1. 1347 and on - - -

2.  Recognize the possible causes of change in civilizations (diseases Bubonic Plague)  Identify conclusions about early world historical events using primary and secondary sources 2

3. There were many different beliefs about the plague; people were so scared because they weren’t sure what caused it. Some believed: – It was a punishment from God. – Some believed that foreigners or those who followed a different religion had poisoned the wells. – Some thought that bad air was responsible. – Some thought the position of the planets had caused the plague. 3

4.  The question that you are probably thinking is this: Q: Who or what really caused the Black Death? A: The Oriental Rat Flea! 4

5.  We now know that the most common form of the Black Death was the BUBONIC PLAGUE!  This disease was spread by fleas which lived on the black rat.  The fleas sucked the rat’s blood which contained the plague germs.  When the rat died, the fleas jumped on to humans and passed on the deadly disease. 5

8.  Bubonic Plague. painful lymph node swellings, buboes  Septicemic Plague. also called “blood poisoning”, attacked the blood system  Pneumonic Plague. attacked the respiratory system

9.  Painful lymph node swelling, called buboes  In groins and armpits  Oozing pus and blood  Damage to the skin and underlying tissue  Dark blotches = acral necrosis  Black Death!

11.  Swellings “egg  apple”  Fever of 101-105 degrees F  Headaches and Aching joints  Nausea and vomiting (of blood)  General feeling of malaise  Swellings expanding until they burst  death following soon after  Whole process: 3-5 days

12. What are the symptoms of the plague? Buboes – swollen lumps in the groin, Neck, or armpit 12

13.  A person suffering from the Bubonic Plague most likely would die within 4 to 7 days of first showing symptoms.  The plague killed 50% to 75% of its victims. 13

14.  Different beliefs about the plague led to some strange attempts at escaping the plague and some even stranger cures. 14

15.  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.  If the swellings burst and the poison came out people sometimes survived. It seemed sensible to draw out the poison. 15

16.  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. 16

17.  Rub the body with melted butter.  Tie a small bag of garlic around your neck. The smell would keep the plague away.  Go to church and ask for forgiveness.  Avoid breathing in the same air as a plague victim.  Sit next to a blazing hot fire.  Brick or board up houses with the sick inside. 17

18.  The last outbreak of the plague in England was in 1665. The sensible thing to do when the plague struck was to get out of town, the rich could do this but the poor had nowhere to go.  By 1665, more than 25 million people had died from the plague. 18

19.  Second most commonly seen form of the Black Death

20.  Infected the lungs.  Symptoms:  Slimy sputum tinted with blood (Sputum = saliva mixed with mucus excreted from the respiratory system)  Sputum became free flowing  1-7 days for symptoms to appear  Mortality Rate : 90-95%

21.  Airborne transmission – added to its danger!  Through bacteria in droplets of saliva coughed up by sick persons  Inhaled by bystanders  New infection starts directly in the lungs or throat.

22.  Attacked the blood system (Blood Poisoning)  Fevers  Skin turns deep shades of purple due to DIC (disseminated intravascular coagulation)

23.  In its most deadly form, DIC causes a victim’s skin to turn dark purple, almost black = The Black Death.  Victims died the same day symptoms appeared. Mortality Rate : close to 100%. No treatment even today

24.  Erupted in Gobi Desert, late 1320’s  Epidemic in Europe in 6 th century but dormant since then  Reached the shores of Italy in 1348  Spread in every direction, primarily westward  Lasted 3 years

26.  The progress of the plague coincides with the medieval trade routes  Iceland, North Finland, and North Sweden had no plague  Norway 1348 (Oslo, Bergen)  Denmark 1348, from Jutland to the islands, and then on to Sweden

27.  Every 5-7 years  Next plague: 1360 = The Pest of the Children  Italian Plague 1629-1631  Great Plague of Vienna in 1679  Great Plague of London 1665-1666 – one of the last major outbreaks  Resembles modern day Ebola

28.  Quarantine was the best method  Avoiding the sick  The wealthy fled to the countryside (Isaac Newton)  Pope Clement VI in Avignon sat between two large fires to breathe pure air. The plague bacillus is destroyed by heat, so this worked!

29.  Flagellants –  self-flogging to atone for sins.  Popular after disillusionment with the church’s reaction to the Black Death  Outside the Church

30.  Christians - and an angry Deity.  Bands wandering through towns and countryside  Public penance. Inflicted all kinds of punishment upon themselves  Sacrifice for the sins of the world – like Jesus

31.  Society disapproved  Tendency to kill Jews and clergymen who opposed them  Condemned by the Pope in 1349  Reappeared in times of plague into the 15 th century

32.  Approx. 25 million deaths in Europe  Between one third and one half of European population died 1348- 1350  25% of villages depopulated  45-75% of Florence died in one year  In Venice, 60% died over 18 months

33.  Urban populations recovered quickly  Rural populations recovered slowly  Friars took a couple of generations to recover  Pre-plague population reached in the 1500s or 1600s  Later period of Middle Ages was characterized by chronically reduced population

34.  1348:  Gaza: 10.000 dead  Aleppo: 500 dead per day  Damascus: 1000 dead per day  Syria: total of 400.000 dead  Lower mortality rate in the Middle East of less than one third of population

35.  Shortage of laborers  rising wages for peasants and artisans  Valuable artisan skills disappeared  Oversupply of goods  prices dropped  For the living, standard of living rose!  Landlords stopped freeing their serfs  serfs revolting and leaving the land  The oppressed demanded fairer treatment

36.  Persecutions of the Jews – scapegoats  Massacres and burnings  By 1351, 60 major and 150 smaller Jewish communities had been exterminated  Jews expelled, moved to Poland & Lithuania

37.  Church lost prestige, spiritual authority, leadership  Promised cures, treatment, and explanations  No answers to the people  Revolt against the church  Severe shortage of clergy – functioned as nurses and consequently died.  The church targeted the Jews for persecution – had killed Jesus and brought sin to the world

38.  Culture turned morbid  Sense of death – impending & inevitable  Death is a game, like chess!  Dance of death – death is random  Everyone suffered  Despair

39.  Danse Macabre = the dance of death: skeletons mingling with the living (here: Hans Holbein the Younger)  Shocking juxtapositions  Written language almost lost  Coffins had pictures of corpses on the lid  New creativity in motives

40. Ring a-round the rosy = rosary beads give you God’s help Pocket full of posies = used to stop the odor of rotting bodies through to cause the plague Ashes, ashes! = the church burned the dead when burying became too laborious We all fall down! = dead  Children suffered mentally and physically  Children were not thought worth the trouble to raise!

41.  The bubonic Plague still exists  Quite common among rodent populations  A cure is known today – but the disease moves very quickly  The Plague is still with us Hythe Ossuary, remains of victims of the Black Death