What were the effects of the Black Death on Europe?
Following trade routes by land and sea, carried by infected humans as well as by rats and their attendant fleas, in the fourteenth century, the Black Death spread all over Europe at incredible speed. Where ever it hit the plague had tremendous repercussions. Its effects varied from the short to the long term as it caused massive breakdown both in the political and the social level.The immediate impact of the Black Death was general paralysis as cities closed their ports and markets. Trade ceased and the people were in state of shock. It is estimated that the European population declined by about one-third. As Henry Knighton writes in his account ĄThe Impact of the Black Death' "the living did not suffice to bury the dead". Consequently, there was a serious shortage of labour. In many cases those workers who remained alive could earn up to five times what they had earned before the plague.Serfdom was also affected. The nobles, over the centuries, had come to recognise that free tenants were more productive than
Whilst paintings where being invested in as a show of gratitude for being spared the plague, local panic also gave rise to many forms of extreme behaviour. Thus, serfs were allowed to buy their freedom. Many scholars claim that the Black Death resulted in the diminution of church control. Landlords tried to collect higher fees from tenant farmers as a way of increasing declining incomes. Conventional Christian practices offered no comfort to the threatened populations and extreme attitudes and mystic practices were adopted. One of the impacts of the Plague on Europe was the levelling of society. New industries arose to meet the demand. On the other hand, landlords and merchants were negatively affected. The Government tried to adjust to the social disruption caused by the plague. It was common to paint images of plague saints such as St Roch. The primary impact of the plague on painting and sculpture was the willingness of the newly rich to invest in religious art for churches and chapels. Land was abandoned, rents were not paid and tax revenues declined. It gave birth to the beginning of our own industrialized consumer society. The post-plague world was one of vastly increased opportunities for inventive and capable individuals.
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