History / Background

History / Background

Looking backward into the ...

History of The Black Plague

The plague started in China and made it's way west across Asia to the Black Sea by 1347. One theory is that a group of infected Tartars besieged a Genoese outpost on the cost. To harass the trapped townspeople, the Tartars used their catapults to hurl the dead bodies of their comrades over the town walls spreading the epidemic among the Genoede. The panicked inhabitants fled the scene by ship showing up in the ports of northern Italy and bringing the Black Death to Europe.

When the plague first struck Europe it was scattered, but rapidly spread because the Europeans did not know that it was severely contagious and still went about their normal lives visiting friends and family trasmitting the plague to any one and every one they spoke to.

The "Black Plague" was the disease we call Bubonic Plague, spread by a bacillus usually carried by rodents and transmitted to humans by fleas. The plague first hit western Europe in 1347, and by 1350 it had killed nearly a third of the population. Although some of the details of the plague offered in this putative "Ring Around the Rosie" explanation are reasonably accurate (sneezing was one of the symptoms of a form of the plague, for example, and some people did use flowers, incense, and perfumed oils to try to ward off the disease).


				BLACK PLAGUE *History / Background*



	Home \| Photo Album \| History / Background \| Symptoms of the plague \| Related Links \| Contact Me


		Looking backward into the ...



		History of The Black Plague The plague started in China and made it's way west across Asia to the Black Sea by 1347. One theory is that a group of infected Tartars besieged a Genoese outpost on the cost. To harass the trapped townspeople, the Tartars used their catapults to hurl the dead bodies of their comrades over the town walls spreading the epidemic among the Genoede. The panicked inhabitants fled the scene by ship showing up in the ports of northern Italy and bringing the Black Death to Europe.						When the plague first struck Europe it was scattered, but rapidly spread because the Europeans did not know that it was severely contagious and still went about their normal lives visiting friends and family trasmitting the plague to any one and every one they spoke to. The "Black Plague" was the disease we call Bubonic Plague, spread by a bacillus usually carried by rodents and transmitted to humans by fleas. The plague first hit western Europe in 1347, and by 1350 it had killed nearly a third of the population. Although some of the details of the plague offered in this putative "Ring Around the Rosie" explanation are reasonably accurate (sneezing was one of the symptoms of a form of the plague, for example, and some people did use flowers, incense, and perfumed oils to try to ward off the disease).



		site created by Caitlin Reeb