Quiet Year For The Black Death example essay topic

Introduction The Black Death or Great Plague of 1347-1351 was not only a tragedy but also a crisis. The towns were shattered the cities were well under populated, nothing was good to eat, nowhere was good to walk it was all-unsafe. No one knew what caused this horrible disease so they had to be locked up in there houses all the time so they were as sanitary as they could get. There is a lot of things to know about this horrible disease and a lot of facts to be learned. How It All Got Started In 1347 a Tartar army set up a trading port or trading post in Caffa. Caffa is by the Black Sea.

A few soldiers didn't want to help the king out at this trading site because a plague was forming and people were becoming somewhat ill. After a few days of hard labor and staying away from the sickness a few soldiers decided they would gather all there belongings and head back to Southern Italy. As they gathered their things they gathered all the people too and they left on the ship leaving the trading post unattended. The soldiers got on the ship not knowing what they had brought with them.

There seemed to be infected rats on the ship that were blighting the crew members. There were no signs of disease while they were on the ship, but about 3 weeks after they landed the first signs of plague formed in Southern Italy. The disease ravaged in the opening year of 1347 with 3 pandemics- Bubonic, Pneumonic, and septicemia (Pandemics are sections to the disease). Constantinople, Florence, Sicily, Naples, and then Dalmatia were all in 1347. It also hit neighboring cities, towns, and seaports. 1348 In 1348 the Black Death hit France, Spain, England, and even Iceland.

This disease spread by a rat flea known as the Oriental Rat Flea. It would get infected blood from the rat and spread it to humans by biting them. This was a quiet year for the Black Death that had a death rate of 800 people a day. 1349 In the year 1349 the plague hit as many places as it could it hit Germany, 2/3rd of Russia, Scandinavia, and more of Iceland, which was one of the hardest hit countries of all. While the plagues swept through it took 60-90% of the untreated cases but there were no treatments because there was no medicine and all the doctors ran away in fear of getting the disease. 1350 In 1350 the plague traveled through, Turkey, Austria, Norway, Finland, and more of Germany.

This was a big year for the plague, which was the year before its end. By this year it took at least 2/3rd of Europe's population. 1351 The year of the plagues end was in 1351 even though today we have some outbreaks of the disease it still became very uncommon to see the Black Death anywhere. By this time doctors returned back to their offices to study the black dots and marks left on victims. Then the population began to miraculously grow again. The only outbreaks of the Death in 1351 were where no one lived up North on the Northern tips of Sweden and Norway and little action was taking place in Russia.

Through the years of the plague it is estimated that 25 million people died that's 5 million a year. The path of this plague went from North to South as indicated through the years. Economy During the years of the Black Death there was a very large labor shortage because of death and people running away in fear. Lords and other owners in order to keep their workers needed to not only give them money but also give them good housing as well.

The wages during this death skyrocketed to record highs. They raised the wages 80 percent. If the lord didn't raise the wages the peasants and serfs didn't do work so the crops and livestock were left unattended to die and rot. Not being paid is what caused the Peasants Revolt, which is when the peasants fought for more things. Bubonic Plague The Bubonic Plague got its name from the buboes left on victims. Buboes are black spots.

The Bubonic plague was most common the death rate was 75% for the people who had it. People thought that if they stopped throwing garbage in the street the disease would stop but it didn't the people were wrong and didn't know how to cure it. Then people argued it was a curse sent down from God for their sins and some said the Jewish people poisoned the water. But none was true it was a disease spread by the climate and fleas. After being bitten by the fleas the symptoms took 1-7 days to appear (see Jesse's paper for symptoms). How It Affects Us Today Today there are still outbreaks of the plague.

There have been reported deaths in Africa, Asia, and South America today. The last record that was in 1992 of the Black Death had 1768 cases of the Black Death and 198 deaths. That means about 1: 9 people died that had it. From 1978-1992 14,856 cases were reported and there were 1,451 deaths. That's 1: 10 who had it died.

Amazing considering that all of those 10 people would of probably died in the Middle Ages. Ring Around The Rosy A game of Ring Around the Rosy is a kid sing along now, but what does it really mean? The Black Death was responsible for this song and there is a good reason why. "Ring around the rosy" was a special phrase at the time. "Pockets full of posies" was saying how they tried to cure the disease with plants but it didn't work "Ashes Ashes" meant the plant curing attempt didn't work, and "We all fall down" was the affect of the disease death. Conclusion Today there are still outbreaks of this death and we are lucky we have medicines and doctors who know how to cure the disease now so if it ever breaks out again we know how to stop it.

This research was very fascinating to me to find out how people lived and dealt with the disease at that time. It was fun to learn about such a broad topic again like the Manor because I get more out of it and I remember more. I never knew Ring Around the Rosy was a game made from the Black Death. There were a lot of things I never knew but now I feel smarter.