European Black Plague (1348-1351): How it spread and what was left in its wake
Taisia Karaseva
It struck Europe in 1348. Within three years, it violently put to eternal sleep a third of the population. It raced blindly from one person to the next, ignoring social class, gender, age, and belief. It was carried by rodents, but no one knew that. It was brought from the east aboard trade ships and across the Silk Road, where in a province of China it had left nine out of ten dead, but no one knew that. The poor, the common, the rich, even the royal fell it its wake. It brought alongside it famine, anarchy, revolts, persecutions, and war. It came at a time Europe was already in a downfall. It was planned perfectly, for its massacre was so complete that it could not be halted. It was the Black Plague, and it would continue reappearing each generation until the 1700s.
Years before it arrived, Europe started to fall. The Great Famine struck in 1315; prices shot up drastically as the supply of food fell. Immunity to disease fell because people were starved and were not receiving nutrients; the stage was set. The plague first appeared in Hubei, a Chinese province. With the Mongols and traders, it approached Europe. In October of 1348, it sailed into the port of Messinia, the entire crew of the trade ship dead of dying. Other trade ships washed up on shores with no survivors, and looters spread the plague. After Italy, the death marched northwest; France, Spain, Portugal, and England fell victim by June 1348. During 1348-1350, it turned east to Germany and Scandinavia. By 1351, it hit Russia in the northwest. In its devastating flight, it spared but the Kingdom of Poland and parts of Belgium and the Netherlands. A quarter of villages lay deserted, all former population dead or the few survivors scattered in nearby cities.
No one knew the cause or the treatment. Neither priests nor doctors had the cure. They only knew that death occurred within days of being infected. Buboes on the groin, neck, and armpits, some large and some small, some numerous and some scattered, would ooze with blood and pus. The skin would break and scar with black blotches. Sever fever, headaches, and vomiting would followed. Death occurred after just enough suffering as to allow time to infect as many as possible. People knew no cure, and therefore they turned it from a physical punishment to a spiritual one. Jews and other minorities were blamed for causing the death with their sinfulness. Many more deaths were the products of growing executions. Political authority declined and the Church took on more secular duties. However, even church leaders and clergy were blamed for not being able to stop the epidemic. The Roman Catholic Church, formerly the most respected and powerful organization in Europe, crumbled.
Throughout Europe, monarchs attempted to help the situation. Many tried to stop exporting food and set their own high prices. These laws were seldom enforced at best, and at the worst, whole nations were unable to buy food because of lack of money or pirates and black market dealers intercepting the few exported goods. Britain was one of the latter, being hit hard and unable to buy. At the same time, treasuries depleted as large nations began waging war. Britain and Frances Hundred Years War was just one of the rising conflicts.
As the survivors of the death watched their world crumble, all were hit with a desperate need to do something. Some turned to separation from the world. These people moved away from society: they communicated with no one, lived in isolation, consumed only the most delicate and fine food. Another group chose to enjoy life before it ended: they lived a life of near anarchy, looting, walking into others homes as if they were their own, and partying until there was no liquor to fill their mugs.
Revolts by the peasants, such as the Jacquerie Rebellion in France, Ciompi Rebellion in Italy, and the English Peasant Revolt in Britain, led to conflict instead of agreements. However, as there became a scarcity of peasants, land and food supply per survivor grew, and the new wealth and power of the lower class resulted in the roots of capitalism in parts of Europe. In other parts of Europe, the nobles become increasingly alarmed and thus passed laws to contain the poor in their original social class. The Sumptuary Laws were just one example of this in Eastern Europe. Most authorities, witnessing the death and then the anarchy, were either long dead or fleeing from responsibility. All orderly control demolished throughout the nations.
As a result of the massive suffering of the people, art and literature took on dark and pessimistic tones. Art represented death, darkness, and suffering. The Dies Irae and La Danse Macabre were created. As people realized that alchemy as medicine was not effective at curing the plague, and that some attempts made the symptoms worst, people turned away from such science. The only temporary relief was brought on by liquor, and even that settled only the nerves. A single positive idea emerged: death united all.
The Black Plague was a reality then, and it altered Europe and Asia forever. But it could sweep through the world again. If compared to today, trading and interaction between people was limited. If a few hundred ships sailed the seas for months and spread the disease then, today there are thousands of people flying from one location to another every day, millions of letters traveling throughout the world at lightning speed, billions of tons of food and goods being exported from nations of low sanitation standards to those of high. If a plague as easily spreading as the Black Plague was able to find its way into an airport, a school, a city, a water supply, a post office, how fast could it circle the world? Could the governments of the world, so different in opinion and some so opposing, unite to stop the spread? If nations today wage war because of mere suspicion of dangerous weapons laying around unused, would nations once again wage wars because of their alarm or suspicion of other nations starting the plague out of hate? Only this time, with weapons so much deadlier? Could our world afford to stop all trade, all travel, and all communication in order to prevent such a plague? And if our measures were not enough, could we survive a massive population reduction? Today, we could be on the climax of human civilization. A deadly plague could permanently send us into freefall. Never before has the stage been so perfectly set.
About the Author: Taisia Karaseva is journalist and editor at Pegas Planet http://www.pegasplanet.com , help@albaspectrum.com. She is author of travel, history, international life articles
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1/17/2008
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