Negative Effects Of Black Death On Society

Improved Essays
One third of Europe’s population simply vanished. Small plots of land and villages disappeared. Fields that where once filled with crops were now filled with mounds of dirt covering the dead. These were the results of a devastating plague that swept through Europe during the 14th century, taking the lives of adults, children and animals. This plague, known as the Black Death, took the lives of 25 million people. However, out of the death and decay, came new ideas that served the British society for the better. Before the plague, the British social structure consisted of peasants, royalty, and knights and lords. The peasants had no possible way of making it up to the higher class and the middle class did not exist. Twenty-five million people …show more content…
The plague was a cause of extreme persecution of Jews. However, it lead to a more open and accepting society. Such as those who were disappointed with the church, looked at other religions. This would greatly reduce the persecution. Before the Black Death, Europe was highly over-populated. The plague decreased the total population, which led to better living conditions and a better standard of living for the lower class. Many believe that the Black Death destroyed the core of the Christian religion. It did this, but it had a positive effect. The loss of belief in Christianity meant that civilians could put their trust behind the country’s political leaders, which led to greater unity, since all could follow a leader without being separated by personal beliefs. Despite the negative side of the Black Death, it still had a positive effect overall on European Society and England as …show more content…
It allowed them to make a profit and pick their living conditions. The new system of the lower class helped balance money within the economy. It took the money of the wealthy people and gave it to the lower class through payments. Finally, the removal of the church helped make a more united England without bringing down the walls of religion, since its core was politics.Religion wasn’t even thought of. The Black Death of the 1300’s positively remade the face of religious, social, and economic England by altering the structure of the system, reversing the movement of and balancing wealth within society. This proof shows that good can come from disaster, no matter how significant the situation

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Black Death Facts

    • 1288 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Black Death -The bacterial disease that atrophied Europe between 1347-1351, taking an equitably greater amount of life than any other known epidemic or war up to that point. The Black Death is broadly thought to have been the result of infection by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. 5 Facts: • Many doctors believed that bad smells could force out the plague. Therefore, treatments for the disease included applying feces and urine, and other substances that were much more likely to spread disease than to cure it. • Y. Pestis utilized the flea by blocking its digestive tract.…

    • 1288 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Some of the effects of mediaeval Europe on the black plague where change in the social structure, economy, religion and the country. The black plague killed about 60 percent of the population in mediaeval Europe. The black plague affected the way people thought and spend their money. One of the big problems during the black plague was inflation.…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The effect of the black plague on medieval Europe lead to these factors, the economy declined, people stopped believing in god, and it caused people to turn on each other. The economy was decreasing because employers were dying from the plague which caused less work and money. People were beginning to turn their backs on one another as the plague was spreading rapidly. Believing in god was out of the question for some people who lost loved ones and prayed with no answers. A declining economy sounds like trouble, well it was for the people in medieval Europe.…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Black Death DBQ Essay

    • 1826 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Middle Ages was a time of trouble for the Europeans. The Black Death was one of those problems. The Black death eventually had killed off half of the population. The Black Death had spread through the Middle East and Asia and ended up in Europe. No matter what social class people were from, everyone was affected.…

    • 1826 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The deadly disease known as The Black Death killed about 1-3 of Europe`s population. It helped start modern medicine. It changed the way Europe worked. The Black Death is considered one of the deadliest diseases in the history of mankind.…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Black Death was known as the “Great Mortality.” It happened in between the years of 1347 and 1350. The amount of lives lost during this pandemic suddenly stopped the economic expansion that spread throughout Europe and Islam (Smith et al. 478). The Black Death resulted in an estimated 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia. The black death not only affected the population it also affected the way the economy was set up.…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    So the Black Plague had many affects upon Europe’s population. According to an article Depopulation, Rebellion and Social Progress, about one third of the population died, the farm space went unused, farm animals dying and the labor of Europe going down. The Plague made Europe weak and dead for two years. They starved because the Plague was destroying the farmlands and farm animals. The farms couldn’t sustain because the Plague was killing the laborers.…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Review essay: The articles compared within this essay are John Hatcher’s ‘The Aftermath of the Black Death in England’ alongside James Westfall Thompson’s ‘The Aftermath of the Black Death and the Aftermath of the Great war’. Both articles discuss the economic impact of the Black Death, Hatcher’s focus is on England and the misconceptions of stability in England. With his main argument concerning whether the aftermath of the Black Death was truly a state of crisis and the inevitability of this disease. Whilst Thompson explores how the people throughout Europe were impacted and how the continent dealt with the crisis, with his argument taking a alternative approach focusing more on how the structure of societies began to transform and reshape themselves during this era, providing a broader perspective.…

    • 900 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Little order was left in Europe and all could only live in fear, praying they would not be the next victim of this deadly plague. No person was safe during the Black Plague and no amount of money or wealth could save you from the certain death that would come if you were to be infected by the Black Plague.…

    • 395 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bubonic Plague DBQ

    • 422 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Bubonic Plague was devastating to European Society because it spread throughout Europe quickly, there was not a treatment(no one knew what it was), and it had declined the population. Because of this, European Society will never be the…

    • 422 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Black Death scared so many people that they decided to come up with the medication and supplies for modern time. “The Black Death did set the stage for more modern medicine and spurred changes in public health and hospital management.” God was also a big part in the social and economic effects. People thought that it was gods fault and that he had betrayed them, making them want to betray him. “Feeling, essentially, that God had turned his back on them, the people reacted to the end of the Black Death by turning their backs on him.”…

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The word “pandemic” can be defined as a disease that takes over a whole country or even the world. The Black Death was exactly that, one of the most shocking and serious pandemics that took over Europe and Asia in the Middle Ages. The Black Death, also known as the Bubonic Plague, reached Europe in the late 1340s and killed around 25 million people there; altogether, it eventually killed an estimated 75 million people worldwide. The Black Death originated in China in the 1330s. China was a very popular nation for trade at the time, which led to a quick spread of this disease.…

    • 1337 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Essay On The Black Plague

    • 1209 Words
    • 5 Pages

    During the 14th century, around 75 to 200 million people died because of the disease known as the Black Plague. These numbers show that around a third of Europe’s population was completely wiped out. Many terrible changes occurred including the rich and the poor going against each other, blaming one another for causing this horrific disease. The Black Plague was the worst epidemic that has ever been recorded in the world’s history because of the disease’s ability to spread rapidly, the terrible process of infection, and as well as the long term effects that it had on Europe.…

    • 1209 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Black Death Dbq

    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Fortunately, the outbreak of the bubonic plague in Europe between 1347 and 1352 was a positive event in history. The black death in Europe between 1347 and 1352 was a positive event in history for many reason. Some key reasons include the result of prices going down due to the fear of death, wages rising showing signs of a weakening feudalism and workers became more independent.…

    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Black Plague Dbq Essay

    • 1392 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The bubonic plague, once hitting Europe, resulted in the death of 25 million people. Outbreaks during this catastrophe resulted in medieval society falling apart, for instance, the spread of this disease, the efforts to terminate it, and the reactions from foreign nations as well as Europe’s citizens, generated the shortage of labor all over Europe, as well as demands for higher wages, which were never agreed to, and the loss of faith, when people desperately prayed for salvation, with no answer. The Black Death arrived in Europe by sea, passengers on the Genoese trading ships were greatly infected, and their short arrival paved the way for the death of two thirds of the European population throughout the next five years. The plague and…

    • 1392 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays