Bubonic Plague
The Bubonic Plague: What Did it Really Accomplish? Imagine a disease so deadly that every one out of three people in the United States would die. A disease so tragic that it would change the course of history forever. The Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death, was one of these diseases. The Bubonic Plague arrived in the 14th century wiping out one-third of Europe as it came ("Bubonic. . . Europe"). However, there are many aspects of the Bubonic Plague that created lasting changes throughout Europe. Aspects such as the social class system, the church, colonization of other lands and the Renaissance were all directly affected by the plague. The Bubonic Plague, or Black Death, was given these names because of the symptoms of the disease. The plague caused swollen lymph glands called buboes. These buboes were first found in the groin area which is called boubon in Latin. It was called plague because of the widespread killing that it caused. "Bubonic Plague was also known as the "Black Death" in Medieval times. This is because the dried blood under the skin turns black" ("Breakthroughs"). "Bubonic Plague is caused by the infectious agent Yersinia Pestis bacteria"(Koerner 2) which caused the blood vessels
The disease is then called the pneumonic plague. There was not a person living who did not have a family member who died. "On a winter night, this man would shut himself up in his cell and stripped himself naked and his scourge with the sharp spikes, and beat himself on the body and on the arms and legs, till blood poured off him as from a man who had been bled. It was not just the fact that so many people died in Europe, but that because of the deaths of so many people, attitudes toward life in general changed. There were many people who did not have jobs and were starving. "Artists and craftsmen, rather than concerning themselves with the afterlife, concerned themselves with the present life"("Art"). The lower class was mostly slaves and serfs, most of whom were starving in the streets. The arrival of the plague wiped out the Greenland settlement and the thought of colonizing North America was forgotten until many years later ("England During the Plague"). The flagellants "thought they could escape the plague if they rid themselves of sin, and some believed that the best way to do this was to beat themselves. It left a desire for a change for the better. However, when one-third of the population was killed, the number of people who could work was decreased. The victim also had 104 degree temperature, illness, disorientation, vomiting, muscular pain, an intolerance to light, pain in the back and limbs, a white coating on the tongue, and dried blood turned black. One skeleton dances happily with a young girl, while another holds a baby and nurses it.
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