sheer number of people that died from it. At this point in history, there was nothing as significant as the Black Plague because there was nothing else that had so completely affected the world. An event surrounding the Black Death was the war in China and the spreading of this disease through different animals that can carry fleas, which were the main source of the plague. According to source three, the plague “having originated in China and Inner Asia, the Black Death decimated the army of the Kipchak Khan Janibeg while he was besieging the Genoese trading port of Kaffa (now Feodsiya) in Crimea (1347). With his forces disintegrating, Janibeg catapulted plague-infested corpses into the town in an effort to infect his enemies”. There are many theories as to the source of the plague and source three goes with the theory the Plague originated in Asia. This not only shows what people will do to win, but also shows how biological warfare can be utilized, especially with something as catastrophic as
It is practically impossible to have not caught the Black Death during this time period, as pretty much every animal had the disease that could kill a human instantly, especially with rodents. The Black Death has shaped history greatly because it has been the foundation of diseases as well as the foundation for understanding diseases. This disease also demonstrates how something as insignificant as a flea can cause a global epidemic devastation. Source three states that “the black death is widely believed to have been the result of plague, caused by infection with the bacterium Yersinia Pestis. Modern genetic analyses indicate that the strain of Y. pestis introduced during the Black Death is ancestral to all extant circulating Y. pestis strains known to cause disease in humans. Hence, the origin of modern plague epidemics lies in the medieval period”. This illustrates that although this epidemic devastated the world centuries ago, scientists of today are still learning about it and learning that the plague is every bit as significant today as it was in the late 1300s. According to source one, “the plague was a bacterial infection found mainly in rodents and their fleas, but the leap to humans, it can cause a