The Start of the Black Death
The Black Death is a disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. These microscopic bugs can grow and divide millions of times in an hour, and take over and kill any host they live in. The bacterium spread in fleas on rats that came to Europe from Asia via the Silk Road. This was a trading route through Afghanistan, India, the Middle East, then north via Persia (Iran) or south via Egypt, to the area now knows as the Crimea. Since rats spread rapidly in search of food, water and shelter, soon the disease spread from southern to western then northern Europe. From the Crimea to the Mediterranean, France, England and all over the continent.
The Black Death (or bubonic plague) was one of the worst diseases in the history of mankind. In the mid-fourteenth century the plague killed millions of people. Over a period of six hundred years it might have killed as many as 200 million people. Whole towns were wiped out in a matter of days. Rats moved onto ships and infected sailors, who spread the disease further. People avoided sailors, visitors, travelling salesmen, because they guessed the disease might be spreading this way. In the seventeenth century the disease spread from Holland to England via fleas living in fabric being traded between these countries. Fleas take blood from their host, but this allows the bacterium to spread. Fleas can live up to a hundred days, so this makes the disease hard to stop.
These are a few of the many ways the Black Death spread. Because fourteenth century physicians and healers couldn't explain the cause of the Black Death, they offered many possible explanations. For example, Jews poisoning wells, earthquakes and religious reasons (God's punishment for people's sins). There was almost no medical knowledge about the disease's causes and certainly not about how to treat it or stop its spread. In England, people thought dogs were spreading the disease, and killed all the strays, but they had been the only animal killing the rats that were actually the problem!
The Black Death is a disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. These microscopic bugs can grow and divide millions of times in an hour, and take over and kill any host they live in. The bacterium spread in fleas on rats that came to Europe from Asia via the Silk Road. This was a trading route through Afghanistan, India, the Middle East, then north via Persia (Iran) or south via Egypt, to the area now knows as the Crimea. Since rats spread rapidly in search of food, water and shelter, soon the disease spread from southern to western then northern Europe. From the Crimea to the Mediterranean, France, England and all over the continent.
The Black Death (or bubonic plague) was one of the worst diseases in the history of mankind. In the mid-fourteenth century the plague killed millions of people. Over a period of six hundred years it might have killed as many as 200 million people. Whole towns were wiped out in a matter of days. Rats moved onto ships and infected sailors, who spread the disease further. People avoided sailors, visitors, travelling salesmen, because they guessed the disease might be spreading this way. In the seventeenth century the disease spread from Holland to England via fleas living in fabric being traded between these countries. Fleas take blood from their host, but this allows the bacterium to spread. Fleas can live up to a hundred days, so this makes the disease hard to stop.
These are a few of the many ways the Black Death spread. Because fourteenth century physicians and healers couldn't explain the cause of the Black Death, they offered many possible explanations. For example, Jews poisoning wells, earthquakes and religious reasons (God's punishment for people's sins). There was almost no medical knowledge about the disease's causes and certainly not about how to treat it or stop its spread. In England, people thought dogs were spreading the disease, and killed all the strays, but they had been the only animal killing the rats that were actually the problem!
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A timeline to show where the plague moved to and what year and what part of that year it was in that particular area.
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Burning the people that are dead so that the Black Death will not spread to others.
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The fighting in Crimea where the Black Death started to spread to Asia thanks to the Mongol Empire.
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