SEARCH FOR SCAPEGOATS WAS ALSO PANDEMIC. ENGLISH INVADERS WERE BLAMED FOR BLACK DEATH IN FRANCE, ITALIANS BLAMED FRENCH SPANISH ACCUSED PORTUGUESE. LEPERS WERE BLAMED, BUT WERE FEW IN NUMBER.

HOWEVER Jews were everywhere and anti seminism that maisma of the mind") was as virulent and irrational as the plague itself.

In May 1348 (during the Black Death) Jewish communities in France were completely exterminated - all adults and children wick and well savagely murdered. (they had been accused of poisoning the wells, some of them tortured until they confessed to the crime)

Scapegoats: Jews
News of confessions spread to neighboring towns
In Basel and many cities in Germany all Jews were locked inside wooden buildings and burned alive. Sixteen thousand were murdered in Strasbourg. In other cities Jews were walled up in their houses and starved to death.

The fact that Jews were also dying of plague did nothing to disprove their guilt.

Scapegoats of another era Yellow fever of Phila in 1793
Negroes were believed to be immune to disease so were put to work in infected homes, burying the dead and caring for the sick. Then were accused of carrying the contagion and for the exorbitant rates charged by nurses and attendants.

Religious response:

Again people resorted to their religion to explain and ward of plague. Most Christians believed Plague was God's wrath at sinful humans
RX. Town of Orrieto added 50 new religious observances to calendar within 5 months though they lost 1 out of 2 people.

Cults of Flagellants: people wandering on highways and byways in groups whipping themselves a, attracting followers and spread plague further abroad. (76)

Scope of Black Death
May have been worst cataclysm in human history.

Killed well over 20 million in Europe, 1/4 to 1/3 of the continents population. Tens of thousands of villages were entirely wiped out, many cities lost 1/3 to 2/3 of their people.

Like Justinians plague it became a prolong pandemic with periodic outbursts in Europe for three centuries Main outburst receded in 1351 greg 12

Its last major appearance in England was Great Plague of a 1665 described in Defoes Journal of a plague year; last epidemic in France was 1720

Another Cultural monument: Pied Piper of Hamelin

Pied Piper story may be about Plague originating in Germany ton Hamelin which suffered plague in 1348 1361

According to story town was overrun by rats and hire the Pied Piper to play his pipe and charm them out of town into the river. When mayor refused to pay the agreed upon price, Pied Piper played another tune and enchanted the town's children to march into side of Koppelburg Hill, and vanish. Reality may have been close. Children helped the ratcatcher throw the rats into the river contracted the plague and were buried on Koppelberg hill.

Another Cultural Monument:

Unfinished Cathedral of Siena (one third its intended size, because workers and clergy were decimated by plague and work was never resumed. and

Plague columns in Vienna to commemorate city's deliverance form plague Columns decorated with various figures at bottom, the figure of a woman is shown holding cross over postrate figure of old hag (presumably the Viennese Plague Maiden prematurely aged by defeat.

Some Historical Consequences

Historians in last century have begun to acknowledge impact of plague on human history first concentrated on shifts in fuller powers, population and culture due to plague .RX. Historians have argued that black death ended wars everywhere in Europe. enfeebled living settlements in
Greenland and Finland setting back Europe's exploration of the New World gave rise to Flagellants and other heretical sects hastening the splintering of Christianity, sparked bloody pogroms that dispersed Jews into eastern Europe, weakened and terrorized Arab world, limiting its development and relations with the Christian west.

Other history on the role of disease in History

Bacteriologist Hans Zinsser, 1935 Wrote Rats, Lice and History, on of the decades most popular books. Had one chapter entitled On the influence of Epidemic Disease on Political and Military History, and on the relative unimportance of Generals.

He treated the subject of disease like a big ugly stone dropped sporadically into the stream of human events.

Arno Karlen in Napoleon's Glands
chapter entitled "Partners in Illness)
His thesis is that disease has played a much more important role in history than most historians acknowledge. For ex ample he says most high school students learn about the great Irish potato famine 1840's and its consequences of emigration to the new world. However most are not taught that a simultaneous outbreak of Typhus among poor am malnourished in Belgium Germany and Ireland killed millions and influenced the mass migration from all of these countries to the US, Australia and other nations.

More Historical Imaace

Later historians have addressed plagues effect of trade labor and the distribution of wealth. By killing some of the rich and hordes of poor Black Death helped end feudal system. /Serfs and small landowners inherited or took over estates abandoned by rich plague victims. Peasant revolts and severe labor shortages resulted in increased physical and economical mobility for working class eventually developing into urban middle class.

Labor shortages and workers new and expectations may have encouraged Europe's involvement in African Slave trade.

Also may have accounted for northward shift of continents economic and cultural centers.

Plague as Population Control

Several decades ago, scholars of plague histories as it as a natural curb on population.

Situation in Europe prior to 2nd Plague Pandemic

By early 14th century Europe was overpopulated and sealing with deaths due to starvation * Bad harvests had reduced some to eating cats and dogs, perhaps even their own children. Suffered economic depression and under employment. *population had increased about 300% from the 10th-13th century to 75-80 mill(gott 15)

Political reflections of second pandemic

Caused what military planners today called "Megadeaths", when 1/3 of a country's people are disabled or dead.

Aided in destroying the medieval society that the 1st pandemic helped to create. \\(My note: first pandemic hastened fall of Roman Empire -Church , w/its admin. organization and following filled the void by 14th cent. church was in disrepute due to corruption and conspicuous consumption which common folk starved, 2nd pandemic hit church hard undermining organization)

Other Consequences of plague:

Monastic communities were decimated with serious consequences for church

Ex. Franciscan monastery near Marseilles was wiped out al 150 monks perished English Friars in Avinnon met the same fate.

Important consequences in England took learning out of exclusive hands of church (14th century Englishman wrote Latin spoke French) after decimation of monasteries as centers of learning it became acceptable to speak in native language.

Destruction of existing medical system + evolution of modern medicine in 17th century. because of their relative lack of success in treating plague victims, the physicians 'mystique' was diminished. Many people became involved in putting forth cures and preventatives. "how to" books were written in vernacular language. this along with advancements in scientific knowledge, led to major changes in the field of medicine

Typhus in Europe: 1490

Typhus first recognized in Europe in 1490 when it broke out among soldiers of ferdinand and isabella of Spain. probably was brought by the soldiers from Cyprus. Typhus was an ancient disease of rats and mice or of their fleas. typhus germs -rickettsia- made an adaptive leap to humans and there lice

Political consequences of typhus: 1400's

played a key role in European warfare.
1526: so ravaged French troops attacking Naples that they had to abandon their siege.

1812: napoleons grand army was shattered in Russia, chiefly by typhus. of 300,000 in napoleons invading Russia only 90,000 reached Moscow. One of Napoleons marshals wrote to his wife:" General Famine and General winter rather than than Russian bullets, have conquered the grand army."(-fell victim to General Typhus as well-) Biohistorian Frederick Cartwright has added that famine, dirt, rain and lice made the armies discovery of rickettsiae and transmission by lice made it possible to combat rickettsiae with soap, insecticides and delousing in WW1 - otherwise the huge armies of WW1 would never been able to sustain years of trench warfare. even so

Virtually unknown but introduced plague into lands far from its ancestral homes in Africa and Asia. Crated third permanent focus for plague in Western US (other two: central Africa and Central Asia).

Caused plague epidemics in San Francisco, Berkeley, Seattle, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Pensacola and several Texas ports.

Spanned more than a century - killed 13 million.

Modern Episodes of
Black Plague: 1896-1904
--g l'?JhM



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