2. The Cause of The Black Death Was Never What They Thought
During the Black Death, the real cause was never found. It wasn’t until the 1890s when the real cause was found, and they were able to find a cure. The Black Death was spread by Oriental rat fleas. These rats would travel on carts and ships across the world, and the fleas would jump off and bite humans, transmitting the disease. The fleas carried Y. Pestis which affects the flea by blocking its stomach, causing it to regurgitate bacilli into its host. When the host dies, the fleas and its offspring seek a new host was how humans became infected. Doctors thought the plague was caused by punishment from God for the sins of the people. During the Plague no one ever suspected rats and their fleas to be the cause.
People who lived during this time thought the plague was caused by “bad air” released by earthquakes or by the unfavorable alignment of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars in the 40th degree of Aquarius on March 20th, 1345. Sadly for them, the plague started much earlier than that. People also blamed the Jewish community for spreading the plague to wipe out Christians. Kamikaze mission then? Jewish people and Muslims were just as likely to contract the disease. After being tortured many Jews confessed to poisoning the water in wells and caused the plague. Thousands of people were expelled or killed. As a result of these forced confessions, Jews in Straussberg, Germany were given a choice to convert to Christianity or be burned in rows on stakes on a platform in the city’s burial ground. About 2,000 Jewish people were killed.