THE BLACK DEATH Essay -- essays research papers

The Bubonic Plague, more(prenominal) commonly referred to as the "Black Death," ravaged Europe between the days 1347 and 1350. During this short period, 25 million people, one third of Europes population at the time, were killed. Thousands of people died each week and dead bodies littered the streets. Once a family member had contracted the disease, the entire household was doomed to die. Parents abandoned their children, and parent-less children roamed the streets in search for food. Victims, delirious with pain, often lost their sanity. Life was in substance chaos. The Plague was a disaster without a parallel, causing dramatic changes in medieval Europe. Coming out of the East, the Black Death reached the shores of Italy in the bouncing of 1348 unleashing a rampage of death across Europe unprecedented in recorded history. By the time the epidemic played itself out tierce years later, anywhere between 25% and 50% of Europes population had locomote victim to the pestil ence. Primarily fleas and rats transmitted the Black Death. The stomachs of the fleas were infected with bacteria know as Y. Pestis. The bacteria would block the "throat" of an infected flea so that no blood could reach its stomach, and it grew ravenous since it was starving to death. It would attempt to suck up blood from its victim, only to disgorge it back into its preys bloodstreams. The blood it injected back, however, was now mingled with Y. Pestis. Infected fleas infected rats in this fashion, and t...