The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in
human history, killing an estimated 75 to 200 million people and peaking in
Europe in the years 1348–50 CE. Although there were several competing theories
as to the etiology of the Black Death, recent analysis of DNA from victims in
northern and southern Europe indicates that the pathogen responsible was the
Yersinia pestis bacterium, probably causing several forms of plague.
In Medieval England, the Black Death was to kill 1.5 million
people out of an estimated total of 4 million people between 1348 and 1350. No
medical knowledge existed in Medieval England to cope with the disease. After
1350, it was to strike England another six times by the end of the century.
Understandably, peasants were terrified at the news that the Black Death might
be approaching their village or town.
The Black Death is thought to have started in China or
central Asia. It then travelled along the Silk Road and reached the Crimea by
1346. From there, it was most likely carried by Oriental rat fleas living on
the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships. Spreading
throughout the Mediterranean and Europe, the Black Death is estimated to have
killed 30–60% of Europe's total population. All in all, the plague reduced the
world population from an estimated 450 million down to 350–375 million in the
14th century.
In towns and cities people lived very close together and
they knew nothing about contagious diseases. Also the disposal of bodies was
very crude and helped to spread the disease still further as those who handled
the dead bodies did not protect themselves in any way.
Lack of medical knowledge meant that people tried anything
to help them escape the disease. One of the more extreme was the flagellants.
These people wanted to show their love of God by whipping themselves, hoping
that God would forgive them their sins and that they would be spared the Black
Death.
The plague disease, generally thought to be caused by
Yersinia pestis, is enzootic (commonly present) in populations of fleas carried
by ground rodents, including marmots, in various areas including Central Asia,
Kurdistan, Western Asia, Northern India and Uganda. Nestorian graves dating to
1338–9 near Lake Issyk Kul in Kyrgizstan have inscriptions referring to plague
and are thought by many epidemiologists to mark the outbreak of the epidemic,
from which it could easily have spread to China and India.
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