An Analysis On The Transmission And Influences Of The Black Death In Western Europe

In the Mid-Fourteenth century, nearly the whole Western Europe encountered a great plague- the Black Death, which caused a large number of casualties, panic and crisis, hurling Western Europe into real dark. However, the plague gave birth to dawn in the same time. After experincing the test, Western Europe gained its own immunological competence gradually. The ancient regime was wavered by the change of belief, and new crisis was solved by social accomodation. Due to self-discovery and city-revival, the transformation of Western European society had started. The Black Death is one of the catalysts in the process, and the purport of this thesis is to search the historical orbit of Western Europe through the plague.Chapter I mainly described the pathogenesis of the Black Death, its transmission pathway, and the cause of its extensive outbreak in Western Europe. Actually, the Black Death is a communicable disease caused by Yersinia pestis. Some hemorrhagic spots turn up in patiences' body, and then change into killoes, which can lead to death in a short-term, so it is called the Black Death customarily. It can be divided into three types: bubonic plague, pneumonic plague and septicemic plague. In the beginning of its outbreak, bubonic plague is the mainly type, and then when it goes into the peak time, all three types coexiste. The Black Death originates from Asia, and makes its way to Western Europe by the military and trade activities of Mongol Empire. In 1346 or so, the Black Death arrived at Western Europe for the first time, it went along Crimea overland, and then went past Caffa to Italy by sea, shortly after that it swept almost the whole Western Europe. From 1347 to 1351, the Black Death inflicted heavy losses on Western Europe except some low countries, the western areas of Pyrenean and the middle part of Poland. To a certain extent, the large scale outbreak of the Black Death in Western Europe reflected certain crisis of the Western World. Prior to the Black Death, a cultivation movement had been carried out to deal with the problem of lacking lands. However, because of the randomness, the ecological balance had been encroached, which led to climatic anomaly, crop failure and food shortage. Thus people were malnourished and their immunity declined. Becides, in the Middle ages, the sanitation and medical technology of Western European cities were poor. All that resulted in the extensive transmission of the Black Death.Chapter II mainly discussed the social unrest of Western Europe during the spread of the Black Death and its rumors. In the course, due to the restricted conditions, doctors and scholars couldn't explain the pathogen rightly, so rumors came into being. For example, the Planet Merging Hypothesis , the Air Putridness Hypothesis, the Ghost Hypothesis and so on. All kinds of preventives came about accordingly, firing ghosts, smearing furnitures with vinegar, avoiding certain meat etc, which became the most popular methods in dealing with the plague all over Western Europe.As death went closer, all efforts went in vain, the social psychology of Western Europe changed sharply. Firstly , social relationship broke up. On one aspect, people attempted to defend themselves by rejecting others, for instance, healthy people rejected patiences, local people rejected outsiders, even neighbours guarded against each other. In a word, there was a great gulf fixed. On the other aspect, a mind and act of self-isolation brought about in the same time, that people ensealed themselves in empty houses. Secondly, people gave vent to their panic in several extrem ways, making a great pilgrimage, holding Flagellant Movement, persecuting Jews, performing the dance of death and so on. Nevertheless, all the activities made no sense, some people begun to doute about their belief, and then gave loose to profligate life. Western Europe wasbearing the torture of panic.Chapter III explained the influences of the Black Death on religin. Firstly,in terms of Christian Church , the plague wavered its despotic status in thoughts and politics. On one hand, when the plague came, Christian Church did nothing, plus its corruption, many people lost faith in it. On the other hand, there were also some duteous churchmen who died in the plague, whereas most of the new churchmen trained hastily by the Christian Church were irresponsible. This condition made the Christian Church go stale, and thus in later conflicts with the king, it was always in the dry tree. The world ruled by the Christianity had gone for ever.Secondly, in terms of the Catholics, when the Black Death was on its way, they witnessed the contrast of ideal and reality, the contradiction of belief and emotions, all that wavered the Almighty God in their mind. Some Catholics turned their vision from the great beyond to this life and begun to treasure the value of their life and themselves. Others discarded the Christian Church and turned to their own belief, hoping to get enlighten from the God directly. In the late- Fourteenth century, heresis and their followers came into being , they were the initiators of Reformation thought.Chapter IV explained the influences of the Black Death on economy. Firstly, the plague accelerated the collapse of serfdom. Before the plague, the development of commerce in Western Europe raised the status of money, which attacked the labour rent-oriented mode in traditional farms. The plague decreased huge amounts of labor force, changed the condition of crowded people and lacking lands. As a result, peasants didn't struggle to rent lands at a high price any more, they asked their lords for lower ground rent and higher pay instead. But the lords turned a deaf ear to their requirments, which led to a large scale of peasant movement. In the process of the fight, peasants gaind their freedom gradually, they could never been resticted to lands, the foundation of serfdom fell apart.Secondly, the Black Death urged the adjustment of agricultrual structure. After the plague, peasants converged on the good quality lands inland and begun a new intensive cultivation. Thanks to the seasonable weather, corns had a good harvest. However, due to the sharply fall of the gross population, there was a decline in corn needs. So there was a oversupply of crons, which made the price drop greatly. It was apparent that planting corns only could not obtain benefits. The commercial profits impeled peasants to carry out fixed farming and to invest in animal husbandry.Thirdly, also the most important aspect, the Black Death pushed forward the revival of city economy. In the beginning of its outbreak, it was cities that took a beating badly due to their unhygienic state. However, because that city economy gave priority to handicraft industry, it could recover more easily than agriculture. Besides, due to people's psychologicl change, they pursued the enjoyment of this life, thus the demand of jewelry and fur increased, but handcraftmen in the city had decreased as a result of the plague, the price of luxury goods went up accordingly. To the contrary, the price of agricultural goods went down sharply. So money diverted to cities form every corner, which provided a economical basis of cities's development. After the attack, the Black Death became a turning point of the Western Europe instead, pushing city economy to a new peorid. Of course, the plague itself is not the immediate cause of cities' revival, but it accelerated the pace of cities' development undoutedly. That was a gradual process, but full of great strength.