Black Plague- notes

• Black Plague was carried by rats and fleas (1348-1350)
• First in China
• Spread rapidly
• Rats traveled on merchant ships (how disease was spread)
• Another disaster in a series of bad things in Europe
• If you came in contact with a person who had the disease, you would soon be infected
• Blisters and boils appeared on body
• Took only 3 days to die if you had the disease
• People believed it was the hell on earth
• Hundreds of people died everyday
• Bodies were buried hundreds at a time outside of the city walls
• It spread so rapidly that they thought it could affect the whole world
• Ships were surest and fastest means of spreading the plague
• From Sicily, it reached the main land and spread throughout Italy, and in all directions
• Thought air needed to be cleansed by lighting fires
• burned day and night for 4 months
• so no rat or flea could penetrate the intense heat
• Almost all the infected died
• One doctor tried to cure himself and was successful, even though most doctors were unsuccessfull
• There were 2 types of plagues
• Bubonic- more deadly
• Pneumonic
• Rich ran away from plague
• Spread to England then Scandinavia
• By 1350- it had run its course
• Killed a third of Europe's population
• Fleas transmitted disease from rats
• Black Death produced moment of less belief of the power of the Church, but more belief in God
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