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Europe After the Plague

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Submitted By econgirl234
Words 600
Pages 3
Alessandra Johnson
Professor Post
GNHU202-05
November 15, 2015
Europeans after the 14th Century Plague The Black Death, also known as the bubonic plague, spread throughout Europe from 1347 to 1350. The disease was carried by rats, and therefore made living in large cities and towns much more dangerous due to their large rat populations. This disease killed around one third of Europe’s population. Because of the epidemic, people began to panic; they didn’t know what the cause of the illness was, so they tried to hide or burn entire homes or villages in order to eradicate it. Once the Black Plague died down, most of Europe’s infrastructure was destroyed and it took Europe around 150 years to rebuild. After the Black Death, Europeans were still very much scared. People obviously feared for their lives. Every now and then the epidemic would return and the people did not know why or where it came from. For many, they believed that it was a punishment from God, so they turned to their Bibles and Churches and Priests to try to atone for their sins in the hopes that they would either be spared or cured. Fear of infection also led many people to isolate themselves, which contributed to the chaos following the plague. This fear was rational, however, that rational fear turned to panic, and that panic turned into bizarre practices. People would whip themselves saying it was well deserved punishment from God or others would persecute strangers and minorities by claiming they were witches. The remaining citizens of Europe took up these practices and killed innocent people because someone had to be blamed for the devastating loss. People also began personifying Death because if they couldn’t understand the actual act of death, putting a person to the act was easier to understand and easier to emotionally deal with.
Because there was so much death, the plague prepared

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