The Culprits
The Famine of By 1300 Europeans were farming almost all the land they could cultivate. A population crisis developed. Climate changes in Europe produced three years of crop failures between because of excessive rain. As many as 15% of the peasants in some English villages died. One consequence of starvation & poverty was susceptibility to disease.
Wasn’t the Silk Road supposed to give us goods we needed? So what did the Silk Road give us? The silk road gave us: Wealth/trade, Spread of ideas/religion, and Bubonic Plague!!! The fall of Constantinople and the Bubonic Plague ended the Silk Road trade. The Black Death was the most devastating disease of its time and had no cure!!!
1347: Plague Reaches Constantinople!
The Disease Cycle Flea drinks rat blood that carries the bacteria. Flea’s gut clogged with bacteria. Bacteria multiply in flea’s gut. Flea bites human and regurgitates blood into human wound. Human is infected!
What were the symptoms of the plague?
It came from China where it was carried by fleas and rats from traders. It was so deadly because it was spread without physical contact. Any positives? 1.) Population Control 2.) Decrease in population brought increase demand for workers and higher pay also. 3.) Awareness of hygiene and knowledge medicine increase.
Negatives??? 1.) People fled the cities and towns for the countryside. 2.) Government had less money because fewer people paid taxes. 3.) Less people needed food and farmers income became low. 4.) About 50 to 75% of Europe died from the disease (25,000,000)
Cures? Medieval people did not know about germs causing disease. They did not understand that plague was spread by rats and fleas. They thought that people’s bodies were poisoned. If the swellings burst and the poison came out people sometimes survived. It seemed sensible to draw out the poison.
Medieval cure number 1 The swellings should be softened with figs and cooked onions. The onions should be mixed with yeast and butter. Then open the swellings with a knife. Medieval cure number 2 Take a live frog and put its belly on the plague sore. The frog will swell up and burst. Keep doing this with further frogs until they stop bursting. Some people say that a dried toad will do the job better.c
Medieval Art & the Plague
Bring out your dead!
Attempts to Stop the Plague A Doctor’s Robe “Leeching”
Attempts to Stop the Plague Flagellanti: Self-inflicted “penance” for our sins!
First Hand Account of The Black Death (resident from Siena, Italy) And so they died. And nobody could be found to bury the dead for money or for friendship…And in many places in Siena huge pits were dug and piled deep with great heaps of the dead…And I buried my five children with my own hands and many others did likewise. And there were many corpses about the city who were so sparsely covered with earth that dogs dragged them out and devourded their bodies.
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