31. Immediate Consequences of the Black Death
The shock of a plague that wiped out up to two-thirds of the population was great, to say the least. Take the experience of the world’s reaction to the current crisis, and multiply it many times over, to get an idea of how contemporaries felt about and reacted to the Black Death. The economy contracted sharply, as trade came to a standstill, and wars came to a halt.
However, astonishing as it might seem to us today, medieval people soon adjusted to the Black Death, grew accustomed to the plague, and took its frequent recurrences in stride. The immediate reaction to the first and deadliest wave were only temporary: many died, but life went on for the survivors. Within a few years, trade had resumed, the economy picked up, and the survivors went back to waging wars and settling their disputes and differences by killing each other.