The Black Death Essay: The Scourge of Europe

 

We are lucky enough to be born in the age of medical care and insurance, when almost every disease can be cured, we have a hope for better at least. Even in the worst situations, we expect new meds and medical treatment’s methods to be discovered as it is possible due to the science development. Curious about medicine? Read an informative essay about cancer research. So, if you catch yourself complaining about medical services, doctors who seem to be indifferent or high costs of medicaments, just read this essay on the Black Death, composed by our professional online essay’s writers, and you will realize that our health care system isn’t such awful as you believe. 

One of the most nefarious disasters of the Middle Ages, the Black Death caused by yersinia pestis bacteria (germ, found by famous scientist Alexandre Yersin in the 19th century in France), reached its peak in the years 1346–1353. The researchers can’t name exact number of victims; they fluctuate between 75 and 200 million people in Eurasia, but in fact, the situation there was much worse, just imagine the number of bodies that weren’t taken into consideration in such a terrible mess!

Black Death essay: why did it appear?

In the fatal October day in 1347, 12 trading ships landed Sicilia after an exhausting journey. The people cheering the arrivals in a port soon understood that something went wrong: ships were full of corpses, those, who were still alive, suffered from unknown and eerie disease. To add an extra pinch of weird, the locals were horrified by the infernal image – sailors were covered by mysterious black boils, full of disgusting excreta. The authorities gave an order to send these ships away posthaste, but, unfortunately, it was too late and since that moment Europe started to sink in tears, blood and pain.

Rumors in the air

Even before ships’ arrival to the port of Sicilian city, the Europeans had already heard about a strange disease, which followed the path of trade routes of the East. So, Eastern world was the first to suffer from the plaque: epidemics acquired an enormous character in China, India, Persia, Syria and Egypt. By the way, did you know that America was the last country to suffer from the bubonic plague, as it reached USA only in 1900? Reveal more facts about this country in the essay on the American dream. The first pestilence of the Black Death is considered to break out in Kyrgyzstan, where the graves with inscriptions represented the plaque dating to 1338–1339, were found as a proof of this theory. The other theory suggested all three waves of this terrible disease to emerge in Chine. Anyway, the importance of origins of the plaque evaporates on the background of its immensity.

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Plaque plethora

For sure, the most notorious all over the world is bubonic plague with its swollen lymph nodes called buboes, as everybody has definitely heard about it, but there also are a variety of other types and kinds of this awful disaster. For instance:

  • septicemic plague – the bacteria can easily move into every part of the organism as it has entered the blood.
  • pneumonic plague – born from the lung infection
  • pharyngeal plague – isn’t as common as the plaque’s forms above and at the very beginning seems to be just an angina. Pharyngeal plague can emerge in cases of close contact with patients suffering from other kinds of plaque.
  • meningeal plague – this kind of disease gives as a result grave meningitis.

Symptomes

Do you want to examine your friends and found out if they have a plaque? Our experienced writer team has made for you’re a list of symptoms, so you are welcome!

Fever, general weakness, appearance of swellings, pain attacks, spitting or vomiting of blood, muscle cramps, chills, headache are common signs of the Black Death and if you have at least half of them, I have very bad news for you.

Transmission

 The idea of rats like the main transporters of the stick-shaped yersinia pestis bacteria is widely spread, but few of us know about other carriers of the plaque such as habitual fleas and lice. What about the transmission of the plaque from sick people to healthy, here almost all thinkable ways to catch a disease are possible starting from direct and indirect physical contact (touching the objects that have been touched by a patient in the second case), droplet contact (it’s when another person cough or sneeze on you), even to an airborne transmission (when bacteria rest in the air for a certain period).   

Despite a variety of ways to get ill, some cases of survival straight in the heart of pestilence rest unexplained, exactly this fact generated the theory of plaque’s divine origin.

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A curse sent by God?

As it was almost impossible to explain the origin of the Black Death and find a cure at the Middle Ages, for ordinary Christians it was easier to believe at the divine appearance of the disease. The authorities of the cities was searching for the indulgence, interdicting the usage of alcohol and forcing into application the curfew as they believed it can save the city. Read more about alcohol abuse in our alcohol addiction essay. An idea of divine punishment for the sins gathered thousands of people around of Lord's Table, begging for mercy. The conviction became an obsession and people were obliged to lead a strict and devout life even under the fear of death penalty. If you don’t know the history of death penalty, you are welcome to read about it here https://smartwriters.org/blog/death-penalty-argumentative-essay.

Thank God, we live in the 21st century

The doctors didn’t want to examine the patients, the priests avoided confessing those who were at the death’s door in order to save their own lives, the bodies filled the streets, burial fires were burnt day and night… The Black Death pestilence like a gloomy shadow covered the Europe in the mid-late-fourteenth century and took away millions of lives. Looking back on the horrors of the Middle Age history we can declare without doubt: «Thank God, we live in the 21st century»! If you like this Black Death essay and turned on history, choose essay writing service with smart writers and get an informative work about any history period!

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