Bubonic Plague

In 1346, a ship from Crimea arrived in Sicily with tiny passengers that would kill half of Europe. Fleas. Rats on the ship had fleas that carried the bacteria causing bubonic plague: a horrendous, painful disease causing huge dark lumps on the skin which rapidly spread over the victim’s body, usually leading to death. The population was terrified of catching this mysterious black death. They did not have any biological resistance to the new disease, so it spread rapidly through the populace already weakened by famine. To make matters worse, the bubonic plague was accompanied by the even deadlier pneumonic plague that caused death through slow asphyxiation. This plague was spread through the air by the victims’ extensive coughing and sneezing. Over the next three years, this dual plague spread across Europe killing half its population. It was endemic, so after it decimated a community, it would lie dormant for a while, only to resurface again a few years later. These waves of death flowing over Europe for a hundred years wreaked havoc on the psyche of the continent. To make matters worse, it primarily killed individuals in their childbearing years, drastically reducing the reproduction rate of the population for a century.

Previously, the high Middle Ages were a prosperous time because of the climatic change referred to as the medieval warm period or the little optimum. The higher temperatures resulted in milder and shorter winters and more rain in the summer months, creating larger harvests. Farmers also increased their production by lowering the amount of land they left fallow each year from half to only a third. They also were able to cultivate more land due to the invention of a new yoke fitted to prevent a horse from choking. Prior yokes were designed to be used by oxen and were not suitable for horses and mules. All of these factors led to a time of surplus and less arduous work. That all changed starting in 1346 with the advent of the bubonic plague, known as the black death, which devastated Europe.

See Black Death.

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