Information AboutBlack Death |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT BLACK DEATH | |
| eurasian history | |
| history of asia | |
| early modern period | |
| history of the middle east | |
| late middle ages | |
| medical disasters | |
| pandemics | |
|
Bible (1411)]] The Black Death, or The '''Black Plague''', was one of the most deadly Pandemic s in human history. It began in South-western or Central Asia and spread to Europe by the late 1340s. The total number of deaths worldwide from the pandemic is estimated at 75 million people; there were an estimated 20 million deaths in Europe alone. The Black Death is estimated to have killed between a third and two-thirds of Europe's Population . Stéphane Barry and Norbert Gualde, "The Biggest Epidemics of History" (''La plus grande épidémie de l'histoire'', in '' L'Histoire '' n°310, June 2006, pp.45-46. Says "between one-third and two-thirds" Robert Gottfried (1983). "Black Death" in '' Dictionary Of The Middle Ages '', volume 2, pp.257-67. Says "between 25 and 45 percent". The same disease is thought to have returned to Europe every generation with varying degrees of intensity and fatality until the 1700s. Notable later outbreaks include the Italian Plague Of 1629-1631 , the Great Plague Of Seville (1647-1652), the Great Plague Of London (1665–1666), the Great Plague Of Vienna (1679), the Great Plague Of Marseille in 1720–1722 and the 1771 Plague In Moscow . There is some controversy over the identity of the disease, but in its virulent form it seems to have disappeared from Europe in the eighteenth century. The Black Death had a drastic effect on Europe's population, irrevocably changing Europe's social structure. It was a serious blow to the Roman Catholic Church , Europe's predominant religious institution at the time, and resulted in widespread persecution of minorities such as Jews , Muslims , foreigners, beggars and Lepers . The uncertainty of daily survival created a general mood of Morbidity influencing people to "live for the moment", as illustrated by Giovanni Boccaccio in '' The Decameron '' (1353). ''' THE GREAT MORTALITY Medieval people called the fourteenth century catastrophe either the "Great Pestilence," the "Great Death," or the "Great Plague." Judith M. Bennett and C. Warren Hollister, ''Medieval Europe: A Short History'' (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006), 327. Contemporary writers then referred to the event as the "Great Mortality" and in 1833, the term "Black Death" was introduced for the first time. Ibid. It has been popularly thought that the name came from a striking late stage sign of the disease, in which the sufferers' skin would blacken due to subepidermal haemorrhages ( Purpura ), and extremities darken with gangrene ( Acral Necrosis ). However, the term most likely refers to the figurative sense of "black" (glum, lugubrious or dreadful).Stéphane Barry and Norbert Gualde, "The Biggest Epidemics of History" (''La plus grande épidémie de l'histoire'', in '' L'Histoire '' n°310, June 2006, pp.38 (article from pp.38 to 49, the whole issue is dedicated to the Black Plague, pp.38-60) |
|
|