1. The Black Death

2. Learning goals By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
understand the causes of the Black Death
describe the methods used to combat the plague
identify the effects of the plague on Europe in the Middle Ages

3. Warm-up
Talk to your elbow partners and come up with as many ‘household remedies’ as you can in 1 minute…
Ready?
Go!

4. “The victims ate lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestors.”
Boccaccio in The Decameron

5. Bring out your dead!

6. The Plague Arrives
- Historians think that the plague arrived in England during the summer of During the following autumn it spread quickly through the south west. Few villages escaped. Churchyards were full with bodies.
- The plague spread quickly during the winter of to the north of England. By 1350, nearly the whole of Britain was infected with the plague.
- By the end of 1350, nearly 2.5 million people were dead!

7. The Culprits

8. The Famine of
By 1300 Europeans were farming almost all the land they could cultivate.
A population crisis developed.
Climate changes in Europe produced three years of crop failures between because of excessive rain.
As many as 15% of the peasants in some English villages died.
One consequence of starvation & poverty was susceptibility to disease.

9. 1347: Plague Reaches Constantinople!

10. What were the symptoms of the plague?

11. Septicemic Form: almost 100% mortality rate.
The Symptoms
Bulbous
Septicemic Form: almost 100% mortality rate.

12. From the Toggenburg Bible, 1411

13. Medieval cure number 1
“The swellings should be softened with figs and cooked onions. The onions should be mixed with yeast and butter. Then open the swellings with a knife.”

14. Medieval cure number 2
“Take a live frog and put its belly on the plague sore. The frog will swell up and burst. Keep doing this with further frogs until they stop bursting. Some people say that a dried toad will do the job better.”

15. The Disease Cycle Human is infected!
Flea drinks rat blood that carries the bacteria.
Bacteria
multiply in
flea’s gut.
Human is infected!
Flea bites human and regurgitates blood into human wound.
Flea’s gut clogged with bacteria.

16. Medieval Art & the Plague An obsession with death.

17. The Danse Macabre

19. Lancing a Buboe

20. Attempts to Stop the Plague
“Leeching”

21. Attempts to Stop the Plague
Flagellanti: Self-inflicted ‘penance’ for our sins!

22. Attempts to Stop the Plague
Pogroms - violent riot or protest against the Jews
“Golden Circle” obligatory badge
“Jew hat”

23. Medieval Art & the Plague

24. Death Triumphant !: A Major Artistic Theme

25. The Mortality Rate
35% - 70%
25,000,000 dead !!!

26. What were the political, economic, and social effects of the Black Death??

27. Effects of the Plague on Europe
Social Effects:
People abandoned their friends and family, fled cities, and shut themselves off from the world.
Some felt that the wrath of God was descending upon man, and so fought the plague with prayer.
Faith in religion , generally, decreased after the plague
Economic Effects:
The economy underwent abrupt and extreme inflation, the prices of both goods produced locally and those imported from afar skyrocketed.
The demand for people to work the land was so high that it wages rose
In general, wages outpaced prices and the standard of living was subsequently raised.