How the Plague Arrived in Europe
Bubonic plague, or more eerily known as The Black Death, arrived in Europe in October, 1347 on trading ships owned by merchants from Genoa. The ships had come from the Black Sea area of the Crimea. The sailors aboard the death ships were dead or dying when they landed in Messina in Sicily.
The plague was carried by rats that had stowed aboard the ships in the Crimea. They were infested with black flees which actually carried the plague.
The plague came in two forms. One way the plague was spread was by contact and infected the bloodstream. It killed by causing internal bleeding from large swellings on the body. These swellings were known as buboes. Thus, the "bubonic" plague.
The second way the plague was spread was by respiratory infection. The plague infected the lungs, creating a pneumonia-like condition. Both forms spread rapidly throughout Europe. By 1350, only a little over two years when the plague abated, it had killed one-third of Europe, over 20 million people.
Rumors of the plague abounded before it arrived in Europe. It was believed to have started in China and spread west into India, Persia, Mesopotamia and Egypt. By 1346 over 23 million people were believed to have died from the plague in that area of the world. India was almost totally depopulated.
Medicine was still based mostly on astrology and so was helpless to stop the Black Death. The idea of "infection" or infectious diseases was unknown at the time.
Source: A Distant Mirror, Barbara Tuchman
P.S.-The plague returned intermittently to Europe as late as the 17th century. If you would like to read a great fictional novel about the plague, I highly recommend A Journal of the Plague Year. It was written by Daniel Defoe, also the author of Robinson Crusoe.
The novel is about the plague that broke out in London in the summer of 1665. It killed 100,000 Londoners in one year. It gives a vivid account of what it was like to be quarantined, to have the plague, and for the death carts to pass through the city to collect bodies for mass burials.
The plague was carried by rats that had stowed aboard the ships in the Crimea. They were infested with black flees which actually carried the plague.
The plague came in two forms. One way the plague was spread was by contact and infected the bloodstream. It killed by causing internal bleeding from large swellings on the body. These swellings were known as buboes. Thus, the "bubonic" plague.
The second way the plague was spread was by respiratory infection. The plague infected the lungs, creating a pneumonia-like condition. Both forms spread rapidly throughout Europe. By 1350, only a little over two years when the plague abated, it had killed one-third of Europe, over 20 million people.
Rumors of the plague abounded before it arrived in Europe. It was believed to have started in China and spread west into India, Persia, Mesopotamia and Egypt. By 1346 over 23 million people were believed to have died from the plague in that area of the world. India was almost totally depopulated.
Medicine was still based mostly on astrology and so was helpless to stop the Black Death. The idea of "infection" or infectious diseases was unknown at the time.
Source: A Distant Mirror, Barbara Tuchman
P.S.-The plague returned intermittently to Europe as late as the 17th century. If you would like to read a great fictional novel about the plague, I highly recommend A Journal of the Plague Year. It was written by Daniel Defoe, also the author of Robinson Crusoe.
The novel is about the plague that broke out in London in the summer of 1665. It killed 100,000 Londoners in one year. It gives a vivid account of what it was like to be quarantined, to have the plague, and for the death carts to pass through the city to collect bodies for mass burials.
posted by Jim | 9:11 AM
4 Comments:
Jim, I found your site after you left a comment on aspire2 blog (Sandi's a friend of mine). I'm a history buff, too, so your site looks like a lot of fun. But I can't read it! Part of it looks like parchment, which is great, but after the intro, it's all dark brown with black letters. Very difficult! Can you fix it?? Any others having this issue?
Well, OK, looks like it is a Netscape/Firefox problem. When I switched netscape to look like IE, all is well! Never mind.
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Thanks, Kelley. I hope you and your friends enjoy the site in the future.
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