Black Death

• Bubonic plague


  Carried by fleas and rats
• Symptoms of bubonic plague


  • Felt cold, tired, got buboes, high fever, headache, death after 3 days
• Pneumonic plague


  Spread by coughing on others
• Symptoms of pneumonic plague

  • Coughed blood, disease attacked their lungs, died after 1 or 2 days
• Cause of plague


  Yersinia Pestis bacteria found in the stomachs of fleas found on rats
• High food prices and food shortages


  Led to weaker immune system
• Factors contributing to rapid spread

  • Crowded living spaces, no knowledge of contagious diseases
• Beliefs about causes of plague

  • Position of stars and planets
  • Bad air
  • Poisoning of wells by Jews
  • God's anger
• Factors contributing to rapid spread

  • Coughing, people disposing of bodies were not protected, bodies dug up from shallow pits by animals
• Conditions that allowed plague to spread

  • Filth in the street was perfect conditions for rats to breed
• Authorities had no idea what caused the plague
• Simple laws about keeping streets clean but little enforcement
• Common to throw rubbish and human waste into the streets and rivers
• Attempts to cure plague

  • Drinking mercury, shaving a chicken and strapping it to the buboes, fleeing
• Local councils tried to quarantine infected places
• Spread of plague


  • Began in Asia, travelled along trade routes to Western Europe, reached Constantinople in 1347, England 1348
• Plague killed nearly half of Europe's population
• 1.5 million died in Britain
• Only remote villages and farms avoided the plague
• Further outbreaks of plague

  • 1361-62
  • 1379-83
  • 1389-93
  • 1603 killed 38,000 Londoners
• Plague came in the Great Plague of 1665
• By early 19th century, threat of plague went down but cholera was an issue
• Over 1/3 of England's population died
• Older age groups more easily affected
• Impact on agriculture


  • Fields unploughed as peasants died, food rotted in the fields, farm animals escaped to forests
• Whole villages were wiped out
• Survivors faced starvation
• Economic impacts


  • Food shortages, sheep farmers, peasants demanding higher wages for food
• This upset the feudal system
• Statute of Labourers introduced by government in 1351
• Some churchmen were criticised for cowardice when fleeing
• Due to misunderstanding of causes, widespread persecution of minorities e.g. foreigners, beggars and lepers
• Impacts on survivors


  • Employers paid higher wages to attract them, they spent more money on education, more people learnt to read and write and ideas spread more quickly