The Black Death Essay -- Diseases, Disorders

The Black Death was an extensive epidemic that spread across Europe from 1346 to 1353, killing over an estimated one-third of Europe’s entire population (Medieval World 56). Although historians are not entirely sure of its origin, the Black Death spread quickly across both Europe and Asia with a death toll that augmented rapidly. The plague also had unusual and deadly symptoms, causing â€Å"panic everywhere, with men and women knowing no way to stop death except to flee from it† (Kohn 28). The chaos created by the malevolent force of the Black Death impacted the society of Europe as a whole. Despite the extent of the Black Death, we know surprisingly little of it (Cartwright and Biddiss 38); however, historians have presented numerous theories of its origin and spread, uncovered records of deaths, symptoms and other characteristics, and have found political records, art, and other documents recalling the plague and its impact on Europe. During the early 1320s, the bacterium Yersinia pestis (Zahler 22-25) that causes bubonic plague erupted in the Gobi Desert along trade routes possibly because of the previous Ice Age uncovering the prehistoric bacteria (Nox). The plague then quickly traveled through merchants along the Silk Road and Black Sea, spreading to both China and possibly India (Zahler 31-32). In 1347 the plague reached parts of Sicily, Marseilles, Alexandria, and Constantinople through trade, starting the period of the Black Death in Europe (138-141); however, some records also have shown that the plague was spread from Russia to Genoa to Italy, France, and Germany in 1348 through warfare from the Tartars (Cartwright and Biddiss 36-37). The Black Death then continued to spread across Europe until 1352 when the period of the ... ... (53). Works Cited Byrne, Joseph P. The Black Death. Wesport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2004. Cartwright, Frederick F. and Michael D. Biddis, George Child. Disease and History. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1972. Corbishley, Mark. The Midieval World. New York: Peter Frederick Books, 1993. Kohn, George Child. Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence from Ancient Times to the Present. New York: Facts on File, 2001. Macdonald, Fiona. The Plague and Medicine in the Middle Ages. Milwaukee, Winsconsin: World Almanac Library, 2006. Midieval World. 1. Danbury, Connecticut: Brown Patworks Limited, 2001. Nox, E.L. Skip. "The Middle Ages: The Black Death." boisestate.edu. Boise State University, 1995. Web. 13 Feb 2012. . Zahler, Diane. The Black Death. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, 2009.