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What was the Black Death? -

The Black Death was the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history. It marked the beginning of the so-called Second Pandemic, a series of devastating outbreaks that spanned from the 1300s to the early 1800s. A bubonic plague, the Black Death was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis or Y. pestis.

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Fleas -

Human ectoparasites, like body lice and human fleas, were very likely responsible for the rapid spread of the bacterium, according to a recent study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

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Black rat -

The PNAS report counters conventional wisdom that suggests black rats and their fleas were responsible for the transmission of the disease. That said, scientists generally agree that the pandemic was probably carried by fleas living on black rats, the rodents serving as reservoir hosts. But where did the Black Death originate?

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Origin of the Black Death -

The Black Death probably originated in East Asia, most likely emerging in Mongolia around 1346. It made its definitive appearance in Crimea in 1347, brought there by rats traveling across the Black Sea on Genoese merchant ships. The region is represented by this inverted map of Egypt, Turkey, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and the Black Sea, as illustrated in the Catalan Atlas, published in 1375.

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Outbreak -

From Crimea, several vessels departed for various European destinations. One ship arrived in Constantinople, where over 90% of the city's population would eventually succumb to the plague. The rapid demise of the populace supports the provocative PNAS study, that once it came ashore fleas and lice picked up the plague by biting an infected human, and could potentially hop onto another person in close quarters and transmit the disease.

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Spread to Italy -

Later in 1347, another vessel arrived in Sicily, the crew barely alive. The disease spread rapidly all over the island. Fleeing residents then carried it with them to mainland Italy, where one third of the population were dead by the following summer. Pictured is an infected patient in Florence being carried by stretcher-bearers wearing masks to ward off the plague.

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The Black Death arrives in France -

More ships unwittingly served as ocean-going vectors. Also in 1347, a galley expelled from Italy arrived in Marseille. The crowded port provided perfect conditions for further transmission. The Black Death migrated exponentially across France and remained in the country until 1352. In Paris alone up to 80,000 people⁠—around one third of the population⁠—died from the outbreak.

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Rise of anti-Semitism -

It was around mid-1348 that many of those infected began looking for scapegoats. Who was to blame for this dreadful affliction? The Black Death fueled anti-Semitic rage across Europe, with Jewish communities targeted. In plague-stricken Provence, several dozen Jews were murdered, wrongly accused of propagating the disease. It was a scene that would be repeated many times elsewhere across Europe as the pandemic gathered pace.

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Iberia infected -

The Black Death arrived in Spain in the spring of 1348. Portugal also recorded its first deaths from the plague. 

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First encounter in England -

In June 1348, the Black Death continued its gruesome assault on humanity when it entered England at Weymouth, having been carried by ship across the sea from Gascony, in southwestern France. By autumn, the plague had reached London, and by summer 1349 it covered the entire country. Up to 60% of the population perished.

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The plague visits the Holy Roman Empire -

From England the plague spread north to Scotland and east, crossing the North Sea to arrive in the Holy Roman Empire, first in isolated regions of Belgium and the Netherlands at the beginning of 1349.

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Flagellant movement -

The plague prompted the establishment of the Flagellant movement. With no understanding of the biology of the disease, many people believed that the Black Death was a kind of divine punishment. Members of the movement were religious, anti-Semitic zealots who would whip themselves and by doing so invite God to show mercy towards them thus sparing a slow and painful death. Pictured in the Netherlands town of Tournai in 1349 is one such group scourging themselves as they walk through the streets.

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Germany infected -

The plague arrived in southern Germany from Switzerland in the summer of 1349. By autumn, much of the country was infected. Seeking to apportion blame for their predicament, the population again pointed the finger at the Jews. 

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The plague and pogroms -

The first pogrom against the Jews in Cologne took place in 1349, when they were blamed for the outbreak of plague, accused of poisoning the water supply. Retribution was swift and brutal, with hundreds rounded up and thrown into bonfires. In Strasbourg, meanwhile, 2,000 Jewish residents met a similar fate.

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Scandinavia succumbs -

In the same year, 1349, an English ship inadvertently delivered Yersinia pestis to Norway when it ran aground in Bergen. The vessel's crew quickly perished, but not before infecting the local population. The pestilence then speedily traveled to Denmark and Sweden.

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Deaths in Austria -

The plague had reached Vienna in May 1349. By the end of the year, it had killed about one third of the population. Once again the Jewish population was seen as harbingers of the pandemic, accused of contaminating water wells. Hundreds were rounded up and tortured before being killed.

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The bacterium spreads beyond Europe -

By 1349, most of Europe had been infected by the Black Death. But the deadly bacterium continued its relentless advance, reaching various regions in the Middle East and North Africa by 1350. Yersinia pestis even managed to engulf Mecca, the city infected by pilgrims performing the Hajj.

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Symptoms -

Infection by Yersinia pestis in the 14th century was a death sentence. There was no cure. Chief among bubonic plague symptoms are painfully swollen lymph glands that form pus-filled boils called buboes (the word is where the description "bubonic" is derived from).

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Suffering the Black Death - Bubonic plague also causes fever, fatigue, shivering, headaches, and giddiness. As the condition worsens, sufferers also endure hemorrhaging, bloody sputum, vomiting, and delirium. Seven hundred years ago, the pain and distress experienced would have been simply unbearable.

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Eyewitness account -

In his journal, Italian writer and poet Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375) graphically described plague symptoms as "the emergence of gavoccioli [buboes)] in the groin or armpits, some of which grew as large as a common apple, others as an egg." He later observed that "the said deadly gavoccioli began to spread indiscriminately over every part of the body; then, after this, the symptoms of the illness changed to black or livid spots appearing on the arms and thighs, and on every part of the body."

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Crude treatments -

In the 14th century, physicians relied on crude, unsophisticated, and wholly unsanitary techniques such as bloodletting and boil-lancing to treat plague victims. They also employed superstitious practices such as burning aromatic herbs and bathing in rosewater or vinegar in an attempt to alleviate suffering.

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Praying for relief -

Quite often, however, the only option left open to those stricken with the disease was to pray for relief. The sad fact was that of all those who contracted the bubonic plague, 80% were dead within eight days.

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Burying the dead -

Burying the dead was a grim and dangerous task. Fearing the contagious disease that killed within days, most victims were buried in mass unmarked graves, or "plague pits." Usually, men, women, and children were interred together in their hundreds in a hurried and undignified manner. The Black Death knew no decorum.

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Final death toll -

By 1351, the plague's spread had significantly diminished; by 1353, the Black Death had been suppressed. The final death toll is unknown. But it is estimated that the outbreak claimed upwards of 200 million lives, between 25 to 50 million of those in Europe. It also led to the massacres of 210 Jewish communities across the continent. In all, medieval Europe lost about 50% of its population.

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Aftermath -

In the wake of the pandemic, Europe and the wider world experienced significant social upheaval. The population of Western Europe did not again reach its pre-1348 level until the beginning of the 16th century. Ironically for some, the effect of the plague may have been ultimately favorable. A decimated workforce meant that labor was in great demand. As such, wages soared in response to the shortage of able hands. Image: Museo del Prado

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Religious fervor remains -

Less palatable was the renewed religious fervor and fanaticism that swept across the continent post-pandemic. Many still ascribed supernatural forces and malicious conspiracies to explain the reasons behind the Black Death. These wild fantasies would persist until advances in science and medicine revealed the true cause behind the devastating pandemic.

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Digging up the past -

Nearly 700 years after its advent, the consequences of the Black Death still reverberate. For instance, excavations in East Smithfield, London, in 2010 revealed a burial trench and rows of individual graves of plague victims unearthed between the concrete foundations of the Royal Mint.

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Unearthing a Black Death cemetery -

Elsewhere during the same dig, a communal grave was uncovered. Rather than being deposited en masse in a plague pit, these victims were carefully laid out alongside each other, demonstrating a modicum of funerary observance and normal burial pattern.

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Paying the price -

Archaeology also unearthed poignant personal artifacts. A handful of coins dated 1344–51 was discovered next to the remains of a female aged 26–35 years buried in the Black Death cemetery at East Smithfield. Not a great deal perhaps, but a small price to pay for a decent funeral.

Sources: (PNAS) (National Geographic) (Emerging Infectious Diseases) (History in Numbers) (World History Encyclopedia) (ScienceAlert) 

See also: The deadliest pandemics in history

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