THE BLACK DEATH

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THE BLACK DEATH

• THE PLAGUE IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE

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THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

• A period of prosperity 1000-1250
• Population growth
• 25 million (10th c.) to 75 million (mid 13th c.)
• Favourable weather
• Agricultural and technological innovations
• New crops
• 3 field planting
• A new harness for horses
• Food surplus
• Political stability
• The problem by 1300 overpopulation

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CRISES PRIOR TO THE BLACK DEATH

• Environmental shift 1200- 1350
• The Little Ice Age (temperature drop of 1.5
  degrees)
• Frozen waterways (no longer able to fish Herring)
• Crop failure (rotting in the fields because too
  much precipitation)
• Loss of marginal lands due to flooding
• Famines 1315-1317 continent wide, due to the
  lack of surplus food to feed the great population
  (especially in the cities)
• Financial and Economic changes
• Closing trade routes to the East
• Banking crisis in Italy
• European Conflicts
• Italians and Germans
• Peasants rebellions
• Hundred Years War

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Results of crises

• Europeans in 14th c. were
• Starving
• Without financial means to support themselves
• Constantly facing threats of armed conflicts
• They are now VERY VULNERABLE!!!

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THE BLACK DEATH 1347-1351

• Killed ¼ to 1/3 of Europes population
• Entry into Europe through the East and the
  Mediterranean
• Traveled from Gobi Desert to Mongolia into China
• As the Mongols moved the infected rats traveled
  with them.
• 1330-1346 Moved West through trade and sea
  routes from China
• Sept 1345 Crimea
• 1347 Constantinople
• Fall 1347 Alexandria, Egypt (750 dead/day)
• 1347- 1348 Engulfed Islamic world (1/3 of
  population died, 40-50 in cities)
• Oct 1347 reached Sicily
• Dec 1347 Raged through Italy and Southern
  Europe
• 1347-1348 Reached Northern Italian cities
• 1348 France
• Fall 1348 England
• 1350 Most of Northern Europe and Russia

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THREE TYPES OF PLAGUE

1. BUBONIC
2. PNEUMONIC
3. SEPTICAEMIC

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1- Bubonic Plague

• most common
• Six day incubation period
• Transmitted by fleas Y-pestis bacilli found in
  their digestive tract
• Symptoms
• Blackish pustule at bite
• enlargements of the lymph nodes in armpits,
  groin or neck
• Purplish blotches called buboes
• 60 of victims died

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PNEUMONIC

• Less common (only occurs when there is a sharp
  temperature drop and infection moves into the
  lungs)
• Transmitted from person to person by coughing up
  blood containing Y-pestis bacilli
• 2 to 3 day incubation period
• 95-100 fatal

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SEPTICAEMIC

• Least common
• Also transmitted by fleas
• Y-pestis bacilli enter the bloodstream of victims
• Rash forms in 1 day and death rapidly follows
  (before buboes can form)
• Always fatal

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EPIDEMIC AND PANDEMIC

• Epidemic disease affecting many individuals at
  the same time, and spreading from person to
  person in a locality where the disease is not
  permanently prevalent
• Pandemic disease a linked series that strike in
  cyclic fashion. Plague returned throughout 14th
  century (every 6 to 20 years).

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LABOURERS VS LANDOWNERS

• Pre-plague Europes population had dramatically
  increased in the 13th c. and was becoming
  overpopulated by 1300.
• Would it have been easy to get a good job?
• Where do you think the majority of people would
  have worked in the 14th c.?
• With a great number of people all going after a
  smaller number of agricultural jobs, what kind of
  control do you think the bosses would have over
  the workers?
• Post-plague Huge decline in the population.
• What would this population decline do to the
  labour market?
• Now that there are fewer people than jobs
  available what can landowners do to attract
  workers?
• What will workers demand from landowners?
• How do you think landowners will feel about
  paying the workers more?
• What do you think the landowners could do to
  lower wages?
• Government and land extensive
• What responses will the workers have to reduce
  their wages back to pre-Black Death wages?

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LUXURIES

• Salt and spices were considered more valuable
  then gold in the 14th c.
• Why would people following the Black Death have
  been willing to spend their money on such
  luxuries?
• Do they have more money?
• How would the mental effects of the Black Death
  effect their wants and desire?
• How would fear of Death effect their purchases?

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SOCIOECONOMIC EFFECTS OF THE BLACK DEATH

• Fewer workers more jobs higher pay
• More buying of luxuries
• Less people in families to share inheritance
• People scared could die at any time

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MEDIEVAL BELIEFS

• In order to understand why some medieval people
  thought that putting their head in a latrine was
  a good idea, you need to understand the
  superstitious beliefs of those living in the 14th
  c.
• This period was a time when life was nasty,
  brutish and short

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MEDIEVAL BELIEFS

• The Earth is the centre of the universe.
• Witches existed.
• Alchemy was possible (a science that tried to
  change baser metals into gold and to make a
  compound that would cure all diseases and extend
  life indefinitely Elixir of Life)
• Astrology was a guiding force of the universe.

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THEORIES OF WHAT CAUSED THE PLAGUE

• Unusual planetary conjunction that released
  poisonous vapours
• According to the university of Paris
• Intellectual theory
• Idea that air and water infected
• God is angry because not religious or holy
  enough/ too sinful.
• Minorities accused of poisoning the wells
• Lepers (suffer from skin diease)
• Suspected witches
• Jews
• Most common scapegoats
• God angry because letting them live in Christian
  areas
• Spurred on by Flagellants (group of fanatics that
  went from town to town flogging themselves) who
  encouraged inhabitants to exterminate Jews as a
  way of ending Gods anger
• Massacred, slaughtered, burned
• 300 communities in Holy Roman Empire annihilated
• By 1351 350 separate massacred

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EFFECTS ON MEDIEVAL PSYCHE

• Doubting the Church
• Shook confidence in the Church
• Couldnt get Gods assistance for the people
• Even clergy dying of Plague
• Obsession with Death
• Physical death became closer, presence of sudden
  painful death
• Pessimism/preoccupation with death
• Leads to fascination with death because daily
  sight in the streets
• Elaborate funerals and single graves
• Mood of decay and death in art