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    The Black Death

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    Nick Liu
    The Black Death arrived in Europe in 1347 through infected sailors in Genoa, Italy. It spread rapidly across Europe, killing around 20 million people. Symptoms included black boils filled with blood and pus. The plague was caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium carried by fleas on rats. Medieval Europeans had no effective treatments and responded with panic, blaming Jews and other religious groups. Modern science and medicine help prevent such devastating pandemics today.

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    The Black Death

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    Nick Liu
    23 views1 page
    The Black Death arrived in Europe in 1347 through infected sailors in Genoa, Italy. It spread rapidly across Europe, killing around 20 million people. Symptoms included black boils filled with blood and pus. The plague was caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium carried by fleas on rats. Medieval Europeans had no effective treatments and responded with panic, blaming Jews and other religious groups. Modern science and medicine help prevent such devastating pandemics today.

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    The Black Death arrived in Europe in 1347 through infected sailors in Genoa, Italy. It spread rapidly across Europe, killing around 20 million people. Symptoms included black boils filled with blood and pus. The plague was caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium carried by fleas on rats. Medieval Europeans had no effective treatments and responded with panic, blaming Jews and other religious groups. Modern science and medicine help prevent such devastating pandemics today.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    23 views1 page

    The Black Death

    Uploaded by

    Nick Liu
    The Black Death arrived in Europe in 1347 through infected sailors in Genoa, Italy. It spread rapidly across Europe, killing around 20 million people. Symptoms included black boils filled with blood and pus. The plague was caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium carried by fleas on rats. Medieval Europeans had no effective treatments and responded with panic, blaming Jews and other religious groups. Modern science and medicine help prevent such devastating pandemics today.

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    Nick Liu World History AP Extra Credit Period 7

    The Black Death

    The Black Death was a disease that arrived in Europe in October 1347. 12
    Genoese arrived at the Sicilian port of Messina after a long journey though the Black Sea.
    Many people gathered at the docks to greet the sailors with a warm welcome. What
    awaited them was a horrifying shock. The sailors on board the ship were mostly dead,
    and the few scarce survivors were overcome with great illness. The crew was overrun by
    fever and delirious pain. But the most gruesome sight of it all was the strange black boils
    that were present on each individual, oozing out blood and pus. These boils defined this
    epidemic that was about to sweep across Europe, killing 20 million people, The Black
    Death.
    The Black Death was present even before these ships came into Europe.
    Europeans have heard about a “Great Pestilence” roaming across trade routes. The
    disease struck China, India, Persia, Syria and Egypt. The Europeans were not equipped to
    deal with the horrifying reality of The Black Death. Symptoms of The Black Death start
    with the victim’s armpits or groin area swelling to the size of an egg or apple. From these
    areas, pus and blood would ooze out. Symptoms of diarrhea, fever, chill, vomiting, and
    finally death was to be followed by the strange swelling. The disease was thought to be
    able to be transmitted simply by touching a carriers clothing, and it was thought to be
    devastatingly effective; someone healthy and alive when they went to sleep may be found
    dead the next morning.
    Modern scientists have identified the plague spreading bacillus as the Yersina
    pestis. They now know that they bacillus travels from one host to another by air and
    animal bites. The spreading of the disease itself was a masterpiece. The disease is most
    likely to originate from on board a ship in where rats and other bugs are present. When
    the Genoese crew got sick, they landed on Messina, spreading the disease into a port
    town. From that port, other traders pick up the disease and it is soon spread into the
    French city of Marseilles, and then into Tunis of North Africa. Before long, it had
    reached Rome and Florence, two cities webbed into the center of almost all the important
    trade routes. Therefore effectively starting nationwide pandemic.
    Of course, without the technology of modern day, the people of medieval Europe
    exhibited primeval attempts to treat the pandemic. Bloodletting, or the letting of blood
    from a humans body was a prime example of treatment. The belief was that the human’s
    body had a balance of different liquids. Any excess and the body will result in sickness.
    The letting of blood was not only dangerous and foolish, it also contributed to the spread
    of even more disease. Another theory was that God was punishing the people for their
    sins and crimes. Some coped by revering within themselves and worrying about the
    nature of their souls. Others lashed out at neighbors and formed great religious mobs.
    Thousands of Jews were killed or exiled from cities in belief of blasphemy.
    Thanks to modern day technology, research, and beliefs, our population should
    stay stable and safe. That is, unless a new strain of a super-virus comes along.

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