The origin of the plague

Modern scientists believe that the Black Death of the fourteenth century
began in central Asia and Mongol (where the plague bacillus remains
endemic among rats, marmots, squirrels, and other small mammals). In
the 1330s a warming of the climate in this region drove the animal
plague hosts into closer proximity to humans. From human settlements
and nomad camps, the plague spread along the trade routes linking
central Asia with Black Sea ports that had been established by wealthy
European cities such as Genoa and Venice. Ships traveling back to
Europe from these ports.
The spread of the Black Death, however, was also in part a deliberate act
of warfare—a medieval version of bioterrorism. The Golden Horde
staged frequent raids on trading caravans and on the Black Sea
towns. At one point, during a siege of the port of Caffa (today’s
Feodosiya in Ukraine). the Golden horde soldiers launched dead
bodies over the walls of the city in order to kill or drive away the
defenders. These animal carcasses carried the plague bacillus.
Genoese ships that fled Caffa during the siege sailed for home,
unaware that they were bringing a deadly cargo of plague back to
Sicily in the fall of 1347.
 The plague most likely to be erupted in Gobi desert.

 During the XIV century the bubonic plague first spread in the land

of Mongol empire near Kyzyl-Kum lake.

In XIII century Kublai khan conquered the Chinese provinces
Yunnan and Burma and this caused the plague virus Yersinia pestis
to spread to south and west.
 When the ships reached Genoa, the bacteria was ready to

pounce on the heart of Europe.

 In 14th century the 60% of the population of Europe died from the plague.

 About 25 million people died in Europe.

 In 1300s the population of Europe decreased from 80 million to 50 million.

 In more crowded regions, about 40-60% of the population has died.

 In 14th century the population of England decreased by 45%.

 It killed an estimated 75-200 million (30-60 percent of Europe’s population)

between 1347 and 1351

 Before the plague the world population was 450 million and after the plague
population reduced to 350 million.
 Italy – the first European country to be overtaken by the
disease
 Medieval medicine was inadequate to battle the plague;
physicians and priests explained the Black Death to be a
result of
corrupted air, unfortunate planetary alignment, earthquake,
or a God’s anger at the wickedness of humans.
 The suggested preventative and curative measures,
therefore did little to help the afflicted.
 Mee concludes with a description of the three types of
plague believed to be in operation at the time:
Bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic.
Bite of the rat flea Bacillus invaded Bacillus entered
Mortality rate the lung the bloodstream
50-80% Air would contain Mortality rate
bacillus 100%
Mortality rate
90-100%
The Great Plague
began in Asia and was carried to Europe by
the fleas on black rats. These rats lived on
trade ships that traveled between Asia and
Europe. In Europe the plague moved from
south to north, along trade routes.
The simple bubonic plague is transmitted
from rat to person by the bite of the rat flea.

Many Europeans
Used “remedies” for the plague. Two
popular remedies were pomanders,
which were oranges stuck with cloves,
and peeled onions. Neither worked,
however.
As common as this verse
is, few people know that it
describes one of the most
destructive events of the
Middle Ages – the Great
Plague.
People carried
bunches of herbs
called “posies” in
their pockets to
try to ward of the
illness. But the
posies had no
effect.

Avoid foul odors by holding flowers

to their noses
The Yersinia Pestis Bacillus
Rats and mice harbor a number of infections that may cause diseases in human
beings. A black rat can even tolerate a moderate amount of the ferocious Yersinia
pestis bacillus in its system without noticeable ill effects. But bacilli breed even
more extravagantly than fleas or rats, often in the millions. When a bacillus finally
invades the rat's pulmonary or nervous system, it causes a horrible, often
convulsive, death, passing on a lethal dose to the bloodsucking fleas that ride on
the rat's hide. When an afflicted rat dies, its body cools, so that the flea, highly
sensitive to changes in temperature, will find another host.
The medical scientist and
researchers got the DNA code of
the sausage shaped virus Yersinia
pestis from the corpses of the
people who were in France from
1348 to 1590.
 The plague was a disease that swept
like wildfire through Europe beginning in
1347. People later called the plague the
Black Death, because black spots formed
under the skin from internal bleeding.

A rosy rash and sneezing were also

symptoms of the disease.
At first , the plague
reached Crimea and
Constantinople in 1347.

The plague reached

Spain, Portugal and
England in 1348.

Then the plague

reached Germany and
Scandinavia in 1349.

Iceland and Finland

were the only regions
that plague hasn’t
taken place.
While tending to dying plague victims, priests often
contracted the deadly bacteria and died shortly after.
 “No Pistoian was allowed
to leave town to visit any
place where the plague
was raging”
“Work was never resumed:
only the smaller cathedral
we know today was
completed”
“In Venice, it was said that
600 were dying every day”
“Mortality rates were lower
in Milan than in other cities”
 ‘Blood-letting’ – deliberately bleeding a
vein – was a way of reducing ‘hot’ blood,
whilst blowing your nose or clearing your
throat was a way of getting rid of too much
‘cold’ phlegm.

The magician made his client wear a
magic word that faded away in the
belief that the disease would respond in
the same manner.
ABRACADABRA
Doctors visiting plague
victims believed that their
noses should be covered to
prevent the spread of
infection.
The doctor told his patient
to avoid foods that were
moist and cold in order to
protect him from chills and
sweating.
Finally, those who fell victim to the
plague placed what little hope they
had left in the hands of the priests.
But the priests were helpless and
frightened by the Black death as the
physicians.
 In Germany, Jewish people were blamed for the plague. Because
Germans thought that the Jewish people poisoned the wells. For
instance, in Strasburg about 2000 Jewish people is killed.
Europe in crisis
During the 350 years before the plague, the population of Europe had
more than doubled in size. Because the agriculture techniques of the Middle
Ages were fairly crude, farmers had trouble growing enough food for the
large population. Then disaster struck.Unusually heavy rains fell during the
years from 1315 to 1319, causing the farmers grain to rot in the fields.
Thousands of people starved to death.

When the plague struck in 1347, it devastated many areas ready

weakened by the famine. The population recovered in most areas from the
1347 outbreak. New outbreaks of the plague hit Europe in 1360 and 1374. By
the 1300s, one fourth to one third of the population of Europe had died. In
some towns, over 50 percent of the people died.

After the plague, there were few people. There were not enough
people to harvest the crops or produce necessary goods.
 Because there were fewer people to do the work , peasants
demanded better wages and lower rents . Landlords resisted peasant
demands. Like others before them, many peasants moved to towns or
villages. There they hoped to find a better life, free from the control of
the landlords.
Some landlords passed laws to force peasants to work for their
traditional wages. Throughout Europe, bitter resentment brewed as
landlords tried to enforce those laws. Many peasants joined forces to
storm and burn manor houses. As peasants broke their ties with
landlords, the feudal system began to falter.
These economic and social crises chipped away at the foundation of
medieval society in the 1300s and 1400s. Conditions were ripe for great
social change.
A Poet's Description of the Black Death
The Welsh poet Jeuan Gethin gave the following account of the plague's arrival in Isis
country in April 1349.
We see death coming into our midst like black smoke, a plague which cuts off the
young, a rootless phantom which has no mercy for fair countenance. Woe is me of the
shilling in the arm-pit; it is seething, terrible, wherever it may come, a head that gives
pain and causes a loud cry, a burden carried under the arms, a painful angry knob, a
white lump. It is of the form of an apple, like the head of an onion, a small boil that
spares no one. Great is its seething, like a burning cinder, a grievous thing of an ashy
colour. It is an ugly eruption that comes with unseemly haste. They are similar to the
seeds of the black peas, broken fragments of brittle sea-coal and crowds precede the
end. It is a grievous ornament that breaks out in a rash. They are like a shower of peas,
the early ornaments of black death, cinders of the peelings of the cockle weed, a mixed
multitude, a black plague like halfpence, like berries. It is a grievous thing that they
should be on a fair skin.
Philip Ziegler. The Black Death. New York: John Day. 1969.
The plague spread quickly infecting rich and poor alike.
Italian man’s description of the helplessness he felt as
disease spread.
I do not know where to begin describing its relentless cruelty; almost
everyone who witnessed it seemed stupefied[stunned] by grief….I, Agnolo di
Tura, known as the Fat, buried five of my children with my own
hands….Nobody wept for the dead, since each was awaiting death; and so
many died that everyone thought that the end of the world had come.
The Triumph of Death,by Francesco Traini
The Dance of Death by Hans Holbein
 Christopher P. Atwood “Encyclopedia of Mongolia and Mongol
empire”2004:40-41
 Houghton Mifflin Social Studies “Across the centuries”,1991: 310-312
 Philip Ziegler; “The Black Death”1969
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 Монсудар, Монголчууд :дэлхийг эрхшээсэн морьтон дайчдын гүрэн

(XII-XVII), 2016:31-33
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 Түүх агуу санааг энгийнээр тайлбарлах нь,2017:118-119