The COVID-19 pandemic, which we recently experienced, was indeed one of the most frightening epidemics that modern man has ever seen, but when we look at the past, we see that it was child’s play. Because there was a plague epidemic period known as black death, black plague in history. The black plague was much, much more deadly than we thought.
Like many epidemics, the black plague originated in Asia and spread from there to the world. Although its active period in Europe was relatively short, it was such a deadly disease that it literally changed the history of the world. Let’s examine in all details what the black plague is, how it came to be, how many people it killed.
Let’s start with a brief description; What is the black plague, also known as the black death?
When the plague, a bacterial disease named Yersinia pestis, emerged in Asia in the 14th century and spread to the whole world, especially Europe, this disease was called black plague and black death. It is transmitted from animal to human and then from person to person. It caused the death of tens of millions of people during its active period.
Why is black plague so deadly?
Once you caught the black plague bacteria, you were on the verge of death within 72 hours if not treated immediately. This disease caused a black swelling in the lymph nodes located in the groin and under the armpit. Later, this swelling spread throughout the body as swellings called bubonic and caused internal bleeding. Throughout this entire process, the person was experiencing severe joint pains and high fever. Since it was not known how to fight this bacteria at that time, the person died within a few days.
Where and when did the black plague appear?
The black plague epidemic in Europe took place between 1347 and 1352. However, the black plague did not originate here, but in Asia, and then came to this continent with merchant ships. It is estimated that the place where it first appeared was a region within the borders of Kyrgyzstan today.
Some tombstones found in the excavations in the region in the 1880s were re-examined in 2017 and the dates of death were found to be 1338 and 1339. According to DNA studies, it was determined that there was black plague and it caused the death of people.
To go even further back, it is already known that tens of millions of people died from this disease in China in the 1330s and 1350s. Traders using the Silk Road brought the black plague bacteria to the interior of Europe and caused the whole world to be exposed to this disease.
But how did the black plague spread so much?
The primary cause of the spread of black plague in Europe was merchant shipping. The traders also carried rodents carrying black plague bacteria in these ships without realizing it. When those ships approached European ports, these rodents came ashore with the unloaded goods, and Europeans met a bacteria they had never encountered before. People who were afraid of the epidemic and fled, in fact, unwittingly caused the disease to spread further.
It is also said that the black plague has a different cause. The Mongols, who dominated most of the world at that time and followed aggressive policies, had already met with the black plague and had suffered heavy losses. Many cities were besieged by the Mongols when the peace between them and the Genoese was broken. With a tactic that we can call biological warfare today, the Mongols threw the bodies of people who had died due to the plague into these cities with catapults, thus infecting these closed cities as well.
Of course, it would not be right to put all the blame on the Mongols. At that time, the world was becoming increasingly global and different civilizations were interacting frequently due to trade. During these commercial activities, the black plague easily spread to Baghdad, Istanbul, Egypt, Damascus, Alexandria, Italy and cities on the coast of the Indian Ocean, which were in the hands of Byzantium at that time.
The greatest losses in history were experienced during this period; How many people died from the black plague?
It is known that tens of millions of people died from black plague in China, but what the consequences were in Asia and North Africa, we do not know exactly. When we look at Europe, we can say that there was a terrible loss between 1347 and 1352. Because two out of three people infected with the black plague died, sometimes 30 or even 50 percent of an area died.
It is estimated that between 25 and 30 million people died in Europe at that time because of the black plague alone. This means that between 30 percent and 60 percent of the European population has died. However, in some regions this loss could reach 80 percent. For example, in Florence, which had a population of 85,000 at that time, 50 thousand people died. According to the records of the period, there were days when close to a thousand people were buried a day.
So how did the black plague end?
Three main factors that destroy the black plague; social isolation, hygiene and quarantine. Medieval European cities were literally terrifying. Hygiene was out of the question, there were rodents everywhere, it was not clear who was going in and out of the city, it was impossible to even find clean drinking water.
As a first precaution, ships arriving in cities were left in the open for 40 days before docking, thus preventing the re-entry of bacteria. People went to rural areas and social isolation was achieved, thus preventing human-to-human transmission. Thanks to the clean waters in the countryside, hygienic conditions were increased and thus the existing bacteria were destroyed before they became deadly.
In other words, the black plague was ended not by a vaccine or medicine, but by avoiding it. The epidemic did not end in an instant. At first, its effect gradually diminished. In fact, some epidemics were also seen regionally over the next many years, but now that people knew the black plague, they followed the isolation conditions and prevented its spread.
The social effects of the black plague persist even today:
The black plague afflicted Europe so much that it took more than two centuries for the population to recover. People began to leave the cities and migrate to the countryside to escape the epidemic. As no one knew the cause of this disease, trust in the church and the king waned. The terrible thing is that because people thought it was a punishment from God, they somehow blamed and attacked the Jews, and thousands of Jews were forced to flee to Polish territory.
With so many deaths, the number of workers also decreased, making the surviving workers invaluable. The old system of serfdom and feudalism was shaken when the workers, who had previously had to take care of the landlords, became valuable. Knowing the power in their hands, the workers rebelled in many places and demanded their rights.
As there were prolonged famines, the number of people who died of starvation as a side effect of the black plague was also quite high. Yet towards the end of the 14th century prosperity rose again, and even ordinary peasants became rich by cultivating unclaimed lands. As a new wealthy class emerged, laws changed and women’s property rights were enhanced.
Professor of genetics at McMaster University. According to Hendrik Poinar, people at that time survived by developing a kind of mutation against the black plague bacterium. More interestingly, this mutation is still present in some of us. The bad thing is that we have an increased risk of death from certain diseases because of this mutation. So the mutation that saved our ancestors could be our cause of death.
We answered questions such as what is the black plague, one of the deadliest epidemics in history, where and when it appeared, and how it ended. Even if we don’t have a problem like the plague today, the number of diseases we have to fight is much higher.
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