Essay on The Bubonic Plague Or

Submitted By Rocco-Gallo
Words: 722
Pages: 3

The Bubonic Plague or "Black Death" was a fatal disease spread by fleas which lived on rats and humans. This plague started in Asia and traveled to Europe by rat-infested Italian ships trading goods across the Mediterranean Sea. The plague caused a staggering loss of life, with a death rate between 25 to 65% amongst different cities. In this paper I will use my class notes and other references to discuss the effects The Bubonic Plaque on the economy and religion of Eurasia along with what the disease resulted in after it stopped spreading..,
So much death could not help but tear economic and social structures apart. Lack of peasants and laborers sent wages soaring, and the value of land plummeted. A lot of financial business were effected and many debtors died. In many cities all the things that were being built at the time were completely stopped or abandoned. All the machines used to build these places were broken or left behind, and there was nobody to fix the machines either. (The Black Death: Economic Effects)There were very few people left to do all the labor, so the wages for labor increased as well. Almost all farms and villages were left and abandoned because most of the people that lived there had died. According to The Journal of Political Economy, “grain rotted in the fields for want of men to harvest it”. (Robbins p37) Agricultural prices dropped sharply because there were too few laborers to plant and harvest, and little incentive to plant in the spring since people actually expected to die before the fall harvest. Low farm prices hurt nobles and elites the most, because they owned the land being farme and its value depended on the crops that their peasants produced. (Jones p1) The people that still had land didn't pay their rent, thinking it was acceptable because of all of the free land left behind. Tax money the government received greatly declined because of this. (The Black Death: Economic Effects)

The Black Plague caused long-term damage to the church and religion. As we learned in class, many during this time period believed that God was angry at them (the human race) and The Plaque was his way of punishing them. This resulted in people publically and furiously whipping themselves in order to punish themselves for their “wrong doing”. These people were called flagellants and they figured by doing this, they may have a chance at saving themselves from certain death. Others tried to burry themselves alive in holy ground when no priests were left to perform last rites Such acts led the pope at the time, Pope Clement VI , to declare a worldwide indulgence. This allowed ordinary Catholics to perform funerals and hear confessions to ensure all the dying would have a chance to confess their sins before death. The church suffered