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The Black Death. Human Population. Industrialization. Agriculture. Hunter-gatherers. Crowd diseases: Parasites, e.g. schistosomiasis Contagious diseases, e.g. measles Epidemics Domesticated animals. The Biology of Plague. Endemic disease, Epidemics and Pandemics
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Human Population Industrialization Agriculture Hunter-gatherers
Crowd diseases: • Parasites, e.g. schistosomiasis • Contagious diseases, e.g. measles • Epidemics • Domesticated animals
The Biology of Plague • Endemic disease, Epidemics and Pandemics • The Three Great Pandemics
The Biology of Plague • Bacillus: Yersinia pestis
The Biology of Plague • Rattus rattus (Black Rat)
The Biology of Plague • Flea: Xenopsylla cheopis
Types of Plague • Primary Bubonic • Transmitted by fleas • Buboes • 60-90% mortality
Types of Plague - 2 • Primary bacteraemic (septicaemic) • Secondary bacteraemic • Primary pneumonic • Secondary pneumonic • Transmitted by air-borne droplets • Not too infectious
The Black Death • Origins in Central Asia, ca. 1331-1332 • Slow rate of spread • Importance of Mongol Empire • Spreads from Tatars to Genoese colony of Caffa • From there to Europe in September 1347
How Many People Died?: Conclusion • Ca. one-half of population dies • Population declines until ca. 1425, when stabilizes at one-third level of that of 1300 • Remains at this low level until ca. 1475 • Returns to level of 1300 around 1600
But Was It Plague? • Two types of rat needed • Rattus norvegicus (brown rat) did not reach England until 1700s
But was it plague? • Plague a disease of open steppes, and/or warm countries, but • Spreads to Iceland and Greenland
No reports of dead rats • 40 day disease cycle, as opposed to 7-10 days for plague
Or a Viral Hemorrhagic Fever? • Characterized by bleeding and vomiting of blood • Generalized necrosis • Affected domestic animals • Spread from human to human
Consequences • Western Europe: “Golden Age” of the Peasantry • Rents decline • Wages rise • Serfdom disappears in W. Europe
Consequences - 2 • Intensifies political and social conflict • “Seigneurial reaction” • Peasant revolts/urban worker revolts • Increased competition among aristocrats for control of shrinking numbers of peasant, leading to • Increased civil war • Increased inter-state war