Summary:
The bubonic or pneumatic plague was awful sicknesses in which lymph nodes (in your armpits, groin, and neck) swelled up. These were called buboes, which is where the disease got its name. The people of the middle ages were helpless against the plague that was sweeping across Asia and Europe. The bubonic plague was transmitted by direct contact with an infected flea.
The bubonic and pneumatic plague was awful sicknesses in which lymph nodes (in your armpits, groin, and neck) swelled up. These were called buboes, which is where the disease got its name. The people of the middle ages were helpless against the plague that was sweeping across Asia and Europe. The bubonic plague was transmitted by direct contact with an infected flea. The flea's esophagus is blocked by bacteria, and no blood is able to get to its stomach. The flea tries to satiate its extreme hunger, and when it bites a new host, it vomits infected blood in to the open wound. The human is then infected, and can transmit the pneumatic plague, by spraying droplets in the air and contaminating those around him.
This appalling disease is believed to have started in Asia. A city was struck with the plague, and they believed it to be the church's fault. They sent an army to Caffa, where the Christian Genoese had holed themselves up. The army was also falling to the plague while they were attacking Caffa, so they decided to let the church suffer as well, and used catapults to launch the dead corpses over the walls. The Genoese fled to Italy, taking the Black Death with them.
The results of the Black Death varied. The western European population decreased by 1/3, 25 million people. It was partially so effective because the Europeans were already weakened because more sheep and bad farming lead to poor soil. Also the Scottish were constantly invading. Another result of the Black Death was that the Church's credibility (the doctors took a severe blow also). This was because they promised remedies and cures, and none worked. This made it so that the common people distrusted the church and patronage went down. The church only knew of one way to fix this, so they blamed the plague on the Jews. The economy, however, was probably hit hardest of all. There was so much death that people with skills were far more valued than the wealthy, and demanded much more money. Serfs became less respectful of their masters and wanted to live life, since they had seen so much death. Power was shifting. Also a lot of the law enforcement was gone, and laws were being broken everywhere.
This plague, the Black Death, was very terrifying. We can only hope that it does not happen again, such as with biological weapons. There is still no cure for the Bubonic plague, and there would be devastation equal to that of what happened almost seven hundred years ago...with 1/3 maybe more of our population dead, looters prowling the streets, our economy failing, the church being challenged, among other things.
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