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THE BLACK DEATH

Explore the catastrophic impact of the Black Death in Medieval Europe, including its origins, spread, and the socioeconomic consequences it brought. Delve into the period of prosperity, environmental shifts, and superstitions that contributed to the vulnerability of the population.

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THE BLACK DEATH

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  1. THE BLACK DEATH THE PLAGUE IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE

  2. THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM • A period of prosperity 1000-1250 • Population growth: • 25 million (10th c.) to 75 million (mid 13th c.) • Favourable weather • Agricultural and technological innovations • New crops • 3 field planting • A new harness for horses • Food surplus • Political stability • The problem by 1300 = overpopulation

  3. CRISES PRIOR TO THE BLACK DEATH • Environmental shift 1200- 1350 • The Little Ice Age (temperature drop of 1.5 degrees) • Frozen waterways (no longer able to fish Herring) • Crop failure (rotting in the fields because too much precipitation) • Loss of marginal lands due to flooding • Famines 1315-1317 continent wide, due to the lack of surplus food to feed the great population (especially in the cities) • Financial and Economic changes • Closing trade routes to the East • Banking crisis in Italy • European Conflicts • Italians and Germans • Peasants rebellions • Hundred Years War

  4. Results of crises • Europeans in 14th c. were: • Starving • Without financial means to support themselves • Constantly facing threats of armed conflicts • They are now VERY VULNERABLE!!!

  5. THE BLACK DEATH 1347-1351 • Killed ¼ to 1/3 of Europe’s population • Entry into Europe through the East and the Mediterranean • Traveled from Gobi Desert to Mongolia into China • As the Mongols moved the infected rats traveled with them. • 1330-1346: Moved West through trade and sea routes from China • Sept 1345: Crimea • 1347: Constantinople • Fall 1347: Alexandria, Egypt (750 dead/day) • 1347- 1348: Engulfed Islamic world (1/3 of population died, 40-50% in cities) • Oct 1347: reached Sicily • Dec 1347: Raged through Italy and Southern Europe • 1347-1348: Reached Northern Italian cities • 1348: France • Fall 1348: England • 1350: Most of Northern Europe and Russia

  6. THREE TYPES OF PLAGUE • BUBONIC • PNEUMONIC • SEPTICAEMIC

  7. 1- Bubonic Plague • most common • Six day incubation period • Transmitted by fleas: Y-pestis bacilli found in their digestive tract • Symptoms: • Blackish pustule at bite • enlargements of the lymph nodes in armpits, groin or neck • Purplish blotches called buboes • 60 % of victims died

  8. PNEUMONIC • Less common (only occurs when there is a sharp temperature drop and infection moves into the lungs) • Transmitted from person to person by coughing up blood containing Y-pestis bacilli • 2 to 3 day incubation period • 95%-100% fatal

  9. SEPTICAEMIC • Least common • Also transmitted by fleas • Y-pestis bacilli enter the bloodstream of victims • Rash forms in 1 day and death rapidly follows (before buboes can form) • Always fatal

  10. EPIDEMIC AND PANDEMIC • Epidemic disease: affecting many individuals at the same time, and spreading from person to person in a locality where the disease is not permanently prevalent • Pandemic disease: a linked series that strike in cyclic fashion. Plague returned throughout 14th century (every 6 to 20 years).

  11. LABOURERS VS LANDOWNERS • Pre-plague: Europe’s population had dramatically increased in the 13th c. and was becoming overpopulated by 1300. • Would it have been easy to get a good job? • Where do you think the majority of people would have worked in the 14th c.? • With a great number of people all going after a smaller number of agricultural jobs, what kind of control do you think the bosses would have over the workers? • Post-plague: Huge decline in the population. • What would this population decline do to the labour market? • Now that there are fewer people than jobs available what can landowners do to attract workers? • What will workers demand from landowners? • How do you think landowners will feel about paying the workers more? • What do you think the landowners could do to lower wages? • Government and land extensive • What responses will the workers have to reduce their wages back to pre-Black Death wages?

  12. LUXURIES • Salt and spices were considered more valuable then gold in the 14th c. • Why would people following the Black Death have been willing to spend their money on such luxuries? • Do they have more money? • How would the mental effects of the Black Death effect their wants and desire? • How would fear of Death effect their purchases?

  13. SOCIOECONOMIC EFFECTS OF THE BLACK DEATH • Fewer workers = more jobs = higher pay • More buying of luxuries: • Less people in families to share inheritance • People scared could die at any time

  14. MEDIEVAL BELIEFS • In order to understand why some medieval people thought that putting their head in a latrine was a good idea, you need to understand the superstitious beliefs of those living in the 14th c. • This period was a time when “life was nasty, brutish and short”

  15. MEDIEVAL BELIEFS • The Earth is the centre of the universe. • Witches existed. • Alchemy was possible (a science that tried to change baser metals into gold and to make a compound that would cure all diseases and extend life indefinitely – Elixir of Life) • Astrology was a guiding force of the universe.

  16. THEORIES OF WHAT CAUSED THE PLAGUE • Unusual planetary conjunction that released poisonous vapours • According to the university of Paris • Intellectual theory • Idea that air and water infected • God is angry because not religious or holy enough/ too sinful. • Minorities accused of poisoning the wells • Lepers (suffer from skin diease) • Suspected witches • Jews • Most common scapegoats • God angry because letting them live in Christian areas • Spurred on by Flagellants (group of fanatics that went from town to town flogging themselves) who encouraged inhabitants to exterminate Jews as a way of ending God’s anger • Massacred, slaughtered, burned • 300 communities in Holy Roman Empire annihilated • By 1351: 350 separate massacred

  17. EFFECTS ON MEDIEVAL PSYCHE • Doubting the Church • Shook confidence in the Church • Couldn’t get God’s assistance for the people • Even clergy dying of Plague • Obsession with Death • Physical death became closer, presence of sudden painful death • Pessimism/preoccupation with death • Leads to fascination with death because daily sight in the streets • Elaborate funerals and single graves • Mood of decay and death in art

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