on "The Black Death" by Philip Ziegler
In the 1340's, approximately one third to one half the population of Europe was wiped out by what was called "The Black Death". The people of the time were armed with little to no understanding of why and how the plague happened and how to control it; and this allowed for the vast destruction that occurred in little more than three years time. The origin of the epidemic has, with little doubt, been identified as Lake Issyk-Koul in what is now a part of Russian Central Asia. A flood, or some other natural disaster, drove various rodents from their habitats around the lake; and with them they carried fleas infected with the plague. A species of wild rodents normally isolated from humanity spread the plague to the more common black rat, which has been riding on board ships since man first set sail. The plague then followed the trade routes all over Europe. "Ships arrived from Caffa at the port of Messina, Sicily. A few dying men clung to the oars; the rest lay dead on the dec!ks... Ships that carried the coveted goods of the fabled East now also carried death. The Pestilence had come to the shores of Europe" (Wark).The accounts of the plague tell of the symptoms being 'tumors in the groin or the armpits' and 'black livid spot
You should know that all the Jews living in this area have been burnt by due legal process. For all their self-sacrifice, the Flagellants are still to be abhorred, as they eagerly sought to make a sacrifice out of another, unwilling group, the Jews. He confessed, moreover, that the rabbi gave him two bags, each the size of an egg, with two letters that he was to deliver to two Jews, telling them to put the poison into the springs. "It was said that the cause of the Pestilence or The Great Mortality -- 14th-century names for the contagion -- was a particularly sinister alignment of the planets, or a foul wind created by recent earthquakes. Once one contracted the plague, death was only a question of time. Some, more rural areas escaped with only light casualties, while most of the cities had suffered quite horribly. They remained inactive, almost vegetative, holed up in their homes; if one had to move, he ought to move slowly. They maintained that an infallible way of warding off this appalling evil was to drink heavily, enjoy life to the full, go around singing and merrymaking, gratify all of one's cravings whenever the opportunity offered, and shrug the whole thing off as one enormous joke. In the wake of the mass destruction the plague left behind, with cities littered with dead, and buildings left unfinished by men long since buried, recovery must have seemed impossible. The Jew, put briefly to the question, after a long interval confessed, in the presence of many credibl!e witnesses, that a good 14 weeks ago a rabbi met him near his house and handed him a quantity of poison about as big as a fist in a piece of net. The effects of the plague went far beyond the obvious death toll, into the souls of men and women. Still, some people took a different view of the situation.
Common topics in this essay:
Decameron Wark,
Pestilence Mortality,
Black Death,
Central Asia,
Europe Wark,
Messina Sicily,
,
History Vol,
Europe Ships,
black death,
Communications Inc,
plague run,
bubonic plague,
typical symptoms,
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Acceptance Essays
