HST 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Internal Bleeding, Black Death
Document Summary
Hst 111 september 2, 2015 - the plague in mid-14th century europe. Before: 12th and 13th century great days . led to crisis in 14th century. Population grew too quickly, couldn"t be supported by agriculture. Harvest failed after land couldn"t keep up with population growth. There were rumors since 1346 of a great disease in asia. People didn"t believe the disease could be so great. 5 massive famines in italy over 10 years: people were weak, starved. Black rats carried diseases during shipments from nations. Looked at weather patterns during this plague period and it was found that black rats couldn"t flourish in the conditions where the plague broke out in europe. So what is the alternative theory: gerbils, man. Lets just go ahead & say it was a combination of rats/gerbils and the fleas that were on them. In places such a sienna and sicily over 50% of the population died.
