The Black death

Made by Luna Bojadzi

The three great plagues

There have been three great world pandemics of plague recorded, in 541, 1347, and 1894 CE, each time causing
devastating mortality of people and animals across nations and continents. On more than one occasion plague
irrevocably changed the social and economic fabric of society.
The three great plague pandemics had different geographic origins and paths of spread. The Justinian Plague of
541 started in central Africa and spread to Egypt and the Mediterranean. The Black Death of 1347 originated in
Asia and spread to the Crimea then Europe and Russia. The third pandemic, that of 1894, originated in Yunnan,
China, and spread to Hong Kong and India, then to the rest of the world.
What is the Black Death?
The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic
occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human
history, causing the deaths of 75–200 million people, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351. Bubonic plague is caused by
the bacterium Yersinia pestis spread by fleas, but it can also take a secondary form where it is spread by
person-to-person contact via aerosols causing septicaemic or pneumonic plagues.The Black Death was the beginning of
the second plague pandemic. The plague created religious, social and economic upheavals, with profound effects on the
course of European history. The plague arrived in Europe in October 1347, when 12 ships from the Black Sea docked
at the Sicilian port of Messina. People gathered on the docks were met with a horrifying surprise: Most sailors aboard
the ships were dead, and those still alive were gravely ill and covered in black boils that oozed blood and pus. Sicilian
authorities hastily ordered the fleet of “death ships” out of the harbor, but it was too late: Over the next five years, the
Black Death would kill more than 20 million people in Europe—almost one-third of the continent’s population.
 How did the plague start?
Even before the “death ships” pulled into port at
Messina, many Europeans had heard rumors
about a “Great Pestilence” that was carving a
deadly path across the trade routes of the Near
and Far East. Indeed, in the early 1340s, the
disease had struck China, India, Persia, Syria and
Egypt.

The plague is thought to have originated in Asia

over 2,000 years ago and was likely spread
through trading ships, though recent research has
indicated the pathogen responsible for the Black
Death may have existed in Europe as early as
3000 B.C.
Symptoms
Europeans were scarcely equipped for the horrible reality of the
Black Death. “In men and women alike,” the Italian poet Giovanni
Boccaccio wrote, “at the beginning of the malady, certain
swellings, either on the groin or under the armpits…waxed to the
bigness of a common apple, others to the size of an egg, some
more and some less, and these the vulgar named plague-boils.”
Blood and pus seeped out of these strange swellings, which were
followed by a host of other unpleasant symptoms—fever, chills,
vomiting, diarrhea, terrible aches and pains—and then, in short
order, death. The Bubonic Plague attacks the lymphatic system,
causing swelling in the lymph nodes. If untreated, the infection
can spread to the blood or lungs.
 How did the plague spread?
Most evidence points to the Black Death being the main
bubonic strain of plague, spread far and wide by flea-ridden
rats on boats and fleas on the bodies and clothes of travellers.
In an age of growing maritime trade, food and goods were
carried ever longer distances from country to country, and the
rats and their bacteria traveled with them—at an estimated 24
miles a day. The unceasing flow of sea, river, and road traffic
between commercial centers spread the plague across huge
distances in what is known as a “metastatic leap.” Big
commercial cities were infected first, and from there the
plague radiated to nearby towns and villages, from where it
would spread into the countryside. The plague was also carried
down the well-trodden paths of medieval pilgrims; holy sites
became additional epicentres of regional, national, and
international propagation.