In the mid 1300’s the Black Plague (Black Death) made its way into Europe. The plague had social impacts, economic impacts, and political impacts. The plague affected everybody's life regardless where you were on the social ladder. Everybody who got the disease was dead in three to five days. The few years the plague was in Europe it was affecting them 150 years later. The lower class workforce was wiped out. The lower class was most affected because of the way they lived. The social impact that the plague had in Europe was massive. The fourteenth century was brutal, nasty, and short. Regardless it already had a history of Peasant workforces. England was overpopulated. Before the plague, labor was cheap and easy to find because of all the people, the peasants were lower class. The lower class was the majority of who dies because of the way that they lived. With all of the peasants dying the workforce dropped significantly. This also caused a slash in costs of livestock, crops, caused inflation. The amount of people that died due to the plague took away our economic workforce. Some wages increased because the workers can take advantage of the low workforce. It was bad for the economy. Now …show more content…
The plague opened the eyes of the many people that followed the church. Since the followers believed in God, they thought that if they prayed, and made amends they would be spared from the sickness. Bishops and higher members of the church were supposed to be closer with god. But when the Bishops and members fell ill, a lot of the followers disbanded from the church and didn't believe in god because “he didn't help”. They didn’t want anyone else getting the plague so they didn't allow visitors to come in, leave, or enter other places.. Some people were killed for entering other places. During this time there was no stable government, they were either dead, dying, or hiding trying not to get
The Black Death was devastating and was one of the most significant events in Medieval Britain. The Black Death was also known the plague and bubonic plague it describes the spread of disease that caused mass deaths throughout Britain. The disease itself was carried by fleas and spread across Europe between 1346-1353 leaving towns and city such as Siena Italy with 85% of the population wiped out. This was seen all over Europe including Britain and it can be argued economic factors was the most significant consequences of the Black Death. However there are many factors such as political, social factors and Mortality rates that were also results of the Black Death and perhaps social factors may be more significant.
"The Black Death" alone was not the only factor that was responsible for the social and economic change although it was the most important (Ziegler 234). Even without "The Black Death" continued deterioration in Europe would have been likely. The social and economic change had already set in well before 1346. For at least twenty-five years before "The Black Death," exports, agricultural production, and the area of cultivated land had all been shrinking. "The Black Death" contributed a large part to all of this destruction and led to important changes in the social and economic structure of the country (Ziegler 234-235). The plague touched every aspect of social life (Herlihy 19). There was hardly a generation that was not affected by the plague (www.jefferson.village.virginia.edu). Families were set against each other - the well rejecting the sick (www.byu.edu). Families left each other in fear. Many people died without anyone looking after them. When the plague appeared in a house, frightened people abandoned the house and fled to another (www.jefferson.village.virginia.edu). Due to this, the plague spread more rapidly because people were not aware that being in the same house with the infected person had already exposed them to it. Physicians could not be found because they had also died. Physicians who could be found wanted large sums of money before they entered the house (www.jefferson.village.virginia.edu). When the
Among three devastating events of the fourteenth century, I consider the Black Death(Plague) had the most pronounced impact on the course of medieval history. Although, other two events were also left an impact on the course of medieval history, but there is no such comparison to the black Plague. The changing climate and poor harvests which lead to famine, malnourishment, and death was just the beginning of troublous period on Europe’s. Europe was already suffering from famine, but more devastating time has just arrived along with the medieval shipping. Plague first started from china, and soon brought by Genoese ships to Europe, which was the ticking time bomb waiting its own time to burst. It has start spreading throughout many parts of
The plague had a lot of effects on society. One example is the Nobles, before the plague they were the rulers and they were rich. After the plague they had less power because there was less Nobles. Another example was the Peasants, before the plague they were poor and worked for the Nobles. After the plague they had gained a little bit of power because there weren’t as many Nobles. It also affected the population by 25 million people. The cities were crowded before the plague and after there weren’t many people some cities were even abandon. The food was even a problem before the plague because there wasn’t enough so the prices were high and the only people that could afford it was the Nobles. After words the prices went down because there was plenty of food but not enough people.
Another reason the Black Plague affected the economy was how so many people died. The continent had enjoyed some 200 years of prosperity, and then 70 of cold. Result: too little food for too many people. By 1350 one-third of them, especially in the swollen cities, would be dead. In Europe in three or four years, 50 million people died. The population was reduced from some 80 million to
In 1347 while everyone was off at the 100 years’ war, an unforeseen attack came from the east that took out nearly thirty percent of the known world’s population. It changed everyone’s lives, making the rich poor, the poor rich, and encouraging the population to be self-centered. It was the Black Death.
Through history there have been devastating events during time periods, which eventually lead to positive outcomes, after all the sorrow comes the miracle everyone hoped for. As they say “there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.” As a matter of fact that is what happened during The Fourteenth century, it was one of the most devastating centuries, filled with horrible events, the outcome of those events led to the reshaping of Europe and Asia through trends and events. In Europe, during the Fourteenth Century, the population was soaring and there was surplus in the food supply.
The plague caused people to shun their family members, friends, and pretty much anyone who was associated with the disease and “abhor all contact with the sick and all that belonged to them, thinking thereby
The Black Death killed many people but did not really change much in medieval Europe
European economy seemed to be altering its course of direction and favoring the peasants. Although some scholars believe that the plague wasn’t a big impact according to the readings towns populations fell. trade decline, the serfs left the manor for better wages, and many more effects (The Hundred Years’ War and the
Doctors in Medieval times did not know the cause of the plague and were unable to find a cure. To help prevent the disease from getting too bad, doctors would give their patients flowers and other scented things, as they believed the rats wouldn’t like the nice smells. Because Christianity dominated their lives, many people believed that they had caught the disease as a punishment from God for their sins. They would sit and pray all day. Some people whipped themselves for punishment, which only helped spread the disease when the blood was flicked.
The plague was a disease that devastated Europe and the Christian population. Christians handled the plague very differently than the other groups it affected. The mortality rate for European Christians was an estimated 31%. (Robert S. Gottfried, The Black Death, New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1983.) They believed the plague was a cruel and horrible punishment on the men, women, and children of their society brought upon them by God.
The disastrous plague called the Black Death had monumental, long lasting effects that would ultimately change the fate of the entire continent of Europe. The mid-1300s in Europe were part of the Dark Ages. Human populations were near over-crowding, and the land was stretched to produce food. Mother Nature created a drastic solution. The world lifted a bleak shadow of death and chaos over the people of Europe in the form of plague. It originated from fleas, but rats carried the fleas with this plague across seaward trading routes from Asia. Humans were oblivious to the deadly fleas disguised in the familiar sight of the rats aboard their trading ships. The plague was an airborne disease, and it was transmittable to humans. Once one was infected, no escape option was available. The plague was characterized by black cysts on the skin, which influenced humans to later dub the plague “The Black Death”. Europe was previously suffering during the Dark Ages, but what were the Black Death’s effects on Europe? The staggering effects of the Black Death were outlined clearly in the fragility of religion, the floundering population and education, and oddly enough, a recovered and thriving economy.
The Black Plague started in 1347 CE and ended in 1351 CE. Europe declined dramatically by the spreading of an unstoppable virus sent from central Asia. As the virus spread through towns, villages, and across countries, dead bodies of the victims caught by the virus started to pile and gather. As more bodies began to pileup, they were dumped into pits. (Wilson 438) There were many effects of the Black Plague in Europe. The three most important effects of the Black Plague was 1/3 to 1/2 of the European population died, land became worthless, and Jews were blamed for the outbreak and was targeted by Europeans. This impacted Europe socially and economically.
The Black Plague caused a social breakdown. Terrified people abandoned everything like their family, friends, and even morality. people thought that the Black Plague was a punishment of God and it wouldn’t follow them if they left. People also thought that no one