Summary:
During the late 1400s the Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death, took the lives of an estimated one-third of Europe's population, including the rich, the nobility, the clergy, and the poor. In the process, people began questioning the power of the Church, which could not provide any answers for the epidemic, and the Church began losing its influence in Europe. Europe's economy eventually saw positive effects from the epidemic, as the lower class began to sell their labor for pay and more modernized forms of government began to take shape.
During the late 1400s thousands of people were falling ill to the same sickness that would eventually take their lives. In the course of less than four years this plague, Bubonic Plague, took an estimated one-third of Europe's population. For many the Black Death was the true beginning of the Dark Ages.
Unlike other sickness it claimed the lives of the rich, noble, clergy, and poor. Nothing could be done for those struck with the plague; Families abandoned each other in fear of catching the plague themselves. Children wouldn't be seen in the streets, people hid in the sanctuary of their own homes, trying to trap out the stink of rotting bodies which laid on the streets. Church's closed their doors to people seeking God's forgiveness, knowing that the Holy Spirit couldn't save them now. People first began questioning the power of The Church, for they didn't have any answers for what was happening.
Before the black death the Church had power over many of the things going on in Europe. They were able to tax people, send people to jail for being heretics and to shun people. The church basically was Europe's government. It was only when people ran to the Church for refuge during the plague, that many people started to question the clergy's power. It was said,"the plague was God's way of punishing those who've sinned." People couldn't believe that God would kill so many people, so many nobility, just because they had sinned: Wasn't that the reason Jesus had died on the cross for them"
When people lost faith in the Church to provide cures for the epidemic, they converted to home-made remedies to fight it off. All their attempts were feeble, for more and more people fell to the ground while doing their daily activities.
People banished each other; neighbors never visited each other, parents abandoned their children leaving them to die. Those who were sick were relocated to different places were they wouldn't spread the disease. Sometimes nurses and nuns would risk their own lives to tend to those dying. Wheelbarrows carried those found dead in the streets to big bon fire where the corpses were burned.
The Black Death began with the bacteria "Yersina Pestis", which first came across black rats aboard trade ships. It is believed that at first the bacteria was transmitted from animal to animal, then form animal to human, then later it began to become airborne; which was the time when Europe's death rate began to really soar high. Once someone contracted the fatal disease, his or her lungs would fill up with liquid, and the person would drown in his or her own blood. It was indeed the most frightening way to die, struggling trying to gasp for air but only breathing in your own blood. Blackening on one's skin due to the blood clots was where the Black Death got its name, for many of the victims' bodies had turned to an unsightly black.
Despite the fact that one-third of Europe's population died during the Black Plague, it did have some positive effects of Europe's economy. The lower class could finally charge the noble class for the daily jobs that they did. No longer did they need to work for free. The Church was thrown out of power, and people converted to a more modernized sort of government, where they the citizens had voice in their community. This is how a tiny germ changed the views and the economy of Europe.
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