The Black Death was an epidemic which spread across almost all of Europe in the years 1346-53. The plague killed over a third of the entire population. It has been described as the worst natural disaster in European history and is responsible for changing the course of that history to a great degree.
There is no dispute that the Black Death, otherwise known as the “Great Mortality, ” or simply “The Plague,” was a trans-continental disease which swept Europe and killed millions during the fourteenth century. However, there is now argument over exactly what this epidemic was. The traditional and most widely accepted answer is the bubonic plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia Pestis, which scientists found in samples taken from French plague pits where bodies were buried.
Yersinia Pestis was spread through infected fleas which lived first on black rats, a type of rat which is happy to live near humans and, crucially, on ships. Once infected, the rat population would die off, and the fleas would turn to humans, infecting them instead. After three to five days of incubation, the disease would spread to the lymph nodes, which would swell into large-blister like ‘buboes’ (hence ‘bubonic’ plague), usually in the thigh, armpit, groin, or neck. 60 - 80% of those infected would die within another three to five days. Human fleas, once blamed quite heavily, in reality, contributed only a fraction of cases.
The plague could turn into a more virulent airborne variant called pneumonic plague, where the infection spread to the lungs, causing the victim to cough up blood which could infect others. Some people have argued this aided the spread, but others have proven it wasn’t common and accounted for a very small amount of cases. Even rarer was a septicemic version, where the infection overwhelmed the blood; this was nearly always fatal The main instance of the Black Death was between 1346 to 1353, although the plague returned to many areas again in waves during 1361-3, 1369-71, 1374-75, 1390, 1400, and after. Because extremes of cold and heat slow the flea down, the bubonic version of the plague tended to spread during the spring and summer, slowing right down during winter (the lack of many winter cases across Europe is cited as further evidence the Black Death was caused by Yersinia PestisThe Black Death originated in the northwest shores of the Caspian Sea, in the land of the Mongol Golden Horde, and spread into Europe when the Mongols attacked an Italian trading post at Kaffa in the Crimea. Plague struck the besiegers in 1346 and then entered the town, to be carried abroad when the traders hurriedly left on ships the next spring. From there the plague traveled rapidly, through rats and fleas living on board ships, to Constantinople and other Mediterranean ports in the thriving European trade network, and from there through the same network inland. By 1349, much of Southern Europe had been affected, and by 1350, the plague had spread into Scotland and north Germany. Overland transmission was, again, either via rat or fleas on people/clothing/goods, along communication routes, often as people fled the plague. The spread was slowed by cool/winter weather but could last through it. By the end of 1353, when the epidemic reached into Russia, only a few small areas such as Finland and Iceland had been spared, thanks largely to only having a small role in international trade. Asia Minor, the Caucasus, the Middle East, and North Africa also suffered. Traditionally, historians accept that there were variations in the rates of mortality as different areas suffered slightly differently, but roughly one-third (33%) of Europe’s entire population succumbed between 1346-53, somewhere in the region of 20-25 million people. Britain is often quoted as losing 40%. Recent work by O.J. Benedictow has produced a controversially higher figure: he argues that mortality was surprisingly consistent across the continent and that, in reality, three-fifths (60%) perished; roughly 50 million people. There is some dispute about urban versus rural losses but, in general, the rural population suffered as heavily as the urban ones, a key factor given that 90% of Europe’s population lived in rural areas. In England alone, deaths rendered 1000 villages unviable and survivors left them. While the poor had a higher chance of contracting the disease, the rich and noble still suffered, including King Alfonso XI of Castile, who died, as did a quarter of the Pope’s staff at Avignon (the papacy had left Rome at this point and hadn't yet returned).
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