The Black Death
The Black Death was a deadly plague, made up of the septicaemic, the pneumonic and the bubonic plague. It occurred during the Middle Ages killing millions from China, across to Europe and down to Africa and Egypt. The plague was a pandemic because this it was so brutal and damaged a vast amount of the population in many different countries.
The septicaemic
The rarest and most deadly form of the plague was the septicaemic. It attacked you from your blood stream and within hours of contracting this form of the plague you would be dead. There weren’t really any symptoms for this particular form because almost as soon as you caught it you died, however some people with …show more content…
The symptoms of this form of the plague were buboes or boils that appeared at first like red welts found near the groin, armpits or around the neck, eventually they turned from being red to purple to black. They were filled with pus and blood. The size of the buboes varied from as big as an egg to as large as an apple.
Other symptoms of the Black plague included fever, chills, diarreah, vomiting as well as other aches and pains.
When and where
The Black Death occurred during the 14th century or the 1300’s. The plague first broke out in 1330 in the north east of China. In 1346 the plague reached the city of Kaffa on the black sea, the Genoan merchants visiting China also return to Sicily, spreading the disease. By 1347 the Genoan merchants had also spread the disease to Constantinople, Cyprus as well as Venice in modern day Italy and Alexandria in Egypt. In 1348 the plague reached French cities Marseilles and Paris, also making its’ way into Spain, then moving to England along the Rhine river and into Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The plague then reached Aswan in Egypt, the entire Islamic world was also affected. By 1350 the plague had infected all the countries in the Mediterranean Sea as well as further into Eastern Europe, Russia and the rest of Scandinavia. By 1352 the plague was widespread across …show more content…
So almost everyone was affected by the Black Death. Others were dying due to different causes as well but the Black Death was the biggest factor on the death toll.
Cures and Causes
The origin of the plague
The actual cause of the Black Death was the fleas carrying the diseases, these fleas infected the rats and dogs that lived in the disgusting cities. When these host animals eventually died the fleas would then infect the humans by drinking their blood. This caused the disease. The spread of it however was due to the extremely unhygienic conditions and the merchants traveling over the globe. As it was an air borne disease it could also be contracted if you were near someone when they sneezed or coughed, meaning it also infected some of the air you breathed in.
Revolting living conditions
The spread of the plague was helped greatly by the revolting conditions that the people lived in, especially in cities, in the cities there were rats and flea infested animals living both inside houses and on the streets. There was faeces of both humans and animals alike littering the road, people would only have baths once maybe twice a