The Black Death Dbq Essay Example

During the mid-fourteenth century, medieval Europe was plagued by many problems. One of the biggest problems European faced was the Black Death. The disease is estimated to have killed one-third of Western Europe population. The Black Death brought social and economic crisis, thus having tremendous negative impact amongst Europeans. The plague has struck all across Europe at this time. In Doc 2, England has already been infected with the plague and sickness. It was due to unsanitary streets and numerous clogging on the floors of many houses. Besides England having been struck, Netherlands was hit as well. In Doc 1, the school master states that the plague has killed many students and the rest were drove away. Other places like Italy and Rome were all infested with the plague also, as stated in Doc 12. The Black Death affected Europe economically as well. The wealthy classes were affected less directly than the rest of the social class. In Doc 13, Samuel Pepys states that people no longer bought wigs due to infection. Wigs during those days were for the rich most of the time. Besides anyone buying wigs, many trade ports were stopped due to infection. In Doc 14, France, Holland, Spain, or Italy all stopped the trading process. Thus many manufactured goods stopped, putting Europe in an economic crisis. Not only were the rich affected, the poor were included. In Doc 3, Nicholas Versori writes,” Since the rich fled, death was principally directed towards the poor…..” Many cruel actions were acted out in response to the plague. In Doc 4, people would smear the town gates with ointment in order to spread the plague. In Doc 5, many who touched the town gates were killed while others kept on spreading. Houses where the plague has got into were nailed up and if a person died there, he had to be buried there. Numerous roads and highways were guarded to limit traveling from one place to another. In Doc 6, Giovan Filippo had a motto for the plague. The motto being,