The Black Death

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The Black Death
1347 - 1351
AP EUROPEAN HISTORY
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The Culprits
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The Famine of 1315-1317

• By 1300 Europeans were farming almost all the
  land they could cultivate.
• A population crisis developed.
• Climate changes in Europe produced three years of
  crop failures between 1315-17 because of
  excessive rain.
• As many as 15 of the peasants in some English
  villages died.
• One consequence ofstarvation povertywas
  susceptibility todisease.

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Path of the Plague
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1347 Plague Reaches Constantinople!
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The Symptoms
Bulbous
Septicemia Formalmost 100 mortality rate.
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The Black Death

• The Black Death came in three forms
• 1. bubonic
• 2. pneumonic
• 3. septicemic
  

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Bubonic plague

• The bubonic plague was the most commonly seen
  form of the Black Death. The
  mortality
  rate was 30-75. The symptoms
  were
  enlarged and inflamed lymph nodes (around arm
  pits, neck and groin).
• Victims were subject to headaches, nausea, aching
  joints, fever of 101-105 degrees, vomiting, and
  a general feeling of illness.
• Symptoms took from 1-7 days to appear.

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Pneumonic Plague

• The pneumonic plague was the second most commonly
  seen form of the Black Death. The mortality rate
  for the pneumonic plague was 90-95 (if treated
  today the mortality rate would be 5-10).
• The pneumonic plague infected the lungs. Symptoms
  included slimy sputum tinted with blood. Sputum
  is saliva mixed with mucus exerted from the
  respiratory system.
  
• As the disease progressed, the sputum became free
  flowing and bright red. Symptoms took 1-7 days to
  appear.

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The Septicemic Plague

• The septicemic plague was the most rare form of
  all. The mortality was close to 100 (even today
  there is no treatment). Symptoms were a high
  fever and skin turning deep shades of purple.
• The black death got its name from the deep
  purple, almost black discoloration." Victims
  usually died the same day symptoms appeared. In
  some cities, as many as 800 people died every
  day.

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Effects of the Black Death on Europe

• 1/3 of the population of Europe died.
• In all, 2.5 million people died from the plague.
• Art, science, and literature stopped being
  created.
• People were only worried about their survival.

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Effect on Children

• Children suffered as well. A common nursery rhyme
  is
• Ring a-round the rosy           
• Pocket full of posies           
• Ashes, ashes!           
• We all fall down!

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• Ring around the rosy rosary beads give you God's
  help.
• A pocket full of posies used to stop the odor of
  rotting bodies which was at one point thought to
  cause the plague, it was also used widely by
  doctors to protect them from the infected plague
  patients.
• Ashes, ashes the church burned the dead when
  burying them became to laborious.
• We all fall down dead.

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The Disease Cycle
Flea drinks rat blood that carries the
bacteria.
Bacteria multiply in fleas gut.
Human is infected!
Fleas gut cloggedwith bacteria.
Flea bites human and regurgitates blood into
human wound.
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From Toggenburg Bible 1411
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Lancing a Buboe
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Medieval Art the Plague
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Medieval Art the Plague
Bring out your dead!
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Medieval Art the Plague
An obsession with death.
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Boccaccio in The Decameron
The victims ate lunch with their friends and
dinner with their ancestors.
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The Danse Macabre
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(No Transcript)
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Attempts to Stop the Plague
Leeching
A Doctors Robe
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Attempts to Stop the Plague
FlagellantiSelf-inflicted penance for our
sins!
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Attempts to Stop the Plague
Pogroms against the Jews
Golden Circle obligatory badge
Jew hat
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Death Triumphant !A Major Artistic Theme
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A Little Macabre Ditty
A sickly season, the merchant said,The town I
left was filled with dead,and everywhere these
queer red fliescrawled upon the corpses
eyes,eating them away.Fair make you sick,
the merchant said,They crawled upon the wine
and bread.Pale priests with oil and
books,bulging eyes and crazy looks,dropping
like the flies.
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A Little Macabre Ditty (2)
I had to laugh, the merchant said,The doctors
purged, and dosed, and bledAnd proved through
solemn disputationThe cause lay in some
constellation.Then they began to die.First
they sneezed, the merchant said,And then they
turned the brightest red,Begged for water, then
fell back.With bulging eyes and face turned
black,they waited for the flies.
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A Little Macabre Ditty (3)
I came away, the merchant said,You cant do
business with the dead.So Ive come here to ply
my trade.Youll find this to be a fine brocade
And then he sneezed.!
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The Mortality Rate
35 - 70
25,000,000 dead !!!
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What were thepolitical,economic,and social
effectsof the Black Death?
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EFFECTS

• Disease is a major determinant of human history.
• Socially, and politically, Europe was turned
  upside down
• The church and the nobilitythe two powerhouses
  of the Middle Ages lose prestige and power as a
  result of the plague.
• As a result the kings of Europe consolidate
  powerit is the beginning of the end of Feudalism
• Kings use a bureaucracy to rule, raise taxes,
  pass laws..
• Serfs are in short supplythey can sell their
  labor to the highest biddertheir wages go up!
• The decline in production led to higher prices
  which led to inflation
• The plague led to an overwhelming pessimism, to
  religious fanaticism, to suspicion of travelers,
  and to intolerance of Jews.