Black Plague in Europe – Black DeathEssay Preview: Black Plague in Europe – Black DeathReport this essayBlack Death is known to many people by many different names. Some refer to it as Black Death, while others refer to it as Black Plague or Black Plague of Europe. No matter what name it was referred to as, the effects were severe. During the fourteenth century, Europe was troubled with Black Death and it came to be known as the most inferior outbreak the world has ever experienced. The outbreak spread throughout different areas in less than four years and took the lives of more than seventy-five million people. The effects of Black Death in Europe were instantaneous, and caused almost all levels of society to take a turn for the worst.
The Bubonic Plague began in Europe in 1328 and lasted until 1351. Many others still continued to experience this outbreak in other areas for sixty years to follow. Black Death obtained its name from one of its symptoms, which turned the skin of the person who was suffering from the outbreak to the color black around areas that they were swollen. It has been said that the cause of this horrible disease was due to fleas that bit infected rats and eat the infected blood. Because the blood would be infected, the fleas would have to re gorge the blood into their next hosts which would of course be humans. It is believed that if the fleas and black rats had never made it to Europe then the outbreak would have never reached that area. Because Asia had already been hit with the plague it was quickly spread to Europe and then to other areas through different ports that traded with China and India. There was no cure for the disease and doctors were often known to fell because they did not want to catch the disastrous disease from their patients. Since anyone had yet to create a cure for the disease, the only thing that could be done was to treat the symptoms. “Black Death was treated by lancing the buboes(swelling) and applying a warm poultice of butter, onion, and garlic. Various other remedies were tried including arsenic, lily root and even dried toad” (
The Black Plague in Europe actually has three different variants. The most common form is known as the bubonic plague. This form is associated with swollen lymph nodes, headaches, nausea, fever that ranges from 100-105 degrees, aches, and vomiting. It would normally take up to seven days for a person to begin feeling symptoms of this version. The second version is called the pneumatic plague. This type affected the lungs and consisted of a mucus often with tints of blood that could be spotted in it. This particular version had a 90-95 percent death rate that was also connected with it. The closest comparison a person today could give it would be pneumonia that Americans suffer from today. The most rare version of this disease is called septicemic, and is the final version. This variant is the rarest because the host actually dies before having a chance to spread the disease.
The earliest known forms of this disease, the Black Plague, were the bubonic plague and the pyramidal Plague. This version was carried on horseback, but it was not confined to the horse. It infected about 15 percent of Americans.
The term bubonic plague “could well be related to the British plague of 1848.” Many other bubonic diseases carried over the years but this one was the first to cause the death of an American
Although the initial form of the infection was carried for around a year this outbreak became the most dangerous, due to the spread of the illness. At the end of the year a third type, the white fever, had spread from one person in 1866 to one person in 1885.
After being reported as bubonic plague in 1871, the American epidemic of bubonic plague in 1872 was the first to become public.
In the 1920s the American people began to see their own bubonic plague outbreaks—a disease that eventually spread to many parts of Europe and was not followed by the plague of today.
While bubonic plague can be dangerous on livestock, the first signs that bubonic plague can spread are its presence on birds. The most dangerous form was the most commonly seen plague of 1900, which led to a major epidemic—a disease associated with plague—and death for a generation.
The death toll rises as people grow older and grow sicker. For generations it was expected that the plague of the 1800s would spread without end, but in an early section of the 20th century, it became known as the bubonic plague. But a series of cases of bubonic plague in the early 20th century caused a huge number of deaths, including hundreds of thousands.
Despite the initial fear, in the early 1990s and early 2000s the public began to see serious bubonic plague outbreaks throughout the nation.
These outbreaks were spread by rail or air, such as by a series of trains, planes, trucks, and rail pylons on Amtrak service. Many of the more common cases occurred on buses and trains operated by private companies.