Bubonic Plague essays

Bubonic Plague essays In the early 1330s, the Bubonic Plague first hit China where it infected rodents such as squirrels, prairie dogs and rats. Fleas transmitted the bacteria from rodent to rodent, but as the plague began to take a toll on the rodent population, fleas began looking for another host; thus, the spread of the bubonic plague among humans. During the 1330s, the plague festered in China, killing many people; a 1331 epidemic killed nearly 90 percent of the population in the province of Hebei (near modern-day Beijing). Since China was a busy world trade nation, spread of the disease to western Asia and Europe was imminent. In October of 1347, several Italian merchant ships returned from a trip out on the Black Sea a major trading route and main link to China. The ship docked in Sicily with most of the crew already dying, and the disease spread throughout the city within days. By August of 1348, it spread to England where it was named the Black Death mainly because of the black spots created on the skin. The bubonic plague was diagnosed from symptoms such as: inflamed lymph glands, and hemorrhaging of these inflammations known as buboes (gave the name bubonic plague), fever, and spots on the skin that start out as red, but later turn purple and black. It killed 60 to 70 percent of its victims, and it as the chart above illustrates killed one third of Europes population in five years. Medieval society never recovered from the bubonic plague, as labor shortages gave way to demands for higher wages and the subsequent rejection of those demands spurred peasant revolts in England, France, Italy, and Belgium. The church also took a hit, when many questions of why? were unanswered. Many Christians had devoutly prayed for deliverance from the plague, but they saw and met death with no mercy. A vast difference I see in the reactions of Muslims and Christians to the bubonic plag...