The Black Death reaches Europe (1347- 1353)

The Black Death was one of the most horrifying catastrophes ever occurred in human history. It consisted of a plague cause by rat’s fleas. Once you were contaminated you would get big tumors on your neck, armpit or groin, they could reach up to the size of an egg. You would also start spitting blood and get a lot of black dots on your skin. These rats were on ships, so they were easily transported from country to country and infect everyone it reached quickly. By 1348, this plague had already reached France, Italy and Spain (notice that other countries were being severely affected as well). Now Europe was in danger and everyone feared. Many said that God was punishing them, but Christians blamed it on the Jews. They claimed Jews had poisoned the world and a huge amount of Jews were slaughtered. One out of three people died and this affected Europe economically a lot.

Since a lot of people died, less people worked in their jobs. There wasn’t enough production and the rise of prices broke out tremendously. Landowners sought cheaper ways of production such as raising sheep instead of harvesting crops. They also lowered the wages to save money in the harsh economy. This caused a lot of social unrest. In conclusion the Black Death, didn't only kill people, but it upset the social harmony.

- Do you think it was fair for the landowners to lower the wages of their workers?
- How do you think people felt when they felt this plague taking them over?

http://www.insecta-inspecta.com/fleas/bdeath/Europe.html
http://www.boisestate.edu/courses/westciv/plague/16.shtml
World History Book!

The Black Death sounds horrible. No one should've been blamed for this time though, especially since they killed Jews. I think that it wasn't fair for the people who got their payments down, but the owners had no choice since there were more people were dying and there were less people to work.

Land owner's were too mean, they had to play people more instead of less. People should not blame Jews, they did not have anything to do with this! This sickness was horrible. People thought it was a punishment from God..

I believe that the black death was not "one" of the most plesurable expiriences a person could of had bad then. However i find it pretty wierd that it is always the Jew that are killed and are tortured. Why is that? Anyway I assume that the black death was a very dificault time because most of the population in europe died and it made it decline.

I think that it was alright for the land owners to make the saleries cheaper because anyway everything went lower in price due to this illness.

Nice post.