Potential Question #12- The Black Plague & its impact Flashcards
(19 cards)
The Bubonic Plague came from —-
Asia
Disease was spread by-
fleas on rats
Explanation of how the Plague got to Europe-
Ships constantly travelled between Italy and Asia — Italy was a major trading hub
When Italian boats were docked, rats infested with plague-carrying fleas climbed onto the ropes holding the ships in place and got into the ships
When the ships arrived in Italian cities, the rats got off
The fleas on the rats spread to humans and started biting, and the plague began.
How were rats and fleas transported throughout the world?
As people traveled between cities, the rats and fleas were transported throughout the world
By the time people realized the rats and fleas carried the plague, nothing could be done
What caused people to not notice the Plague until it was too late?
Due to the unsanitary conditions of many cities, people did not notice until it was too late
No one bathed; people threw waste out of their windows — this encouraged rat populations
What effect did the plague have on sanitary habits?
People eventually realized this and adopted better standards of hygiene — although this happened too late to do anything about the plague, basic cleanliness standards started becoming the new norm
What percentage of Europe died from the plague?
1 out of every 3 people died (An entire third of Europe’s population killed)
Italy lost ⅔ of its population
Which European country recovered the fastest? Why?
What resulted from this speedy recovery?
The Italians recovered first from the plague because it swept through Italy first.
While the rest of Europe was still being ravaged by the plague, the Italians were rebuilding, leading up to the Italian Renaissance
Italy being the first to go through the Black Death ended up being good for them
Four Logics-
Witchcraft
Wild pleasure binges – drinking, partying
Punished themselves with whips
Persecute Jewish People
Witchcraft-
Logic: “Praying to God isn’t working, so let’s use dark magic and pray to the devil instead!”
Wild pleasure binges – drinking, partying-
Logic: “The world is ending and we’re all going to die anyway, so we might as well enjoy ourselves in our last days.”
this is unironically pretty logical
Punished themselves with whips-
Logic: “God must be punishing us for our sins with the plague — we have to please him by repenting and punishing ourselves ”
People who whipped themselves were called flagellants (Not to be confused with flatulence)
Persecuted Jewish people-
In general, Jewish people had better hygiene than non-Jewish Europeans (they bathed more frequently and disposed of waste responsibly), so they caught the plague much less often
Logic: Jewish people aren’t getting the plague, so they… must be giving it to us! (Antisemitism was widespread)
People persecuted Jews because they thought they needed to stop them
Impact of plague on workers-
Large part of the population was killed – there were now less workers
A shortage of workers led to their labor being more in demand — Workers could request raises, and received them
Impact of higher wages-
Higher wages meant employers had to increase prices to compensate
Higher costs led people to buy less goods
Less buying meant less money for employers
Employers couldn’t afford the workers’ labor, and fired them
What method did employers in the countryside initiate to save money?
In the countryside (farmland), many of these employers switched to raising livestock — less people were involved in this work
What did countryside workers do as a result of their employers new method?
In the countryside, fired workers couldn’t find employment —they were forced to move to cities
Masses of the now-unemployed workers converged on major cities
Guilds-
How did this impact cities?
Guilds would not let most of these new workers join
Guilds accepted limited numbers of people — letting too many people join would increase competition, lowering prices — guild workers did not want this
Cities were now overflowing with jobless, homeless, impoverished peasants — cities became filthy and dangerous
It took nearly 100 years to recover economically
Summary of the economic impacts from the plague:
Many workers die in plague→ workers ask for raises→ prices increase→ less people buy goods → employers switch to livestock & fire workers→ workers move to cities en masse→ guilds bar membership→ masses of homeless people in cities
