Imagine a time when dead bodies littered the streets everywhere, cattle and livestock roamed the country unattended, and brother deserted brother. (Disease and History npag.) When the horrific Black Death struck numerous towns, this situation prevailed. Historians around the world are continually wondering how this terrible Black Death occurred and what happened to the society and its people inflicted by the plague.
The Black Death was one of the worst natural disasters in history. In 1347 AD, this catastrophe swept over Europe and ravaged cities causing widespread hysteria and death. One third of the population died from the disease through transmission. There were four different means of transmission of infection. They were airborne, waterborne, direct contact, and vectors, which are insects that carry germs from one species to another. (Disease and History npag.) The main component of the Black Death was the Bubonic Plague in the 14th century, however people who lived through the tragedy called it the Great Dying or Pestilence.
The Black Death rapidly spread along the major Eur...
Swollen lymph nodes termed "buboes" caused by plag...
English: An illustration of an undertaker during t...This Bubonic Plague swept through Europe, North Africa, and Asia, making it the most devastating epidemic in history. Europe was struck by the plague in October of 1347, as it was brought into the port of Messina, Sicily by a fleet of Genoese trading ships. This fleet came from a seaport, Kaffa, on the Crimean peninsula in modern-day Ukraine when traders were fleeing an army of Tatar warriors who laid siege to the city. (The Black Death 18) Oriental rat fleas that were carried on the back of black rats transmitted the Bubonic disease. These fleas were blood-sucking parasites that spread diseases to humans. Once the fleas drank the rat blood that carried the bacteria, the bacteria multiplied in the flea's gut. When the flea bit the human, it regurgitated the blood in the open wound, and the...