It's Effect on European Civilization
             It's Effect on European Civilization
             "The Black Death" known as the Bubonic Plague was one of the world's worst natural disasters in history and as a fatal epidemic disease it radically altered all aspects of European Civilization in the Middle Ages (Twigg, 1985).
             In this paper we will discuss brief knowledge of the Bubonic Plague, European life before the plague, and European life during its influx, in contrast to the economic, religious, and cultural effects that the plague positioned on European Civilization.
             The Bubonic Plague
             The Bubonic Plague is a contagious, fatal epidemic disease that is caused by Pasturella Petis (Cartwright, 1991). Pasturella Petis is a bacterium that lives as a parasite within the bodies of rats and is then transmitted by the fleas that live upon the rats (Cartwright, 1991).
             The Bubonic Plague originated in Central Asia, where it killed nearly 25 million people. The first recorded case of the "Black Death" was in China in B.C. 224 (Cartwright, 1991). China was one of the busiest of the world's trading nations and it was only a matter of time before the outbreak of "the Black Death" in China rapidly spreaded throughout the rest of China and into the Crimea along established trade routes. Loaded with goods the Europeans wanted "the Black Death" struck big merchant ships loading and docking off ports within the trading routes. Not knowing the infected rats with it's fleas had loaded the ships, by the time the ships reached their destined port many sailors were dead, the infected rats with it's infected fleas, common ship stowaways had infected the whole crew. The sight of such frightened many town greeters, whom waited at the ports for ships to come. It caused many towns to turn ships away in hopes to contain the disease, but the ...