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The Horrific Black Death
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For 3 horrific years (1347-1350),
the black death has taken man to the brink of an apocalypse. It was a world
without hope seemingly abandoned by God. It was believed that it was the
punishment given by the almighty to wipe off his creation and people started to
believe that the day of last judgement has come. In a world seemingly abandoned
by God, cities were filled with this black death and graveyards were choked
with corpses. Peasants, doctors, priests- none was exception to this worst
catastrophe. The world had seen the deaths of 25 million people during that
time. Nearly, half of the population of Europe was wiped off.
The Black Death
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| The Map showing the spread of Plague |
In the mid 14th century, Europe was not a dark continent so often lampooned by the history. It was the center for most sophisticated and attractive cultures and development. Italy was like a paradise for the merchants.Many cities like Florence and Venice were filled with the traders, merchants, doctors, with the rich and poor alike. With the astounding population of 100,000, Florence acted as a magnet attracting people from all corners of Europe but none expected that it would attract a disease that would fill cries in their lives.
In the midst of 1347 Autumn, the black death was welcomed to city by the sailor men who had trade with the eastern Asia. They transported the pestilence to different parts of Italy. At first, the citizens had no idea about the scale of horror this would produce but later, it shattered the European community- society, religion, family and Feudalism. Italy was the front-line for the bewildering epidemic. What were the reasons for this black death?
The reasons for the origination of
this horrific epidemic is unknown but the disease spread to Europe from the
Mongols. They used the affected corpses as weapons resulting in spread of
disease to their opponents. Thus, the floating corpses might have caught the
glimpse of the European sailors and thus transported death. For example, if a
person caught the disease, it would spread to all other family members,
friends, acquaintances resulting in irrevocable damage.
People became sick with flu added
fever and began vomiting. In their necks, armpits and groin, pus filled
swellings started to develop and on the skin, purple and black blotches were
developed due to internal hemorrhaging. Within a week or two, death
followed them with pneumonia like flooding.
In 2-3 months, 20% of the
population turned to be corpses.With all their knowledge applied, the
doctors failed to save the lives of people. People then hoped that only the
efforts of Church and Clergymen could save them. It was of no use. Religion was
no shield to the epidemic.The Clergymen who dared to administer the last rites
of the person often fell prey for the same. none could escape from this rule call of death.
Entire society was crashed. Brother
abandoned brother, sister their siblings, and mostly wife their husband. What
more worse was that the parents refused to see intend to their sick children as
if they hadn't been theirs.Bewildered and terrified, people started to shun
everyone they knew. Morals vanished and people behaved as if it would be best
to behave as they like. As the bones of the society fractured,
the rhythms of the medieval began to unravel. Harvest stopped,
bread was not baked, corpses were no removed and indeed life halted for months.
Venice witnessed 90,000 deaths and Florence half of its population. In Sienna,
near the old Gothic Cathedral, victims were thrown into the huge trenches which
were the foundations of old city wall. Remarkably, they are still today.
The disease followed the roots of
the trade and thus had devastated millions of lives of Europeans. In 1348, the
disease reached France. It triggered ethnic hatred on
a horrifying scale. It started to empty cities. In Avenue, Pope
preached that praying God is the only way to save thyself. But the death toll
was so high that people started to disbelieve church. Out of nothing,
extremists started to appear. They were known as the flatulence and they
directly challenged the authority of the Church.They marched themselves into
different places whipping themselves with brutal attitudes. They made
to people think that suffering is the only way to escape the disease and they
were successful in drawing people. Ironically, this flatulence was successful
in exporting the pestilence to other parts. In a few months, the city turned to
be a ghost town. Consequently, the blame of spreading this plague was put
on Jews in an attempt to destroy Christianity and then many Jew families were
burnt alive.
In 1348, it entered England through
the ports of Southampton and Bristol. The low class was first to be affected
by this. In a due course, it had changed their lives. In 1349, as the
availability of labor became hard due to the black death, laborers could get
the wages as they wished. King Edward Commissions were laid to impose fines on
those who demand high wages, but the laws of supply and demand proved to be too
strong. The black death was forcing economic and social change in an unwilling
ruling class uplifting low class at the same time destabilizing the entire
political system. By the end of 1350, this black death ended.
This black death was expressed in
painting and poetry. People encouraged themselves to be engaged in the horrors
of death and decay. Skeletons became the most common part of the medieval
art.
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| The Medieval art characterized by Skeletons showing that death was inevitable |
After the end, there was a huge
outpouring creativity in the fields of art, architecture, science that
celebrated the spirit of the man. It was the worst century to be lived as a
part of the world. Medieval Europeans didn't lose nerve though they suffered 25
outbreaks after the black death in the next 300 years. Slowly, a new inspiring
story of human survival was emerging from the brink of apocalypse to the hope
for humanity have been germinated from despair.
Thanks for the information.
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