HM-302 B

THE BLACK DEATH AND EUROPE

AUTHOR:
RAIHAN AHMED
BS MECHANICAL
ENGINEERING, SCHOOL OF
ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITY
OF MANAGEMENT AND
TECHNOLOGY.
 TABLE OF CONTENT

TOPIC PAGE NO.

1 ABSTRACT_____________________________________________________2
2 INTRODUCTION________________________________________________2
3 LIFE AFTER THE BLACK DEATH________________________________3
• SOCIO-ECONOMIC EFFECT___________________________________3
• EFFECT IN THE FIELD OF MEDICNE__________________________4
• EFFECT ON RELIGIOUS BELIEVES____________________________4
• WOMEN RIGHTS_____________________________________________4
• EFFECT ON ART AND ARCHITECHURE_______________________5
4 CONCLUSION__________________________________________________5
5 REFERENCES__________________________________________________6

1
1. ABSTRACT
The history remembers black plaque as the largest demographic disaster, wiping out around
40-50% of Europe’s population from its first arrival in Italy around late 1347 and steadily
spread across the continent and lasting till 1353. The plaque not only caused human loss but
also bought morbid symptoms on social, and economic condition of the people who survived
the pandemic. Even though the research and study does grow our understanding of the Black
Death effect’s, a conclusive deduction of its role as a historical watershed remains a door to
unlock. The literature focuses on the aftermath the Black plaque had on people life and
mainly economic and social life, development in the field of medication and how a pandemic
can alter religious believes, the paper also focuses on post pandemic women rights arts and
literature.

Keywords: black plaque, history Europe, pandemic, social, economic, women rights, art and
literature.

2. INTRODUCTION
A plaque is described as an infectious disease which spreads rapidly and causing high fatality
rate due to no treatment. The black plaque was the biggest pandemic the world had ever
survived and till this day people couldn’t find the actual reason behind it. The plaque
originally propagated in central Asia and spread westward through the major trade routes.
Once reaching the eastern meditation sea the disease gained its excess to Italy, France and
Greece and later to all over Europe using the sea traffic and trade [1]. It was the considered
the first attack of the medieval plaque in Europe claiming thousands of lives in the first round
and a total estimate of 30 to 50 percent of total population [2],[3],[4]. Previous research
conducted by bioarcheologist using bodies extracted from East Smithfield Black death
cemetery located in London, to find weather that the virus killed indiscriminately, the results
came back that indeed the virus did affect certain group of people more than others [5],[6].
Adults in particular were more affected than others also the skeletal study revealed people of
all ages who had poor health or poor living were more affected altogether [7],[8]. So Even
though the black death had a really high death toll it too was a selective killer. In terms of
Geographically some of the cities and regions did managed to remain virus free but most of
England, France, Italy and Spain took a severe hit. The disease came back after every six
years and affected the people for a maximum of twelve months, even though these later
outbreaks had a relatively low casualties they did caused a psychological change in the
society. The disease that shattered the Europe was a combination of three types of plaque:
bubonic, pneumonic and septicemic [9]. The viruses originated from a yersinia pestis which
uses flea as its transmitter [10], among the three the bubonic was the least deadly with
mortality between 50 to 60 percent. Symptoms included fever, inflammation red marks on
body and later flu symptoms causing cardiac issue, sudden shiver. The lymph node at the bite
mark will swell with puss and blood. Other symptoms the researches could record are
diarrhea, vomiting nausea, dehydration and body ache [11],[12],[13]. The patient were found
of psychological changes such as raving, slurred speech and eventually cardiac arrest causing
death[14].

2
 Figure 2: patient with bubonic plaque Figure 1: patient with bubonic plaque

The pneumonic plague was transmitted from one person to another and caused lungs failure
by the bubonic plaque affecting the lungs. The symptoms appeared only two to three days of
contraction, the symptoms were paled skin, sever cough and patients neurological system
was compromised causing death as the morality rate at that time was some where near
100%[15]. The third type of virus was and is know as septicemic plaque but it is considered
to have a huge role in black death as the cases were fewer. The symptoms were rather hidden
a person affected might live a healthy life and die in a day or two [16].

3. LIFE AFTER THE BLACK DEATH.

Before the plaque hit the Europe, the caste system along with feudal system divided the
population on socio-economic levels with the king at the top and the peasants at the bottom
of the line. The medical development was largely based on the past works of the physicians
with no further development and research. The churches were hold holier that all other
authorities and all spiritual matters were answered from there. Women were considered as a
lower-classed citizen answerable to their men. The art and literature were a form to express
the believes of the people in a compassion to please the God who answered and blessed them
[17].The people at that that time had a way of living and how to live but little did they knew
that it was about to change not only at socio-economic level but to redefine their believes
their culture and their lifestyle.

• SOCIO-ECONOMIC EFFECTS
The great plaque invented the word quarantine, at the time the plaque spread the sailors
were ordered to stay in their ships for fourth days known in venetian law as quarantino to
prove that they are not sick which gave the word quarantine and introduced the concept of
social distancing. Later in 1500 England introduced a new law to separate and isolate the
sick and affected homes were marked, this gave the concept mass graves[18].
The King was supposed to be the owner of all his land in his kingdom. Which he allotted to
his nobles called Lords. The Lords were considered the King’s friends, relatives or someone

3
 who benefited him any form. The Lord used peasants to work on their land and whatever
earned was splatted between the nobles and the king the peasants weren’t paid but only
provided with food and shelter. At that time the Europe was over populated and there were
no shortage of labor and the peasants were forced to work under bondage. The plaque
whipped half of the population and the most affected were the peasants. Those who survived
now were on a better position to negotiate and to improve their living standards as the Lords
had no one to work on their land meaning they could not feed their family that also affected
what the king and the churches got from the earning of the lands. In a failed attempt to get
back the lower class to being peasant sparked a revolt in 1378C.E known as the Peasant’s
revolt in London and France as well which later shatter the feudal system for good[19].

• EFFECT IN THE FILED OF MEDICNE

The European Medical knowledge was based on the work of Roman physicians Galen and
Hippocrates and also of Aristotle since their work was dated and mostly in Arabic literature
the copies and translations were not accurate. Their way of practice was failed during the
Plaque as the physicians treating the patients got most affected and their prescription did not
do anything. Their treatments were failing and recovery and death couldn’t prove ant reason
at all. After the plaque the doctors revisited their practice and started to adapting to current
circumstances. Also, the plaque took life of a lot of therians’ who translated the older work
which forced them to write their work from beginning refining it along the way. The
concept of medical centers which is observed today was introduced to provide cleanliness
and attention to patient.

• EFFECT ON RELIGIOUS BELIEVES

The plaque affected the people without discrimination and mostly the people with strong
believes were from lower income. The church authority was challenged as the Faris, the
Priest the nuns and monks were equally affected by the virus and the religious practices and
the charms and amulets peoples purchased did not protected them from getting infected. The
church attributed the plaque to supernatural such as Jewish bewitchment and the people who
died were character assassination. This made people realize the extravagant lifestyle of
many clergy and scandals within the church surfaced which made the church authority
skeptic and challenged the authority [20].

• WOMEN RIGHTS
Before the black plaque the women had fewer to no rights form religious authority both the
medieval church and the aristocrats considered women as lower class, they could work as
barmaid, baker, milkmaid or as a labor with her family. The Lord would decide the girl’s
marriage and later the husband would have direct control over her. The church asserted
women as daughters of Eve who bought Sins to the world. After the plaque most of the
population died leaving the properties and business to the surviving women these women
started to run their own land and business and took decision for themselves also the cult of

4
 the Virgin Mary who regarded women as the mother of Jesus helped them to gain more
rights in the society than beforehand[21].

• EFFECT ON ART AND ARCHITECHURE

After the plaque the Meditation art had more pronounced feature of accepting death as a
certainty. The most famous work of era the Dance of Death claiming that all walk of life is
invited by death. The art did not reference the black death direct but later historians pointed
out symbolism [21]. Since the cause of the plaque was rats the painting the rats are never
specified in plaque art. Also, they considered it as unholy trinity that caused the outbreak of
plaque [22].

Figure 3: The dance of death (Danse Macabre)

The architecture was influenced by the fact that the labor or the peasants were not the
oppressed anymore, this in turn increased construction cost and the architectures shifted
toward more sustainable method of development and cost-effective housing. The historians
also mention a melancholy of time and death in the design as well.

4. CONCLUSION
The plaque not only improved the wages of the peasants and assured a better lifestyle for
them not the engrossment with the death in architectures, it did came with adverse effect as
well. The rapid reduction in population means that less cultivation was required and most of
the land were left uncultivated left to rot. This caused financial loss to the Kings and to the
state as well. To stop the spread of the virus the imports were stopped which also affected the
economic condition and hardship. The acceptance of the fact that death is inevitable made the
whole Europe think what they were living for and what they value the most, this lead to
reforms such as end of cast system, the feudal reforms also reforms in farming as people
shifted from large scale grain farming to livestock farming as well. These reforms improved
the wage system in rural and in urban areas and other geo-political and economic rejuvenated
the structure of the European Society which most scholars believe is the reason behind
Europe’s success as a whole and no other outbreak in the future might teach the same again.

5
5. REFERENCES

[1]. Int. J. Hyg. Environ. Health 207 (2004); 165 – 178

[2]. Poos LR (1991) A rural society after the Black Death: Essex, 1350–1525. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
[3]. Cohn SK (2002) The Black Death transformed: disease and culture in early Renaissance
Europe. London: Arnold.
[4]. Wood JW, Ferrell RJ, DeWitte-Avina SN (2003) The temporal dynamics of the fourteenth-
century Black Death: New evidence from English ecclesiastical records. Human Biology 75:
427–448
[5]. Twigg G (1984) The Black Death: a biological reappraisal. London: Batsford Academic and
Educational.
[6]. Academic and Educational. 5. Hinde A (2003) England’s population: a history since the
domesday survey. London: Hodder & Arnold
[7]. DeWitte S, Hughes-Morey G (2012) Stature and frailty during the Black Death: the effect of
stature on risks of epidemic mortality in London, A.D. 1348-1350. J Archaeol Sci 39: 1412–
1419.
[8]. DeWitte SN (2010) Age patterns of mortality during the Black Death in London, A.D. 1349-
1350. J Archaeol Sci 37: 3394–3400.
[9]. Brossollet, J. “L’influence de la Peste du Moyen-Age sur le Thème de la Danse Macabre.”
Pagine di Storia della Medicina, Vol. 13 (1969): 38-46.
[10]. Cohen, Kathleen. Metamorphosis of a Death Symbol: The Transi Tomb in the Late
Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of
California Press, 1973.
[11]. Cohn, Samuel K., Jr. The Cult of Remembrance and the Black Death: Six Renaissance
Cities in Central Italy. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 199
[12]. Constantini, Frederique-Anne. “Les Artistes de la Chaise-Dieu (1344-1352) d’apres
l’Etude de la Compatabilité Pontificale.” Revue de l’Art, No. 110 (Jan., 1995): 44-55.
[13]. Coulton, G.G. The Black Death. London: Ernest Benn Ltd., 1929.
[14]. Crosby, Alfred W. America’s Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918. 2nd ed.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
[15]. Dodgson, Campbell. “The Invention of Wood-Engraving: A French Claim Considered.”
Burlington Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 8 (Nov., 1903): 205-209.
[16]. Eichberger, Dagmar. “Close Encounters with Death: Changing Representations of
Women in Renaissance Art and Literature.” Ch. 13, in Reading Texts and Images: Essays on
Medieval and Renaissance Art and Patronage in Honour of Margaret M. Manion (Exeter, UK:
University of Exeter Press, 2002): 273-296.
[17]. Williams, J. E.: Warning on a new potential for laboratory-acquired infections as a result
of the new nomenclature for the plague bacillus. Bull. World Health Organ. 61; 545 ± 548
(1983).
[18]. https://www.history.com/news/pandemics-end-plague-cholera-black-death-
smallpox
[19]. https://www.ancient.eu/article/1543/effects-of-the-black-death-on-europe/

6
[20]. 7. Kacki S, Rahalison L, Rajerison M, Ferroglio E, Bianucci R (2011) Black Death in the
rural cemetery of Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse Aude-Languedoc, southern France, 14th
century: immunological evidence. J Archaeol Sci 38: 581–587.
[21]. Munro JH (2004) Before and after the Black Death: money, prices, and wages in
fourteenth-century England. In: New Approaches to the History of Late Medieval and Early
Modern Europe: Selected Proceedings of Two International Conferences at The Royal Danish
Academy of Sciences and Letters in Copenhagen, Historisk-filosofiske Meddelser, Vol. 104,
(February 2009): pp. 335–364.
[22]. https://www.ancient.eu/books/B00E32QJBU/