Black Death of Europe

Black Death of Europe

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Presentation created by Robert L. Martinez Primary Content Source: Wadsworth Comprehensive World History, 3rd Ed. Images as cited.

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The Black Death of the mid-14th century was the worst natural disaster in European history, annihilating Europe’s population and causing economic, social, political, and cultural mayhem.

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The Bubonic plague was spread by black rats infested with fleas who were host to the deadly bacterium Yersinia pestis.

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Symptoms of bubonic plague include high fever, aching joints, swelling of the lymph nodes, and dark blotches caused by bleeding beneath the skin.

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The Bubonic plague killed approximately 50 percent of its victims.

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The Black Death was the first major epidemic disease to strike Europe since the seventh century, an absence that helps explain medieval Europe’s remarkable population growth.

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This plague originated in Asia. The arrival of Mongol troops in the mid-13th century became the means for the spread of the plague, as flea infested rats carrying bubonic plague spread with the movement of the Mongols.

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Traveling caravans brought the plague to Caffa, on the Black Sea, in 1346. The plague reached Europe in October of 1347 when Genoese merchants brought it from Caffa to the island of Sicily, off the coast of Southern Italy.

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It quickly spread to southern Italy and southern France by the end of 1347. Usually, the diffusion of the Black Death followed commercial trade routes. In 1348, the plague spread through Spain, France, and the Low Countries and into Germany.

By the end of that year, it had moved to England, ravaging it in 1349. By the end of 1349, the plague had reached northern Europe and Scandinavia.

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Eastern Europe and Russia were affected by 1351,although mortality rates were never as high in eastern Europe as they were in western and central Europe.

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Italy was especially hard hit. Its crowded cites suffered losses of 60 percent. In northern France, farming villages suffered mortality rates of 30 percent. In England and Germany, entire villages simply disappeared.

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In Germany, of approximately 170,000 inhabited locations, only 130,000 were left by the end of the 14th century.

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It has been estimated that the European population declined by 25 to 50 percent between 1347 and 1351.

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Not until the mid-sixteenth century did Europe begin to regain its thirteenth century population levels.

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At the time, many felt that the plague had either been sent by God as a punishment for human’s sins or caused by the devil.

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Flagellants resorted to extreme measures to gain God’s forgiveness. Groups of flagellants wandered from town to town, flogging each other with whips to win the forgiveness of a God who they felt had sent the plague to punish humans for their sinful ways.

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The Catholic Church became alarmed when flagellants groups began to kill Jews and attack the clergy who opposed them.

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Pope Clement VI condemned the flagellants in October 1349 and urged the public authorities to crush them. By 1350, most flagellant movements had been dissolved.

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An outbreak of anti-Semitism accompanied the Black Death pandemic. Jews were accused of causing the plague by poisoning town wells. thebreman.org

In Germany, more than sixty major Jewish communities were exterminated by 1351. Many Jews fled eastward to Russia and especially to Poland, where the king offered them protection.

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Eastern Europe became home to large Jewish communities.

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The death of so many people in the 14th century caused severe economic consequences. Trade drastically declined. www.euro-webonline.com

A shortage of workers caused a dramatic rise in the price of labor, while the decline in the number of people lowered the demand for food, resulting in falling prices. Landlords were now paying more for labor at the same time that their rents or income was declining.

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Concurrently, the decline in the number of peasants after the Black Death made it easier for some peasants to convert their labor services to free themselves from serfdom.

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The lords attempted to impose wage restrictions and reinstate old forms of labor service. New governmental taxes were imposed on labor. Peasant complaints became widespread and soon gave rise to rural revolts.

In 1358, a peasant revolt known as the Jacquerie broke out in northern France. The outburst of peasant anger led to brutal clashes. Castles were burned and nobles murdered.

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The Jacquerie failed as the upper classes combined forces, and savagely massacred the rebels, and ended the revolt.

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The English Peasant’s Revolt of 1381 was the biggest of all. After the Black Death, the English peasants enjoyed improved conditions, with greater freedom and higher wages and lower rents. Aristocrats fought back with legislation to lower wages and an attempt to reinstitute old feudal dues.

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The chief cause of revolt was the monarchy’s attempt to raise revenues by imposing a flat tax on each adult member of the population.

Peasant"s Revolt

Peasants in eastern England, the wealthiest part of the country, refused to pay the tax and forcibly expelled the collectors from their villages.

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The revolt was initially successful as the rebels burned down the manor houses of aristocrats, lawyers, and government officials and murdered several important officials, including the archbishop of Canterbury.

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After the peasants marched on London, King Richard II promised to accept the rebel’s demands if they would return to their homes. They accepted the king’s word and began to disperse, but the king reneged and brutally crushed the rebels. However, the poll tax was eliminated.

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King Richard II

The revolts of the 14th century had introduced a new element to European life – the dynamic of social unrest.

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