1. The Bubonic Plague (Black Death)

2. The Middle Ages saw severe changes in the population that altered the economy of Europe.
Beginning in 1315, Europe experienced a series of famines.
Then from 1347 to 1348 the spread of bubonic plague (Black Death) brought a steep population decline, mostly in Western Europe.

3. Black Death Worst natural disaster in European history.
Killed 1/3 of population
Spread by rat borne fleas introduced by ships arriving in Sicily from Black Sea ports.
It took 200 years for Europe’s population reach its previous levels.

4. According to a traditional story, the plague came to Europe from the town of Caffa, a port on the Black Sea where Italian merchants from Genoa maintained a thriving trade center.
The people of the Crimea were dying from a plague. Believing it was a foreign disease brought to their shores by Italian merchants, the people of the East retaliated with the only sufficiently available weapon at hand — the decaying corpses of plague victims.
They used huge catapults to lob the infected corpses of plague victims over the walls of Caffa. The rotting corpses littered the streets, and the plague quickly spread throughout the city.
The Genoese decided they must flee; they boarded their ships and set sail for Italy, carrying rats, fleas, and the Black Death with them."

5. Culprit: Oriental Rat Flea

6. How was the Black Death transmitted?
The three forms of the Black Death were transmitted two ways. The bubonic plague was transmitted with direct contact with a flea.
The pneumonic plague was transmitted through airborne droplets of saliva coughed up by bubonic infected humans.

7. If the plague had just stayed in one city, the containment might have spared Europe. Unfortunately, the plague spread when people fled to other cities.

8. Complete these sentences
1. The Black Death is a nickname for the (bubonic, pneumonic) plague.
2. The disease hit Europe around (1347, 1450).
3. About (one-fifth, one-third) of the population died as a result the disease, the worst natural disaster in European history.
4. It may have been introduced in (Sicily, Lisbon) by fleas carried on rats.
5. Only (50, 200) years later, Europe’s population was restored.
6. About (10 million, 25 million) people died in Europe from the Black Plague.