HST 1100 Lecture 12: Module 12: The Black Death
The Black Death
Disease Factors – Connectivity & the Great Famine (1314-1315)
The Mongols – centralization and emissaries
o Lead to more people able to travel allowing disease to spread
o Centralized their empire and allowed travel from china to Europe
Medieval warm period – 9th to late 13th centuries
o Higher than average temperatures and longer growing seasons
o Temperate weather lead to prosperity and demographic growth
Medieval Cooling Period – “Little Ice Age”
o From 1250-1500
o Cool temperatures and changes in weather
▪ Harder to grow crops and longer winters
o Early 1300s – bad European weather, lots of rain
Famine 1314-1315 – large rainfalls and low temps
o Grain could not ripen – bad harvests and food shortage
o Lack of nutrition hurt future generations
o Wet rye got mold and lead to disease – ergot
The Black Death
Began in China
o Bacteria – y pestis/bubonic plague
o Moved through China and Caffa with trade and trade routes
▪ Mongol army brought it to caffa
o Messina – boats of death – 1347
▪ Had infected rats and fleas on them
o Spread into Italy, then France and Germany
▪ Mediterranean ports
By 1351 plague had spread to Moscow
o Genoa and Pisa hit hard and much of Southern France
Variable severity over Europe
o England hit hard
Plague flairs up again in 1360s, 70s, and 90s
Symptoms, Theories, and Effect
Bubonic Plague – likely most common in Middle Ages
o Rats carry it, fleas spread it
▪ Causes fleas to be ravenous and bite people
o Chills, fever, diarrhea, nausea, headache
▪ Within 3-8 days
o Swelling of the lymph nodes (buboes)
▪ Ooze pus and blood
o 30-70% fatal if untreated by modern medicine
Pneumonic plague – less common but more virulent
o Similar cold like symptoms, effluence of sputum from lungs
o 90-95% fatal if not treated
o Possible both were part of the black death
Death toll estimated 25 million – 1/3 of the population – Jean Froissart found this statistic
o Some places 2/3 of the population, others 1/8
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▪ mostly towns
o All levels of society were hit
▪ In 1400 UK ½ population it did in the 1300s
Social and Economic Impact
Momentary cessation of wars and trade slump
o People flee to the country side and trade slows
o Conflicts take a break because no one can fight
Drastic reduction in cultivation of land
o More land in fewer hands – food prices very high
o Landlords forced to make concessions to their peasants
▪ Peasant life actually improves
▪ Lower rents
Artisans in short supply – wages much higher
o Increase in merchant prosperity and social mobility
o Journeymen get higher wages
o Women can enter workforce because of the low supply of labor
Outbreak of anti-Semitism
o Explanation of plague is that the Jews are responsible for the plague
o Pogroms, organized massacres of Jews and blood libel
Peasant revolts
o The Jacquerie, France in 1358
▪ Dissatisfied by armies and wars
▪ Try to burn castles and kill lords
▪ Lords ban together and suppress them.
o English Peasant Revolt, 1381
▪ Prominent peasants gather together resenting the nobility
▪ Communist revolt
▪ Tax abolished and rebels pardoned
Cultural Effects
European culture takes a morbid new turn
o “Dance of Death” or Dance Macabre
o Futility of physical world and that all people die, and the frailty of the body
o Death often personified – the grim reaper
▪ Often next to living young people
Dies Irae – Latin poem by Thomas of Celano (13th century)
o Popular after the plague
o The day of judgment, end of the world, but also redemption and reunification with
dead loved ones
Escapist literature began – the Decameron
o By Giovanni Boccaccio – 100 stories of love, tragedy, heroics, virtue, and comedy
o An attempt to keep one’s mind off the plague
Popular Religion – increase of lay piety
o Ars Moriendi – the art of dying and proper death
▪ Skulls as reminders that people will die
o Flagellants: attacked the Jews
▪ Radical religions
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Disease factors connectivity & the great famine (1314-1315) The mongols centralization and emissaries: lead to more people able to travel allowing disease to spread, centralized their empire and allowed travel from china to europe. Medieval warm period 9th to late 13th centuries: higher than average temperatures and longer growing seasons, temperate weather lead to prosperity and demographic growth. Medieval cooling period little ice age : from 1250-1500, cool temperatures and changes in weather, harder to grow crops and longer winters, early 1300s bad european weather, lots of rain. Famine 1314-1315 large rainfalls and low temps: grain could not ripen bad harvests and food shortage, lack of nutrition hurt future generations, wet rye got mold and lead to disease ergot. By 1351 plague had spread to moscow: genoa and pisa hit hard and much of southern france. Variable severity over europe: england hit hard. Plague flairs up again in 1360s, 70s, and 90s.
