Adrian M 7JA 19.05.

11

The Black Plague: A Turning Point in Human History

You ever heard of something called an epidemic? Itʼs an widespread outbreak of

disease of any kind, from the simple flu to the deadly Cholera. Some are not that
dangerous and easy to deal with, but others can be deadly and sometimes, no cure is
known. But, have you know of a time in the The Middle Ages in Europe, where it was
known for the most destructive, deadly, and horrifying disease ever faced by mankind:
the Black Plague, a large outbreak of the deadly bubonic plague. It originated in China,
but managed to cross the border of Europe and make its way from Italy to England,
killing at least one third of Europeʼs population from 1347 to 1350. In numbers, that is
around an estimated 25 million people. We do know that the Plague was the result of
the bacteria “Yersinia pestis”, delivered by a fleaʼs bite, and that it killed a lot of people,
but do we know about what else it affected? The Black Death was widely known for
killing thousands, but it also affected human history greatly, mainly in Religion, Economy
and Politics, Culture, Society, and History itself.

But before we get to what the Plague affected, we should understand what caused the
Black Plague to become so deadly. Many people of that time were too busy trying to
stay alive to even know what caused the Plague, and how it could infect people. It
wasnʼt until the 1894s, about 500 years later, that the true cause of the Plague was
discovered, in Hong Kong. The main culprit of the Plague was a microscopic organism
too tiny to see, but increasingly deadly, Yersinia pestis. This bacteria had used two
other living things, rats and fleas to make itʼs journey to Europe and onto humans. It first
attached itself to the flea, and used the rat as a travel accomplice as it was still inside
the flea. Then, when the flea jumped onto humans from the rats, it attacked itʼs stomach
tract, making the flea go into severe hunger, so when the flea eventually found a host to
bite into, the bacteria would be transferred into the hostʼs blood via itʼs bite, proceeding
to infect the host.

Adrian Ma Monday, June 6, 2011 10:10:07 PM Hong Kong SAR China Time
 Adrian M 7JA 19.05.11

There were also some contributing issues during the Middle Ages that made the Plague
even more serious than it normally shouldʼve been. A big contributing factor was the fact
that during the Middle Ages, personal hygiene was very poor. Many people barely knew
about proper personal hygiene, such as washing hands regularly and maintaing
sanitary needs. But many people did not maintain their personal hygiene regularly, even
the highest ranked people in the feudalism system, lords and kings did not regularly
bath or wash their hands, not even The Pope! They only had a bath once every year,
and never really did wash their hands. The rats containing the bacteria-infested fleas
were also unknown by the public as the true cause of the plague, so as the disease
spread across Europe no one did anything to stop them from going from one area to
another, infecting multiple hosts and wiping out populations of countries. The lack of
medical knowledge also contributed to the spread of the Plague, as the knowledge on
medicine and diseases was very basic, or unrealistic as most of Medieval Europeʼs
medical science was based on beliefs from the Christian church. The Religion of
Christianity was the main religion used during the Middle Ages, it was so powerful and
so common that everything from education to science was based on beliefs from the
church and acts of God. So when the Plague came upon Europe, many of the cures
and treatments for it were based on the churchʼs beliefs. One particular common cure
was for the infected person to be cut and let his/her blood bleed out, as blood was
considered “sin” and he/she would be free of their sins, as the plague was thought to be
caused by sinners. Due to this, the various cures and specified treatments of the Middle
Ages, all based on religion and the Church did nothing to either stop or cure the infected
from spreading the disease and dying of their compromised conditions. Along with that,
the vast urban population of Europe then, the large commerce and trading market, and
the lack of understanding on how to control a serious outbreak of this scale all
contributed to make the Black Plague the worst catastrophe in the world at the time.

The Black Plague took quite a lot of lives, but it also took a heavy toll on European
religion, economy and politics, society, and culture respectively.

Adrian Ma Monday, June 6, 2011 10:10:07 PM Hong Kong SAR China Time
 Adrian M 7JA 19.05.11

One of the most affected factors of European History was the Religion during that time.
During the Middle Ages, Christianity and The Christian Church basically ruled over
Europe. They had the highest authority over all of Europeʼs people, from serfs, to lords,
even the Kings. They were considered a very powerful hierarchy, as all of Europeʼs
population followed and believed in the Christian Religion. But during the Black Plague,
most of the Churchʼs power and authority was lost or downgraded. Most of the people
involved in the Religion, mainly priests were infected also with the plague. They had
been in contact with the disease when they were going around, performing religious
services for the infected (confessing sins, final prayers etc). People also began to lose
trust in the Church after the Plague, as The Church claimed that they had an answer
for the cause of the disease and a cure for the infected. In reality, they had no answer
for the public. People also decided to take their religious tasks and lives into private,
and some rich people even built private chapels for their own use. Many Christians also
felt that the Plague was the result of God turning his back on them, so they decided to
fight fire with fire. They began a wild chaotic series of events against God, celebrating
endlessly about life. This ranged from wild drinking parties to heavy gambling, even
eating compulsively. But all of these retaliations against Christianity were not as violent
as the Flagellant Movement. This was a large movement on the Christian Church
across Europe during the events of the Plague. It was a large protest movement
consisting of Medieval Men and Women torturing themselves and others in various
towns in an effort to purge themselves of “sins”, which were thought to be the culprits of
the Plague. The movement travelled all across Europe until the 1500s, where Pope
Clement IV ordered immediate execution of all Flagellant Leaders, as some Flagellant
Groups attempted to take over the Christian Church, wanting to take the tasks of
releasing sins from people into their own hands, making them a danger to Christianity.
Pretty soon, the entire movement suddenly vanished from existence as quickly as it
appeared.
Another great factor of the Plague that affected was the influence on culture, especially
in Art, Music, and Leisure. Art had one of the most noticeable effects of the Plague, and
today can still be seen. Artwork such as sculptures during the early to mid 1300s before
the Black Plague usually showed rich people in their grandest clothes and nobles with

Adrian Ma Monday, June 6, 2011 10:10:07 PM Hong Kong SAR China Time
 Adrian M 7JA 19.05.11

their swords and shields. But when the Black Plague worked itʼs way into European
Society, everything changed Plague art showed dead bodies, from foot to skull, with
parts of their flesh and bones visible. These sculptures wore draping rags and often
showed bugs eating their way through the flesh.
Paintings also had a dramatic turn in style as well. It was the result of people turning
away on using Christianity as the inspiration for modern art. Most of them now showed
typical Medieval Men and women socializing with skeletons or dead people in their
lives, to the corpses being drawn out as average people in peopleʼs lives, such as
shopping in a market or working at a construction site with other people of the Middle
Ages. And surprisingly, these types of artifacts were actually requested by city councils
and what was left of the Christian Church. The reason of this was simple, they wanted
to remind any remaining survivors and the future population of Europe on the horrors
the Plague did to cripple European society. Music also had a slight setback during the
Plague. Before the Plague hit Europe, music was happy and cheerful, but during the
Plague it was known as a rare scary or grim sound, often heard by people who wanted
to spend the rest of their lives in eternal happiness. Leisure was also cut back during
the Black Plague, rich and poor. People treated deaths everywhere as comedy acts and
often went to funerals just to get a laugh. People also tried to look for causes of the
Plague for recreation, and often came back with the wrong answer. Theyʼd considered
people with special needs, handicapped people, and the mentally insane as the true
cause of the Plague, which lead to these type of people being killed due to their claimed
acts of “crime”. These killings were also considered leisure, the most popular being
stoning women accused of using witchcraft to spread the Plague. Poems and songs
were often written to explain the Plagueʼs terrible acts, and the ways people tried to
prevent it, the most famous being the Nursery Rhyme “Ring around a Rosie”:

“Ring around the Rosy, A Pocket full of Posies. Ashes, Ashes, We all fall down!”

Every single verse in the widely-known rhyme was related to the Plague, including
cures to what happened to the infected.

Adrian Ma Monday, June 6, 2011 10:10:07 PM Hong Kong SAR China Time
 Adrian M 7JA 19.05.11

Childhood was severely affected during the Plague, even after it had swept through
Europe. Many children of that time had been affected physically and mentally, ranging
from mental illness, hypertension, and death. Many parents had abandoned their
children, or had died of the disease, leaving them alone. Males were lucky enough to
live on, as females were left to die as a Male could carry the family name or heir.

The Economy and Society of Europe also suffered as well. Many of the manors under
control by the lords had been greatly affected by the aftermath of the Plague. For
example, the many serfs that worked on the manor under the command of the lord had
died of the disease, so the lord forced them to work overtime. This lead to riots and
strikes from the serfs, demanding better treatment and less work. These happened all
across Europe, which lead the social structure of Europe to collapse. Many of the poor
people who saw death all the time decided to leave their land, leaving animals starving
and crops withering. This lead to a widespread collapse in society, as towns and cities
were filling with deaths. People began to segregate themselves from one another in an
effort to prevent them from being infected. Others decided that having a positive
reaction to things could prevent the disease, this ranged from celebrating, drinking, and
laughing. However, people still began to move away and abandon their property, which
lead to property ownership problems. This often lead to clashes, and there was no one
to settle these disputes as many people with government-related roles, such as
executors or ministers, had died in the Plague. People also blamed Jews for causing
the Plague, claiming that theyʼd poisoned their drinking water, spreading the disease
through the water. As for the Economy, it was struck hard. The cities and businesses
went under as there were no debtors and creditors to collect income, as they had been
wiped out during the Plague. Jobs involving laborers were forced to shut down, as there
werenʼt enough employees to get the job done and the only repairman to fix the
equipment (hammers, grain grinders etc) was either dead or not available. The shortage
of workers also put pressure on farms and villages, as there was a lack of goods to be
used by the villagers, which lead to many of the villages and farms being abandoned as
a result. The death toll had taken a large group of workers which led to a slump in the
economy. It also put pressure on villagers trying to gather supplies for when Winter

Adrian Ma Monday, June 6, 2011 10:10:07 PM Hong Kong SAR China Time
 Adrian M 7JA 19.05.11

arrived. Without farmers, there would be no one to harvest crops or plant them during
the winter season. This resulted in a sudden oversupply of goods, which lead to the
value of goods such as food and crops to drop.

But the mostly affected of all was the Political System used during Medieval Europe:
Feudalism. Feudalism was what kept all of the kingdoms in Europe together, and was
the main source of power and authority. But when the Plague struck Europe, everything
changed. The lords that owned the lands had either died as a result of the Plague or
fled their lands, as many faced a major crisis involving their wealth and ranking.
Because many of their laborers had been wiped out due to the Plague, their main
source of income had dried up. Most lords had resorted to borrowing money to pay off
the peasants, but when the peasants began demanding for more wages they didnʼt
have enough money to pay them. And if the lord or vassal died during the Plague, it
resulted in the King, the main owner of the land, taking over and ruling it as their own,
as most estates controlled by families were abandoned. Eventually, the value of land
dropped to zero, effectively making land useless. Families and the society of public also
had a slight impact with the Plague. Many family members living with suffering victims of
the Plague had left their homes and didnʼt help them, as they feared of getting infected.
Parents abandoned their children, no one offered to help others, and no one was safe.

With this overwhelming large amount of facts and evidence, the claim that “The Black
Death was widely known for killing 25 million people, but it also affected human history
greatly, mainly in Religion, Economy and Politics, Culture, Society, and History itself”
has to be thought to be true. Along with killing half of Europeʼs population, it shrank the
churchʼs influence on European history, caused people to doubt on trusting the churchʼs
beliefs, along with being the cause of the violent Flagellants. It made Medieval Art and
Music into deadly works of art, reminiscing what people thought in their minds as the
plague progressed. It also wiped feudalism out of existence, as both serfs and lords
clashed against each other, demanding better rights, and resulted in most of them
abandoning their land. The economy dropped down as workers either died or went on
strike, resulting in a slump in the prices of goods, which suddenly were available in large

Adrian Ma Monday, June 6, 2011 10:10:07 PM Hong Kong SAR China Time
 Adrian M 7JA 19.05.11

quantities. Along with that, society fell apart as people went their ways on trying to
prevent the plague, people did nothing to help others, as they were trying to save their
own lives as well, fleeing from their homes, leaving behind anyone who was infected. It
then damaged medieval leisure, resulting in people take in deaths as comedy and
laugh at the sight of the dead, and blame specific types of people, such as jews or the
disabled, for the cause of the Plague.
We know what the Black Death affected Europe of, from its population to the many
factors that made up European society. But do we know what could it affect in todayʼs
modern society and well-being? The Plague has been unheard since then and you donʼt
usually see it pop up every now and then. Its been a long since the Middle Ages, and
although we know on what it can cause and potentially affect, we donʼt know what the
Plague could do if it happens to strike back. The world is at risk if the Plague comes
back, and we may not know the facts. As the old British Nursery Rhyme quotes: “And
yet he complained that his belly was not full”

Adrian Ma Monday, June 6, 2011 10:10:07 PM Hong Kong SAR China Time
 Adrian M 7JA 19.05.11

Bibliography:

1348, J., & Africa, N. (n.d.). Lecture 29: Satan Triumphant: The Black Death. The

History Guide -- Main. Retrieved April 20, 2011, from http://

www.historyguide.org/ancient/lecture29b.html

Black Death. (n.d.). Middle Ages. Retrieved April 25, 2011, from http://www.middle-

ages.org.uk/black-death.htm

Black Death: People Flee. (n.d.). Awesome Stories. Retrieved April 21, 2011, from

www.awesomestories.com/disasters/black-death/people-flee

Black Death: Society Breaks Down. (n.d.). Awesome Stories. Retrieved April 21, 2001,

from www.awesomestories.com/disasters/black-death/society-breaks-down

Church. (n.d.). Black Death. Retrieved April 20, 2011, from www.insecta-inspecta.com/

fleas/bdeath/Church.html

Economic Disruption. (n.d.). The Black Death. Retrieved April 20, 2011, from

www.boisestate.edu/courses/westciv/plague/16.shtml

Economy. (n.d.). Black Death. Retrieved April 20, 2011, from www.insecta-inspecta.com/

fleas/bdeath/Economy.html

Edmonds, M. (n.d.). HowStuffWorks "Effects of the Black Death". Howstuffworks

"History". Retrieved April 20, 2011, from http://history.howstuffworks.com/middle-

ages/black-death3.htm

Effects. (n.d.). The Bubonic Plague AKA The Black Death. Retrieved April 21, 2011,

from staff.bbhcsd.org/vendelc/black_death.htm

Fleas. (n.d.). The Black Death. Retrieved April 11, 2011, from www.insecta-

inspecta.com/fleas/bdeath/bdeath.html

Adrian Ma Monday, June 6, 2011 10:10:07 PM Hong Kong SAR China Time
 Adrian M 7JA 19.05.11

How the Black Plague Worked. (n.d.). How Stuff Works. Retrieved April 21, 2011, from

history.howstuffworks.com/middle-ages/black-death3.htm

Leisure, Arts, and Children. (n.d.). The Black Death. Retrieved April 20, 2011, from

www.insecta-inspecta.com/fleas/bdeath/Europe.html

The Black Death. (n.d.). Middle Ages. Retrieved April 19, 2011, from www.middle-

ages.org.uk/black-death.htm

The Black Death. (n.d.). Boise State University. Retrieved April 20, 2011, from http://

www.boisestate.edu/courses/westciv/plague/19.shtml

Whipps, H. (n.d.). How the Black Death Changed the World. Live Science. Retrieved

April 21, 2011, from www.livescience.com/2497-black-death-changed-world.html

APA formatting by BibMe.org.

Adrian Ma Monday, June 6, 2011 10:10:07 PM Hong Kong SAR China Time