The Black Death The Black Death consisted of three Plagues, the Septicaemic Plague, Pneumonic Plague and the worst of all the Bubonic Plague. Also the path of the Black Death and where it came from. Plus the impact it had on Europe.

Yersinia Pestis Yersinia Pestis was the main cause behind the Black Death because it was the Bacteria in all of the three Plagues. Yersinia Pestis was transferred by Fleas that live on rats. The fleas would then bite into humans infecting them with the Plagues. The plagues were then transferred from person to person in different ways.

Septicaemic One of the least common plagues was the Septicaemic Plague. This is caught by a flea that is infected with Yersinia Pestis bites a human and the infected blood coming from the flea gets into the bloodstream This was transferred by fleas biting humans

Pneumonic plague This Plague was not the most common but was not the least common either. The Pneumonic Plague causes bleeding in the lungs. It is pass from person to person when people cough or sneeze. If the water droplets contain Yersinia Pestis then the person who is breathing the germs in becomes infected.

Bubonic The most common plague was the Bubonic Plague. This was caught by people handling rodents such as rats and squirrels that had fleas carrying Yersinia Pestis and were bitten by them.

Symptoms The symptoms of the plagues were that it started with a headache, then chills and fevers quickly followed. Within a day or two swellings started to appear these were hard lumps that would appear on the neck, under arms and on the inner thighs. These would then turn black and burst open to begin oozing pus and blood. They would then start to bleed internally and if it was the Pneumonic plague they would bleed in their lungs. It was possible to recover but it was almost certain that anyone who was unlucky enough to get infected would die.

Path of the Black Death

Plague of London In 1665 the Black Death got a new name, The Plague of London. It was named this when in came back in another major outbreak. This outbreak last just 1 year but in this time it killed 100,000 people. The Plague of London ended in 1666 when the Great fire of London burned down most of the city killing most of the plague carrying rats.

Effect on European Civilization The Effect on the European Civilization was huge. It effected the population, economy the church and art works. People at the time would have been very scared and the Children which would not have been able to cope with all the dying going on all around them.

Effect on Art The effect on art was great because there was a great depression at the time and if some one did paint anything is was going to be a sad painting surrounded by death. The painting to the left was painted at the time and is proof that there was a effect on art.

Effect on Children The effect on children was very large. A common nursery rhyme is proof of this. Ring a-round the rosy Pocket full of posies Ashes, ashes! We all fall down! The rosy means the rosary beads that give you gods help. Posies was a Flower they used to try to mask the smell and thought that if they could hide the smell they would not get infected. Ashes is the church burning the dead, and We all fall down means them dying.

Long lasting effects Some of the long lasting effects was the population, which took 400 years to return to the numbers before the Black Death, but one of the most hardest hit was the economy. This was because after the black death a lot of the people with skills died. This meant that if you had skills you were more valuable than that of the rich people. This cause everything to shift, meaning formally poor people now had a lot more say in things. The peasants then demanded higher wages. Because the lords didn’t want to pay more a lot of the farming villages died out.

Plague today Sadly the Black Plague is not gone for good, there have been smaller outbreaks one was in India where 900 people died in Although there have not been any major outbreaks of the Plague recently in 2002 two residents of New York caught the plague in New Mexico.

Conclusion In my opinion this sort of plague is still around us today but it is a lot more controlled. Proof of this is the two people in New York who caught it in New Mexico. But I don’t think that it is ever going to have the effect it had on Europe again.