by Daniel Michalak II

Created on: August 28, 2008   Last Updated: February 01, 2009

THE GREATEST NATURAL DISASTER IN HUMAN LIFE

It is the year 1250, and an illness of terrible potential was entering Europe. The Black Death crept into Europe quite literally overnight, and in no time was to spread into the lives of every member of European society. From the highest stations of life to the lowliest peasant, nobody was safe from the Plague.

The Black Death was a terrible illness and has a remarkable story. The Black Death originated in the plains of Asia, at the best guess of modern researchers. It spread into cities of Asia and from their found a haven from the people on land that would have potentially destroyed it. How, you may ask? The disease was spread by the black rats, and the fleas that infested them. The haven that the rats found was the trade caravans and trade ships from Europe. Over land and sea, the rats entered Europe through trade that, ironically, was making people rich and making the lives of Europeans everwhere better off. However, the illness was soon to spread like wildfire among the people, and the filthy and poluted cites would become a breeding ground for black rats to carry the Black Death infested fleas to the people of Europe.

The Black Death had far reaching effects in Europe. The most obvious was, of course, the devestation of the population of the entire continent. It was to take many decades to rebuild the population of Europe to what it was before the plague appeared in Europe.

An effect of unusual proportions was the change on the average persons outlook on life. A nursery rhyme called "Ring Around a Rosey" was written at this time, and it had then a different meaning than we give it today. Now, it is a childs game to turn around in place a fall down in a lot of fun. "Ring Around a Rosey, Pocket Full of Possey, Ashes Ashes We All Fall Down" has a much different context during the Black Death. The rhyme was really a macabre method to tell the story of the deadly illness. It started with a red ring around a red spot, and progressed to black "growths" on a person. Possey was frequently used to ward off the illness, to no great accomplishment. To protect the healthy and the living, the homes of those infected-often with the sick still inside-were burned to the ground: ashes, ashes. We all fall down was the last line of the poem, and it tells the story of how everyone was dying.

Art and music became dark and gloomy, and stories of fiction became obsessed with death and destruction.

The most destructive social effect was the complete and utter disillusionment of the people with the Catholic Church. Noted church officials were witnessed running away from the ill instead of carring for them as church doctrine called for. The Pope himself was closeted away between two roaring bonfires to keep the illness away: he lived because no animal or flea was willing to endure the extreme heat that the pope was willing to subject himself to for the preservation of his own life. The people of Europe were to lose faith in their faith, to move away from the church. It would be years before the church was to regain the prestige it was to lose during the Black Death.

Caused by merchants bringing wealth and goods to Europe, the Black Death was to nearly destroy Europe. Killing many thousands, the disease was to gain a permanant place in rhyme and religion, in story and everyday life. It was to destory the faith of the people in their church-for a time. Still today in rural areas the black death resurfaces every so often. All told, it was to be one of the most devestating events to occur, ranking right up there with World War One and Two as the deadliest events to ever come to Europe.

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