The 1346 Plague, Europe, 75-200 million Casualties
The Black Death: Also known as history’s deadliest plague.
The infamous Black Death was a plague that haunted Europe during the Middle Ages. The disease was caused by a bacterium called Yarsina pestis, which was spread through lice that lived on the black rats that boarded the Chinese merchant ships in the 1300s. The plague spread quickly across the continent and killed 60 percent of Europe’s population.
The world took a long time to recover from the Black Death, as no one had seen a disease spread so quickly and widely before. The reason for this is that the people in the Middle Ages traveled more extensively than what they had in the past. The medieval towns were narrow and the streets were sometimes only a few meters wide. People were poor and dirty and threw their waste into the street, where pigs went and rummaged around and rats sneaked around. This was, in the end, a perfect environment for bacteria to develop and spread.
Since no one could find an answer to the disease, some people began to refer to supernatural causes. There were those who thought that the plague spread by the wind and it went to protect themselves by shutting out the poisoned air. The windows would have panes of glass or covered with waxed cloth, so that no air could enter. Only when the north wind blew clean and clear around dinner time, it could safely be admitted into the house. Many were convinced that the end of the world was near, and according to the priests, it was because the people had sinned that God had decided to punish them by sending the Black Death.
While no such epidemic has been seen in recent years, the Middle Ages will always be a reminder of the dark times of human history.