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History and Evolution:
By William E. Steinman:
Part 94, The Black Death:
January 10, 2005:
Sometimes there are important historical events which affect the flow of history, but are not man made. There are also history changing events which are only indirectly attributable to man. We should not overlooked these things when their affect is profound. One such event was the plague that occurred in the reigns of Edward III and Richard II. This was the infamous Black Death that ravaged Europe in the 14th century. I passed over this in my discussion of the Renaissance Men. Now, since it influence English history, I want to give it a closer look.
This plague certainly influenced the military efforts of both of the English Kings of that time. Edward III ruled from 1327 to 1377 and Richard II ruled from 1377 to 1400. The plague that swept Europe in those times began in 1347 and recurred over a period of years until the final outbreak in 1400. Some estimates put the death total around 25 million humans or around 25% of the entire population of Europe. Not even Hitler did that much damage.
Plague is a rodent's disease that sometimes infects humans. It is transmitted by the so called rat flea that is always found as a parasite in the rat population. Usually it is not a threat to man, but it can become a threat in some situations. One way this can occur is when the infection becomes a plague in a local rodent community. So many rats die off that the fleas from the dead rats must seek other hosts. In crowded urban conditions those hosts will be men and women. If all conditions are favorable, that first infection can become an epidemic. Clearly, that is what happened in Europe in the 14th century.
The Black Plague derives its name from the color of the hemorrhages that appear on the skin of the victims. There are three clinical forms of this disease, but the majority of cases in humans will begin as what is called bubonic plague. This is bad enough in that, before modern medicine, it meant almost certain death, but it relies on the flea for transmission. In the highly contagious pneumonic stage of the plague the flea falls out of the loop. The victim's lungs become infected and the disease is transmitted from person to person by respiratory fluids from the victim. Then, anyone near that victim is likely to become a victim. This is nearly always fatal.
Plague symptoms can be misleading because they are similar in the very early stages to the symptoms of flu. There are the fevers, chills, and exhaustion that normally accompany flu. These symptoms quickly change however and the more obvious symptoms begin to appear. These are vomiting, headache, giddiness, intolerance to light; pain in the back and limbs; sleeplessness, apathy, and sometimes delirium along with elevated temperatures. In our modern times, these infections can be treated with streptomycin, tetracycline, and sulfonamides. Of course, sanitation efforts and isolation of victims must accompany the treatment if epidemics are to be avoided. For sure, none of these tools were available in the 14th century.
For the plague in 14th century Europe humans were not entirely innocent victims. The plague had originally infected China and Asia, but not Europe. It was actually deliberately introduced into a Genoese outpost in the Crimea. A Kipchak army from the Turkic confederation of the Eurasian Steppe did the deed. While besieging the outpost they devised the rather hideous scheme of using catapults to hurtle infected corpses into the town. Nice guys, don't you think? Of course, the besieged townspeople could not escape and the infection took hold.
From that outpost the disease spread through the Mediterranean and swept across Europe and into England. Hardest hit were Tuscany, Aragon, Catalonia, and Languedoc. Milan, Flanders, and Béarn suffered less disastrously. Of course, closely populated towns and cities were more affected that the isolate folk of the countryside. And, this disease was no respecter of the privileged and the powerful. Kings, queens, and relative of kings and queens fell to the grim reaper in this plague. No country or people avoided the disaster. It took Europe two centuries to recover its former population. The English population was also decimated.
One could think this would have caused an interruption of war,
and it did, for a very short time. However, humans being what
they are, insanity and the lust for power and wealth proved out.
War continued shortly thereafter and continues to this day. There
was other economic impact. The resultant shortage of human labor
caused marked improvement in working conditions for tenant farmers
and artisans and even peasants. The silver lining, I suppose.
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