How Did The Black Death Affect The Byzantine Civilization

Throughout history, mankind has been faced with several catastrophes and crises that needed to be overcame to ensure existence. Three epidemic plagues that humanities are credited to have defeated are the Black Death of the fourteenth century, the Justinian Plague, and the late nineteenth century Chinese Plague (Rosen 247). Being said, one of the most destructive disaster’s the human race has witnessed was the Black Death, which devastated the structure of the world at the time. A civilization known as the Byzantine Empire was one of several civilizations that became a victim of the plague. The Black Death, for which the exact cause remains unknown, is estimated to have wiped out approximately 60 percent of Europe (CDC). The great civilization …show more content…
The Byzantine economy relied on agriculture to support the people. Although the plague reduced the population significantly the demand for food increased significantly. This exponential growth in food and production costs came about because there was a lack of workers and the civilization could not produce enough food to satisfy the people within (Rosen 309). A mass starvation resulted amongst the Byzantine Empire and many who were not infected with the Bubonic Plague still perished due to a lack of food. Properly depicting how the Black Death was the final fatal blow to the Byzantine Civilization resulting in the eventual collapse. Along with the destruction of the agricultural industry during this time period a large amount of financial business’ respective to the era completely stopped. As the number of people to complete work diminished wages increased. However, due to inflation the increased wages did not result in the peasants to be able to suffice their lifestyle based upon their income. As time progressed and the economic structure weakened a collapse of the economy was an unprecedented outcome of the Black Death. As stated by The Medieval