3.+The+Black+Death

The Black Death occurred around 1345 in China in Hubei and easily spread by trade across Western Asia, then
==**North Africa and Europe. It’s a turning event in history as it affected vast amounts of people and countries by wiping out families, towns and communities as it spread so easily from person to person to country to country. The plague put an end to the Mongol Empire. It was easily spread as it was carried around by rodents who carried fleas that were infected, so that when the fleas landed on humans they would pass on their infection by biting them, however at the time people had no idea how it was spreading.** == ==There were essentially 3 types of the plague which made it easier for it to spread as one might be more immune to one type of the plague than the other. One form of the plague which was most common – bubonic plague killed in an average of 5 to 7 days, the others were the pneumonic plague which killed in less than a week by attacking the lungs and the septicaemic plague which killed in less than a day by entering the bloodstream. == ==At the time this was huge as people thought that they were being punished by God so fights broke out between different religions. People started to lose faith in God as they as they kept praying and people kept dying. There was also no cure for it so people were watching their families and friends die all around them and so people started experimenting about why the plague was occurring to find a cure however it still reappeared in centuries after. == == At the time there were important changes because of the great population loss which was quick. There was also a huge economic disruption as prices rose, labour became scarce, as people were being payed more to work so that they would stay and so people like farmers could complete harvest. Some villages and towns were left deserted while others had a shortage of jobs and had land that could not be worked. It was such a significant time in history as the great population decrease in a short amount of time. If it did not happen the world could’ve been shaped completely differently. == ==According to Ralph Higden an English Chronicler and a Benedictine monk of the monastery of St. Werburgh in Chester //“scarcely a tenth of mankind was left alive”// More than 2/3 of China and Europe’s population were wiped out of an estimated 75 million to 200 million meaning that the world could be over populated if it didn’t occur. In Europe 1 out of 3 died over 2 years and in Florence 45% to 75% also died in one year and in the first 6 months 1/3 of the population died. Venice was the worst as 60% died over 18 months which was 500 to 600 a day at the most. == ==Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio said //“Such terror was struck into the hearts of men and women by this calamity...What is even worse and nearly incredible is that fathers and mothers refused to see and tend their children, as if they had not been theirs.”// This shows the impact it had on society as people’s families as they were surrounded by death. ==

==Click here to view a Time line of the Plague and here to view more information on the plague. ==