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In the early 1330s an outbreak of deadly bubonic plague occurred in China. The bubonic plague mainly affects rodents, but fleas can transmit the disease to people. Once people are infected, they infect others very rapidly. Plague causes fever and a painful swelling of the lymph glands called buboes, which is how it gets its name. The disease also causes spots on the skin that are red at first and then turn black.

Since China was one of the busiest of the world's trading nations, it was only a matter of time before the outbreak of plague in China spread to western Asia and Europe. In October of 1347, several Italian merchant ships returned from a trip to the Black Sea, one of the key links in trade with China. When the ships docked in Sicily, many of those on board were already dying of plague. Within days the disease spread to the city and the surrounding countryside. An eyewitness tells what happened:

"Realizing what a deadly disaster had come to them, the people quickly drove the Italians from their city. But the disease remained, and soon death was everywhere. Fathers abandoned their sick sons. Lawyers refused to come and make out wills for the dying. Friars and nuns were left to care for the sick, and monasteries and convents were soon deserted, as they were stricken, too. Bodies were left in empty houses, and there was no one to give them a Christian burial."

The disease struck and killed people with terrible speed. The Italian writer Boccaccio said its victims often

"ate lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestors in paradise."

By the following August, the plague had spread as far north as England, where people called it "The Black Death" because of the black spots it produced on the skin. A terrible killer was loose across Europe, and Medieval medicine had nothing to combat it.

In winter the disease seemed to disappear, but only because fleas--which were now helping to carry it from person to person--are dormant then. Each spring, the plague attacked again, killing new victims. After five years 25 million people were dead-- one-third of Europe's people.

Even when the worst was over, smaller outbreaks continued, not just for years, but for centuries. The survivors lived in constant fear of the plague's return, and the disease did not disappear until the 1600s.

Medieval society never recovered from the results of the plague. So many people had died that there were serious labor shortages all over Europe. This led workers to demand higher wages, but landlords refused those demands. By the end of the 1300s peasant revolts broke out in England, France, Belgium and Italy.

The disease took its toll on the church as well. People throughout Christendom had prayed devoutly for deliverance from the plague. Why hadn't those prayers been answered? A new period of political turmoil and philosophical questioning lay ahead.

Black Death - Disaster Strikes
25 million people died in just under five years between 1347 and 1352. Estimated population of Europe from 1000 to 1352.

1000 38 million

1100 48 million

1200 59 million

1300 70 million

1347 75 million

1352 50 million

For more information about the plague on this site, see:

Additional site on the plague:

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In the early 1330s an outbreak of deadly bubonic plague occurred in China. The bubonic plague mainly affects rodents, but fleas can transmit the disease to people. Once people are infected, they infect others very rapidly. Plague causes fever and a painful swelling of the lymph glands called buboes, which is how it gets its name.

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The Black Death Begins Video - Black Death - HISTORY.com

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Abundant trade and shipping spread the Black Death rapidly through Asia and Europe.

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The Black Death was a devastating global epidemic of bubonic plague that struck Europe and Asia in the mid-1300s. Explore the facts of the plague, the symptoms it caused and how millions died from it.

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The different perspectives of the Black Death.

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The different perspectives of the Black Death.

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Firstly many had different ways of how the Black Death started, and cures for the Black Death.
People started believing, perhaps it was based of religion. Many then started to believe it was God. He is testing us, they cried, he is planning revenge.
The people ere told it was God's will.
When people learned that the diese was airborne many started to live in sewers.
Obviously this didn't help so many died anyway.
Of course there were many other ways people thought started the Black Death.
Including:
-Poisonous Vapors
-Personal Contact
-Rotting Flesh
Infliction from Outsiders
Some cures included:
Aromatherapy ( this was based of smells and treatment through smelling different scents).
People then decided to let leaches suck there blood dry, this cure was generally only used for those high on the social pyramid.
This is because leaches were an expensive cure you had to buy, ( blood-letting).
Non-Jews started to think it was the Jews fault, so to get revenge they started killing of all of the Jews the could get their hands on.

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The European society began to collapse as shock to available labor.
The economic impact of the black plague was remarkable.
Wealth was based on land and agricultural prices fluctuated in price, resulting in prices dramatically dropping.
So many peoples wages rose significantly.
Peasants demanded higher wages, European rulers tired to keep wages from rising.
People that harvest and plow crops demanded higher wages, as it was harder to find people to do the job.
Many decided that they did not want to listen to the king so the king had to sacrifice workmen, food and other necessities for the jobs to be done.
~Nobles were forced to pay them more to ensure the work was done on the farms~ from the handout (effects of the black death - source response)
Wage per day (1 day peasants were paid 1 penny).
Because many crops died in the fields there was no one to gather them so people would be paid more if they did this.
The working conditions changed dramatically as serfs became unaccessible.
Before the black death plague people relied on medicine that was upon biblical cures, this changed since the black death came upon us.

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Many people were shocked by the number of deaths resulting in the Black Death.
Bodies were sent to churches, people were worried there wasn't enough consecrated ground.
They became worried about the future and were they would bury the bodies.
Many people believed that the bodies should be thrown into the river or piled up in pits including cities such as France, London and Avignon.
Burial services could not keep up with the demands of so many people wanting to bury bodies, as so many people had died from the terrible plague.

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Vinegar and Water Treatment
- If a person has the disease they are taken to bed and washed in vinegar and rose water.
Lancing the buboes
- The swelling on a persons body is cut open, then the disease can leave the body.
After this the people would apply ointment on the cuts.
DIET
- a way to prevent the disease was to go on a diet, this diet contained not eating any food that went of easily.
What you can eat is bread, fruit and vegetables.
WITCHCRAFT
Witchcraft said to aid recovery you need to drink a glass of your own urine twice a day.
This will help the disease from spreading.

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The black death first appeared in Europe by sea in October 1347.
When Genoese Trading ships land on the port of Messina.
The people were shocked when the ships came, Most of the sailors were dead or infected with the disease.
Many of the people on the ships had the disease and the other people were dead.
If you had the disease you would probably have black boils.
Early in 1340s the disease had struck China, India, Persia, Syria and Egypt.
In 1346 the plague reached East Europe.
In 1347 the plague spread to Constantinople.
In 1348 he spread to Italy, France and Spain.
Already spreading to Egypt, Palestine and Syria.
The death toll had then reached 15 million in 1349.
In 1350 it moved along to Sweden and Germany.

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The treatment was negative and the Jews were treated badly.
The church community decided to ban the Jews from the church. Many Jobs were not offered to Jews, such as tailoring, goldsmithing and weaving.
Jews had to wear a badge to mark that they were Jew to other Jews and non-Jews.
They suffered persecution and expulsion from cities, towns and seizure of their properties.
Jews didn't have power and were unloved.
Even though Jews had a very similar death rate to Christians.
Many people believed that it was not necessary to push Jews aside but known bothered to stand up for them.
Jews were treated very unfairly in this time period.
On Saturday that was St. Valentine’s Day, they burnt the Jews on a wooden platform in their cemetery. There were about 2,000 of them.