Transcript THE BLACK DEATH

THE BLACK
DEATH
THE PLAGUE IN MEDIEVAL
EUROPE
THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM
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A period of prosperity 1000-1250
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Population growth:
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25 million (10th c.) to 75 million (mid 13th c.)
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Favourable weather
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Agricultural and technological innovations
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New crops
3 field planting
A new harness for horses
Food surplus
Political stability
The problem by 1300 = overpopulation
CRISES PRIOR TO THE BLACK
DEATH
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Environmental shift 1200- 1350
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Financial and Economic changes
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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)
Closing trade routes to the East
Banking crisis in Italy
European Conflicts
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Italians and Germans
Peasants rebellions
Hundred Years War
Results of crises
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Europeans in 14th c. were:
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Starving
Without financial means to support themselves
Constantly facing threats of armed conflicts
They are now VERY VULNERABLE!!!
THE BLACK DEATH 1347-1351
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Killed ¼ to 1/3 of Europe’s population
Entry into Europe through the East and the Mediterranean
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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
THREE TYPES OF PLAGUE
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2.
3.
BUBONIC
PNEUMONIC
SEPTICAEMIC
1- Bubonic Plague
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most common
Six day incubation period
Transmitted by fleas: Y-pestis bacilli found in their
digestive tract
Symptoms:
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Blackish pustule at bite
enlargements of the lymph nodes in armpits, groin or neck
Purplish blotches called buboes
60 % of victims died
PNEUMONIC
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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
SEPTICAEMIC
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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
EPIDEMIC AND PANDEMIC
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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).
LABOURERS VS LANDOWNERS
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Pre-plague: Europe’s 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?
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Government and land extensive
What responses will the workers have to reduce their wages back to pre-Black Death
wages?
LUXURIES
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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?
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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?
SOCIOECONOMIC EFFECTS OF THE
BLACK DEATH
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Fewer workers = more jobs = higher pay
More buying of luxuries:
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Less people in families to share inheritance
People scared could die at any time
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”
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
1.
Unusual planetary conjunction that released poisonous vapours
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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
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Lepers (suffer from skin diease)
Suspected witches
Jews
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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 God’s
anger
Massacred, slaughtered, burned
300 communities in Holy Roman Empire annihilated
By 1351: 350 separate massacred
EFFECTS ON MEDIEVAL PSYCHE
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Doubting the Church
► Shook confidence in the Church
► Couldn’t get God’s assistance for the people
► Even clergy dying of Plague
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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