The Black Death

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  • Created by: lx1234
  • Created on: 14-04-18 13:10

Origins

  • Began in Asia and travelled rapidly along the trade routes to Western Europe.
  • Reached Constantinople (Turkey) in 1347 and arrived in England in 1348. 
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Types of Plague

  • Bubonic Plague = Spread by rats and fleas. 
  • Pneumonic Plague = Attacked the lungs and was spread by contact with a victims breath through coughing or blood. 
  • Symptoms included bubbles, lumps, fever and vomiting. 
  • Death usually followed a few days after the symptoms were displayed. 
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Believed Causes of The Plague.

  • Position of stars and planets.
  • Bar Air (Miasma) 
  • Wells poisoned by Jews
  • Punishment from God 
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Real Causes of The Plague

  • Bacteria Yersina Pestis which grew in fleas' stomachs.
  • Fleas fed on rats blood, disease killed rats, fleas moved onto humans.
  • Fleas passed the disease on to humans
  • Food shortages meant the poor were malnourished and more vulnerable to infection. 
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Why did the disease spread so quickly?

  • Street cleaning was poor
  • Dirty streets encouraged rats to breed
  • Unhygienic habits. 
  • Animals dug up quickly buried victims bodies.
  • Laws about cleanliness difficult to enforce.
  • Quarantine was not effective on infected.
  • Ignorance of germs and disease was           widespread. 
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Remedies.

  • Prayer
  • Unusual remedies (drinking mercury, shaving        a chicken and strapping it to buboes.) 
  • Moving away if they thought the plague was coming 
  • Avoiding contact with people who might be infected, some local councils tried to quarantine infected places. 
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Impact on Society.

  • Social - Villages were wiped out.
  • Political - Demands for higher wages contributed to peasants revolt and the weakening of the feudal system
  • Religious - Damage to catholic church because experienced priests died, others ran away.
  • Economic - Food shortages, price of food went up, landowners switched to sheep farming, farmers demanded higher wages. 
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The End of The Plague?

  • 1350, Black Death subsided, never actually went away in England.
  • Further outbreaks of The Plague occurred at intervals.
  • Each outbreak was a different degree of deadliness
  • Late 14th Century to 18th Century. 
  • Great Plague of 1665. 
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