In the 14th century, a new disease emerged which soon to be was named “Black Death”. Theories speculate that it originated within central Asia or Northern India. Nonetheless, the disease created wide struck panic throughout Europe. Infectious waves occurred within Europe between 1347 and 1400 killing 25 – 50 million people. During this dark era, people ran like beheaded poultry in fear. No religious officials or medical physicians could truly grasp the concept of the plague. The plague was truly a widespread panic that touched every corner of Europe and left chaos in its wake.
People responded to the disaster with immeasurable fear. Anarchy ran loose and leadership was spread thin within most towns and villages. Many of these leadership issues …show more content…
Many of these opportunities relied on the deaths of others. One very interesting case would be at Casale. “… Smeared the bolts of the town gates with an ointment to spread the plague … in order to obtain their inheritances more quickly,” (Doc 4) as documented by Johann Weyer, a German physician. In some recorded diaries even nurses would “… make the patients die more quickly, because the sooner they died, the sooner the nurses collected the fees…” (Doc 11) showing the how corrupt the medical system could be when confronted with money. Many others were paid to paid in order to quarantine the sick “gold for the expense of the pest houses to quarantine the diseased” (Doc 6). Along with these lucrative deals, the honest merchants had a bit more trouble. “The trading nations of Europe were all afraid of us; no port of France, or Holland … would admit our ships” (Doc 14). The plague had of course decimated any foreign trade that had taken place. Fear of the plague depraved the European economy of all its growth. However, it did eventually bring around many positive aspects including the rise of the middle class due to a higher demand of labor and a focus on internalization instead of foreign trading dependencies. While chaos continued to persist, religiously and medically affiliated personnel tried to explain this
People responded to the disaster with immeasurable fear. Anarchy ran loose and leadership was spread thin within most towns and villages. Many of these leadership issues …show more content…
Many of these opportunities relied on the deaths of others. One very interesting case would be at Casale. “… Smeared the bolts of the town gates with an ointment to spread the plague … in order to obtain their inheritances more quickly,” (Doc 4) as documented by Johann Weyer, a German physician. In some recorded diaries even nurses would “… make the patients die more quickly, because the sooner they died, the sooner the nurses collected the fees…” (Doc 11) showing the how corrupt the medical system could be when confronted with money. Many others were paid to paid in order to quarantine the sick “gold for the expense of the pest houses to quarantine the diseased” (Doc 6). Along with these lucrative deals, the honest merchants had a bit more trouble. “The trading nations of Europe were all afraid of us; no port of France, or Holland … would admit our ships” (Doc 14). The plague had of course decimated any foreign trade that had taken place. Fear of the plague depraved the European economy of all its growth. However, it did eventually bring around many positive aspects including the rise of the middle class due to a higher demand of labor and a focus on internalization instead of foreign trading dependencies. While chaos continued to persist, religiously and medically affiliated personnel tried to explain this