Sachem North High School 1347 - 1351 Dr. Afxendiou Sachem North High School
A disease so horrendous it was given three names… The Bubonic Plague The Black Plague The Black Death
It started…
Caused by… In the rat flea Bacteria On the rat
The Disease Cycle Human is infected! Flea drinks rat blood that carries the bacteria. Bacteria multiply in flea’s gut. Human is infected! Flea bites human and regurgitates blood into human wound. Flea’s gut clogged with bacteria.
Transmission Airborne! Inhaled by the victim, infected the lungs, and dead due to respiratory failure sometimes within 24 hours. Touch objects touched by infected person and introduce into system via the mouth.
Symptoms of Plague BUBONIC - fever, exhaustion, chills, swollen glands which turn red at first, then black PNEUMONIC - cough which produces frothy blood from lungs SEPTICAEMIC - internal bleeding; blood pools under skin causing black coloration
Treatment Since they didn’t understand the way deceases worked and spread, their cures seem ‘absurd’ and ineffective to us. They believed that the decease was caused by bad vapors and blood imbalance
Bring out your dead! Ring around the rosies A pocket full of posies Ashes ashes We all fall down. Bring out your dead!
They died by the hundreds, both day and night, and all were thrown in They died by the hundreds, both day and night, and all were thrown in ... ditches and covered with earth. And as soon as those ditches were filled, more were dug. And I, Agnolo di Tura ... buried my five children with my own hands ... And so many died that all believed it was the end of the world. —The Plague in Siena: An Italian Chronicle
Attempts to Stop the Plague Self-inflicted “penance” for our sins! Flagellanti: Self-inflicted “penance” for our sins!
Attempts to Stop the Plague Pogroms against the Jews “Golden Circle” obligatory badge “Jew” hat
The Mortality Rate in Europe 35% - 70% 25,000,000 dead !!! Half of Asia decimated!
Effects: Social art – moves away from strictly religious subjects to death as a subject. Depopulation Serfs can achieve their freedom Loss of support for the Church – couldn’t explain why the Plague had to happen. Seeds of the Reformation Higher level of leisure
Effects: Political – Government halted Decline of feudal system of government – peasants leave the manor
Effects: Economic- Commerce ceased Trade was disrupted Food production slowed Loss of labor force Loss of knowledge Labor shortage allowed peasants to escape from serfdom when offered freedom in exchange for work.
One tiny insect, a flea, toppled feudalism and changed the course of history in Europe.
Can the Plague return? 1660-1663 Last Epidemic: 1942 Largest Outbreaks: 500’s 1349-1351 1660-1663 Last Epidemic: 1942 Last Outbreak: 2005, DR Congo, Africa
Thesis Statement Exercise: How did political institutions in western Europe change from the fall of the Roman Empire to the end of the Middle Ages?