Running head: BLACK DEATH 1

The Impact of the Black Death

Tanya Cajas

HIS103: World Civilizations

Instructor:  Steven Peters

February 21, 2011

The Impact of the Black Death

From the point of view of developing a pest and control methods, the manifestation of the

plague in Europe historically known as "Black Death", “ fever " or  "Bubonic plague"

among other epithets, is a particular example of why a pest or plague can be developed and how

can it be controlled. In this specific case, the plague is used to expand from the general

conditions of a concrete reality, and disappears spontaneously when these conditions vary, these

circumstances promoted behavioral changes to encourage changes in behavior and domestic

actions of man, which in turn caused such a change of environment that disfavored the

transcendence of the plague, which has its ultimate manifestation in the Old Continent nearly

four hundred years after his arrival in Europe.

Some people consider this event as the worst of the epidemics that affected man in its

history. Although historically it has been established that the disease was bubonic plague acting

with pneumonic and septicemic variants, some researchers attribute the high mortality registered

to more than one disease, they base their statements and even in our times, by studying bones

from graves that in which tradition is known to have been buried victims of the plague , in some

cases there was no evidence of bubonic plague and its variants in one hand and in the other

hand traces of other diseases such as Anthrax were found. What is certain and beyond doubt is

that this epidemic ends with the third part of the population then, between 20 and 25 million

people.

Bubonic plague or Black Death, from China into Europe and through Italy by the year

1343, in a fleet of commercial Italian ships on the route of the Black Sea. The boats brought in

his crew infected individuals, and the rats that carried the disease. It is mentioned that even boats

were drifting with the entire crew dead.

This is a very rare acute infectious disease caused by the bacteria "pestis" and its

manifestation in the patient corresponds to the appearance of "bubo" in different parts of the

body. The word "bubo" which means groin (Dicc. Larousse: bubo inflammatory swelling of the

groin nodes. Synonym: gall). It's actually a zoonosis, that is a disease that affects some animals

and can be transmitted to humans. It is characterized by pus-filled bumps cause (buboes) in the

groin armpits, neck, etc., causing death within hours. This condition is typical of animals such as

rodents, some of which make biological interaction with a flea, which in turn transmitted from

rodents to man the organism causing the disease.

The Black Death shows three variants, the plague is characterized by the appearance of

buboes, the septicemic, which manifests with purple spots on the skin but without buboes,

without pus; and the pneumonic, which occurs when the organism reaches the lungs of the

infected person and then is transmitted through the air in the same way of the contiguous of the

common cold is transmitted.

When the Black Death strikes Europe, the continent was at a time of excessive economic

disruption resulting from a feudal system in a direct descent and with an economy in poor

condition resulting from frequent crop failures and a considerable overcrowding.

A decadent Middle Age, in which pessimism and irrationality prevailed in the thinking of

the individual to the different strata of society. For example, the bourgeoisie (the workforce)

lived in promiscuity, their houses had dirt floors and one room where everyone slept together,

including their animals, cooked and ate right there, in addition to all this, people at all levels had

lost the habit of bathing, and even the bathroom had come to be considered personal sinful.
BLACK DEATH 4

No one had any idea at the time, that rats (black rat) and fleas were loaded with

(Xenospsylla cheopis: oriental rat flea), and man who practically lived with them, could have

something to do with the disease .

Rattus rattus, black rat or roof rat

Although, taxonomy is not the issue, we must note that the Rattus rattus, black rat or roof rat is

not always black; its color varies from gray to black through blue and dark blue.

Doctors then lost credibility because of not being able to cure patients infected with the

plague, they also died after treating patients, some preferred not to address their responsibility.

People did not hold a wake for the death people, they did not even buried the bodies and they

fled, carrying the plague to other places. The priests did not impose the sacraments; the Church

gave freedom to do so, the church authorities cloistered.

It is a historic responsibility to mention that at the time of the plague, the Catholic

Church exercised a predominant influence on aspects inherent to human evolution, social,

economic and political, but could not provide satisfactory answers to the faithful fellows, which

was necessarily a turn against their authority and its faith, inherited from the Roman Empire to

convert and whose infrastructure and population controls, such as running water from the

aqueducts, the operation of the sewers, the work of collecting waste, operation of public toilets
BLACK DEATH 5

and restrictions on public power, had fallen in similitude to the hegemony of the Empire. The

continuous attacks from foreign invaders, with consequent introduction of their customs, ended

up setting different behavioral patterns, from the prevailing at that time in Europe, as although it

is interesting to mention, bathing or grooming daily.

"And there were many who died in the streets day or night, and others even die at home,

notifying their neighbors his death, with the smell of their bodies defiled." (The Decameron of

Boccaccio, Italy 1313-1375). This period have been recorded for posterity, literary works such

as Boccaccio's Decameron and Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, whose embodied in their work

the feel of society in those times.

The man of those times, in a necessary effort to avoid the plague, was concerned to

seek solutions for it. The first reaction to defense was obviously to stay away from the sick

person or put the sick away. This will place the "quarantine ", which provides healthcare process

forty days as time period of observation to determine the presence or absence of disease. The city

authorities established "quarantine stations, especially at the entrances of cities where travelers

wishing to enter had to wait 40 days for observation to see that he was not sick.

It also emphasizes the fact that there were places where the plague did not attack, then

blaming subsequently, and in some cases to the predominant blood type in the inhabitants of the

area. On the other hand in Milan where the plague did not develop, it is said that, the bishop at

that time, walled up walled up with the bodies inside the family home where the disease first

manifested.

Burning of Jews during the Black Death. 1349. The cause of the calamity was attributed

to evil forces and supernatural punishment from God. Death was around everywhere, killing
BLACK DEATH 6

without favoritisms, men, women, poor or rich, the lofty wanted to blame the social displaced,

specifically the lepers and other poor indigents.

Burning of Jews during the Black Death. 1349

In a certain moment the Jews were to blame for poisoning the waters and many were

burned in groups. The blame fell on the Jews, because the plague did not affected them , or were

less affected, this due to different cultural habits and hygiene practices, kept them in some way

outside the prevailing promiscuity.

The plague comes to Europe in 1343 sweeping the first ten years and remains endemic in

Europe for the next three centuries, this period in which the threatening ghost of the plague

hovered in the minds of the inhabitants of the civilized world and that would leave them marked

for the future.

The disease gradually disappeared, in 1670, an outbreak takes place in England called

"the great plague" and killed between 60,000 and 100,000 people. Later, Marseille records the

last manifestation of the disease in 1720.

After this latest manifestation, the disease disappeared from Europe without apparent

cause, subsequently understanding, that this was due to the emergence of a different view, with
BLACK DEATH 7

regard to hygiene and social behavior. The houses were divided into rooms, the kitchen was

removed from the home and concrete floor were placed, in that way, they reduced significantly

the unsanitary and overcrowded. Man began to worry about the cleanliness, both personal and

environmental.

At the same time, there was a gradual shift of the black rat for the Norway rat (Rattus

norvegicus) which invaded Europe from Asia central by Russian ships in the north. The Norway

rat is not only bigger and stronger than the black rat, but also the flea which parasitic the rat is

less efficient vector of the plague to man, that that infects the black rat.

It was not until 1894, during an outbreak of bubonic plague in China, the French-Swiss

bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin from the Pasteur Institute, who isolated the organism causing

the disease, Pasteurella pestis, in 1967 was renamed Yersinia pestis in honor of his discoverer .

Yersin discovered that this organism infects rats through a vector; the flea from the rat

(Xenospsylla cheopis), showed that the plague is a natural disease of rodents, being rats the

main reservoir of the disease. After being infected, most of the rats die, but a small percentage

manages to survive, remaining as a source of Y. pestis. The flea sucks blood from an infected

animal and ingests at the same time Y. pestis cells, which multiply in the gut of the flea, and are

transmitted to other rat or man at the next flea bite. This outbreak of bubonic plague in China,

according to later n investigation, it was caused by the use of the skin of squirrels on coats and

clothing, which transported the flea that causes the disease.

The example of how bubonic plague was monitored contains a great lesson for anyone

who embarks on the field of knowledge of domestic pest control. This specific case for the

actions of the rat shows how this took place at will, taking advantage of promiscuity,
BLACK DEATH 8

overcrowding and deplorable living conditions prevailing at the time, and it was able to control

throughout time, changing the conditions that favored development.

Men changed his bad habits, in general, gave importance to personal hygiene and their

home, and also to their personal growth, man changed his mind and evolved into the pursuit of

wisdom and development, constituting that time, the seeds of modern civilization progress .

We can point out that among the most historically significant consequences of bubonic

plague are, having laid the foundations of health or public health and have led to the birth of the

Protestant currents and religious freedom. Today, it is not common the manifestation of bubonic

plague, yet the World Health Organization, cites that annually produces between 1.000 and 3.000

cases worldwide and establish geographically parts of Africa, South America, Asia and U.S.

West, like territories with outbreaks of the disease.

References

Bentley, J., Ziegler, H., and Streets, H. (2008). Traditions and encounters: A brief global history

(3rd ed.). New York : McGraw Hill.

Twigg, G. The Black Death: A Biological Reappraisal. London: Batsford, 1983.

http://psi.mcgraw-hill.com/current/psi.php?editionId=35&view=CHAPTER&number=19

www.themiddleages.net/plague.html

www.deathreference.com

www.eyewitnesstohistory.com