Monumental Historical Turning Point: The Black Death Of The 14th Century
587 Words3 Pages
Monumental Historical Turning Point – The Black Death of the 14th Century (Europe and England) The plague that would kill an estimated 75 million arrived on trading ships docked at a Sicilian port in October of 1347. The Genoese merchants had navigated through the Black Sea before docking near Messina with perplexing black boils all over their skin along with other painful symptoms (The Black Death 3). These black boils spread vastly over the next five years from person to person, causing The Black Death to gain its name (The Black Death 2). The Black Death of the 14th Century was a monumental historical turning point in Europe, England and the rest of the world. It profoundly changed late medieval society, in terms of economies, social structures and culture.…show more content… Merchant ships housed rats ridden with fleas that carried the disease which exterminated almost one-third of Europe’s population (Cantor 24). The spread of a bacillus called Yersina pestis gave Europeans the type of Bubonic Plague that caused the Black Death (Scott and Duncan 11). Firstly, the disease was transmitted by the bite of an infected flea hopping from person to person but could rarely evolve into an airborne version of the disease that infiltrates the lungs via airborne water particles from coughs and sneezes (Cantor 28). The pneumonic plague was also a problem in 14th century Europe and was spread by the same bacillus, yet it affected the respiratory system opposed to the common bubonic plague that was found ailing the lymphatic system (Shrewsbury 46). When people throughout Europe started dying off from the plague, a famine became a big concern to the public’s already declining health and the impact society had already