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124 Black Death Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

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The Black Death is undoubtedly one of the most significant events in human history. This devastating pandemic, also known as the Bubonic Plague, swept through Europe in the 14th century, resulting in millions of deaths and leaving a lasting impact on society. If you are tasked with writing an essay on this historical event, you may be searching for inspiration and topic ideas. In this article, we have compiled a list of 124 Black Death essay topics and examples to help you get started.

• The causes and origins of the Black Death.
• The impact of the Black Death on medieval Europe.
• The role of rats and fleas in spreading the disease.
• Comparing the Black Death to other major pandemics in history.
• The social and economic consequences of the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on art and literature.
• The medical understanding of the Black Death during the 14th century.
• The role of religious institutions during the Black Death.
• The psychological effects of living through the Black Death.
• The impact of the Black Death on the feudal system.
• The Black Death's impact on labor and the workforce.
• The Black Death's effect on the status of women in medieval society.
• The political consequences of the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the development of medicine.
• The role of quarantine measures during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's impact on urbanization and migration.
• The Black Death's influence on artistic representations of death.
• The response of different European countries to the Black Death.
• The Black Death and its relationship to climate change.
• The role of superstitions and religious beliefs during the Black Death.
• The impact of the Black Death on trade and commerce.
• The Black Death's effect on the educational system.
• The Black Death's impact on religious practices and beliefs.
• The role of social class during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the emergence of public health measures.
• The Black Death and its impact on the development of cities.
• The Black Death's effect on the psychological well-being of survivors.
• The role of medical practitioners during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the perception of death.
• The Black Death's impact on the decline of feudalism.
• The Black Death's effect on population growth and demographics.
• The role of art in commemorating the victims of the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on religious art and iconography.
• The Black Death's impact on religious pilgrimage.
• The Black Death's effect on family structures and dynamics.
• The role of women in nursing and caregiving during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the development of public health policies.
• The Black Death's impact on social mobility and upward mobility.
• The Black Death's effect on the perception of physical beauty.
• The role of religious rituals and practices during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on religious sects and heresy.
• The Black Death's impact on the perception of time and mortality.
• The Black Death's effect on the development of cemeteries and burial practices.
• The role of architecture in responding to the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the emergence of hospitals.
• The Black Death's impact on the development of public sanitation systems.
• The Black Death's effect on the funeral industry.
• The role of music and dance during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the development of mortuary practices.
• The Black Death's impact on the perception of personal hygiene.
• The Black Death's effect on the portrayal of death in literature.
• The role of government and leadership during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the emergence of quarantine laws.
• The Black Death's impact on the development of art as a form of therapy.
• The Black Death's effect on the perception of authority and power.
• The role of religion in providing comfort during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the development of medical textbooks.
• The Black Death's impact on the perception of illness and disease.
• The Black Death's effect on the concept of personal identity.
• The role of women in herbal medicine during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the development of personal hygiene practices.
• The Black Death's impact on the perception of physical suffering.
• The Black Death's effect on the portrayal of death in visual arts.
• The role of public spaces during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the development of healthcare infrastructure.
• The Black Death's impact on the perception of bodily decay.
• The Black Death's effect on the concept of community and solidarity.
• The role of folklore and folk remedies during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the development of medical education.
• The Black Death's impact on the perception of personal space and boundaries.
• The Black Death's effect on the portrayal of death in theater.
• The role of government propaganda during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the development of public health campaigns.
• The Black Death's impact on the perception of physical beauty and aesthetics.
• The Black Death's effect on the concept of individualism.
• The role of midwives during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the development of public hygiene practices.
• The Black Death's impact on the perception of bodily functions.
• The Black Death's effect on the portrayal of death in music.
• The role of religious relics and artifacts during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the development of medical research.
• The Black Death's impact on the perception of spirituality and afterlife.
• The Black Death's effect on the concept of personal responsibility.
• The role of women in caregiving and nursing during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the development of personal protective equipment.
• The Black Death's impact on the perception of physical pain and suffering.
• The role of public executions during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the development of public health regulations.
• The Black Death's impact on the perception of physical disability.
• The Black Death's effect on the concept of mortality and immortality.
• The role of religion in consoling the bereaved during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the development of medical treatments.
• The Black Death's impact on the perception of aging and senescence.
• The role of religious processions and rituals during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the development of personal hygiene products.
• The Black Death's impact on the perception of physical attractiveness.
• The Black Death's effect on the concept of fate and destiny.
• The Black Death's influence on the development of personal cleanliness practices.
• The Black Death's impact on the perception of physical health.
• The role of government censorship during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the development of medical ethics.
• The Black Death's impact on the perception of human fragility.
• The Black Death's effect on the concept of suffering and resilience.
• The role of women in herbal remedies during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the development of personal care products.
• The Black Death's impact on the perception of physical strength.
• The role of religious relics and symbols during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the development of medical breakthroughs.
• The Black Death's impact on the perception of spirituality and transcendence.
• The Black Death's effect on the concept of human interconnectedness.
• The role of midwives and female healers during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the development of personal hygiene habits.
• The role of public health officials during the Black Death.
• The Black Death's influence on the development of medical regulations.
• The Black Death's impact on the perception of physical cleanliness.
• The Black Death's effect on the concept of mortality and meaning of life.
• The role of religion in providing solace and hope during the Black Death.

These essay topics provide a wide range of ideas to explore the various aspects and impacts of the Black Death. Remember to conduct thorough research, gather reliable sources, and structure your essay appropriately to create a comprehensive and engaging piece of writing. Good luck with your essay!

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Writing Prompts about Black Death

• 🗃️ Essay topics
• ❓ Research questions
• 📝 Topic sentences
• 🪝 Essay hooks
• 📑 Thesis statements
• 🔀 Hypothesis examples
• 🧐 Personal statements

🔗 References

🗃️ black death essay topics.

• The impact of the Black Death on medieval european society.
• Comparing the Black Death and COVID-19.
• Exploring the causes and origins of the Black Death pandemic.
• The role of trade and globalization in spreading the Black Death.
• The Black Death’s effect on religious beliefs and practices.
• Social and economic consequences of the Black Death.
• Medical knowledge and responses to the Black Death in the middle ages.
• The Black Death’s influence on art and literature.
• Black Death and the decline of feudalism.
• Women’s role and experiences during the Black Death.
• “The plague” by Albert Camus: the basic existential principles.
• The Black Death’s impact on labor and workforce dynamics.
• Quarantine measures and public health responses to the Black Death.
• The Black Death’s effects on urbanization and demographic shifts.
• Cultural and psychological trauma caused by the Black Death.
• Black Death’s influence on architecture and urban planning.
• Comparing different strains of the Black Death.
• The Black Death’s influence on political structures and governance.
• Trade and commerce recovery after the Black Death.
• The spread of Black Death in non-european regions.
• Black Death and its impact on education and intellectual history.

❓ Research Questions about Black Death

• What were the primary causes and origins of the Black Death pandemic?
• How did the Black Death impact the social structure and hierarchy of medieval European society?
• What were the different strains of the Black Death (bubonic, pneumonic, septicemic)?
• How did trade and globalization facilitate the spread of the Black Death across different regions?
• What were the major medical responses and treatments employed during the Black Death?
• What were the religious beliefs and practices during the Black Death?
• How did the Black Death affect urbanization patterns and population distribution in medieval Europe?
• What were the long-term economic consequences of the Black Death on European societies?
• How did different cultures and regions outside of Europe experience and respond to the Black Death?
• How did the Black Death influence political structures, governance, and leadership during the crisis?
• How did the Black Death affect women’s roles and experiences in medieval society?
• What were the major misconceptions and theories surrounding the cause and spread of the Black Death?
• How did the Black Death impact agriculture, food production, and food availability?
• What lessons can be learned from the Black Death that are applicable to modern epidemiology and public health?
• What were the educational and intellectual responses to the Black Death?

📝 Topic Sentences on Black Death

• The Black Death, a devastating pandemic that struck Europe in the 14th century, profoundly altered the social fabric of medieval society, leading to significant shifts in power dynamics and economic structures.
• Examining the transmission and mortality rates of different strains of the Black Death, such as bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic, provides crucial insights into the varied and complex nature of this historic plague.
• The Black Death’s impact on art and literature during the Middle Ages reflects a powerful expression of human suffering, mortality, and religious beliefs, leaving a lasting cultural legacy that continues to resonate in modern times.

🪝 Top Hooks for Black Death Paper

📍 definition hooks on black death for essay.

• Black Death, also known as the Bubonic Plague, was a catastrophic pandemic that ravaged Europe during the 14th century. This deadly disease, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, decimated populations, leaving a lasting impact on society, culture, and public health.
• The Black Death, an infamous historical catastrophe, was a devastating pandemic that swept through Europe during the 14th century. This deadly plague, caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium, caused immense suffering, leaving an indelible mark on the course of human history.

📍 Statistical Hooks for Essay on Black Death

• During the Black Death, the mortality rates reached staggering heights, with estimates suggesting that between 75 to 200 million lives were claimed in Europe alone. This harrowing statistical data underscores the magnitude of the deadliest pandemic in recorded history.
• The Black Death, an unprecedented catastrophe, unleashed its deadly grip across Europe, resulting in a staggering death toll of approximately 30-60% of the continent’s population. These alarming statistics illustrate the sheer devastation and magnitude of this historic pandemic.

📍 Question Hooks about Black Death for Essay

• What were the devastating consequences of medieval the Black Death pandemic, and how did it reshape societies, ignite cultural transformations, and leave an indelible mark on the course of human history?
• How did the merciless outbreak of the Black Death in the Middle Ages forever alter demographics, economics, and medicine, leaving an enduring impact on civilization and shaping the world we know today?

📍 Quotation Hooks on Black Death

• “In the midst of darkness and despair, the Black Death emerged as a relentless force, ‘ringing the knell of universal destruction,’ leaving behind a trail of devastation and sorrow that echoed through the annals of time.” – Giovanni Boccaccio, “The Decameron”.
• “Amidst the haunting silence, the Black Death unleashed its relentless fury, ‘Death came into our midst like black smoke, a plague which carried off to the next world the majority of a city’s inhabitants.'” – Ibn al-Wardi, 14th-century historian.

📑 Best Black Death Thesis Statements

✔️ argumentative thesis about black death.

• The Black Death’s devastating impact on medieval Europe serves as a historical cautionary tale, illustrating the importance of public health measures, swift responses to pandemics, and the necessity of preserving knowledge to combat future global health crises.
• The Black Death’s cataclysmic effects on medieval society, including significant demographic shifts, economic transformations, and religious upheaval, underscore its pivotal role in reshaping the course of history and serve as a critical reminder of the importance of disease prevention and preparedness.

✔️ Analytical Thesis Samples about Black Death

• By analyzing the multifaceted causes and far-reaching consequences of the Black Death on medieval Europe, this study aims to shed light on the complex interplay between disease, society, and culture, unraveling the profound and lasting impact of this devastating pandemic.
• Through a comprehensive examination of the Black Death’s origins, transmission, and impact on various aspects of medieval society, this analysis seeks to deepen our understanding of the plague’s role in shaping historical, social, and economic developments during that tumultuous period.

✔️ Informative Thesis Examples on Black Death

• The Black Death, a medieval pandemic caused by the bubonic plague, struck Europe with unparalleled ferocity, decimating populations and altering societal structures. This informative study explores its origins, transmission, and far-reaching consequences on medieval civilization and beyond.
• The Black Death, an infamous plague of the 14th century, had a profound and lasting impact on European society, reshaping demographics, economy, and cultural perceptions. This informative analysis delves into the origins, spread, and far-reaching consequences of this devastating pandemic.

🔀 Black Death Hypothesis Examples

• The Black Death had a significant impact on the decline of feudalism and the rise of the Renaissance in Europe.
• The Black Death altered the dynamics of labor and led to economic changes, ultimately contributing to the transformation of medieval society.

🔂 Null & Alternative Hypothesis on Black Death

• Null hypothesis: The Black Death did not have a significant impact on European society and its historical development.
• Alternative hypothesis: The Black Death had a profound and transformative effect on European society, leading to demographic shifts, economic changes, and the restructuring of social and cultural norms.

🧐 Examples of Personal Statement about Black Death

• As a history enthusiast, the Black Death has always captivated my curiosity and imagination. Learning about this devastating pandemic that swept through medieval Europe has shown me the immense power of historical events in shaping societies. The Black Death serves as a stark reminder of the fragility of human existence and the resilience of human spirit in the face of unimaginable hardships. Studying the Black Death has also given me a deeper appreciation for the importance of public health and the impact of disease outbreaks on communities.
• The Black Death, a harrowing chapter in history, has always fascinated me as a student of the past. Exploring the devastating impact of this medieval pandemic on European society has sparked my passion for understanding how historical events shape the world we live in today. The Black Death serves as a stark reminder of the resilience of humanity and the profound importance of public health. Witnessing how this catastrophic outbreak reshaped communities and economies, I am driven to pursue a career in public health, dedicating myself to preventing and managing infectious diseases in modern times.
• The Black Death And The Future Of Medicine
• Insufficient evidence for natural selection associated with the Black Death
• The Black Death and its effect on fourteenth- and fifteenthcentury art
• The Economic Impact of the Black Death
• Pandemics and Cities: Evidence from the Black Death and the Long-Run

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45 Black Death Essay Topics That Will Freak You Out

What comes to your mind when you hear the expression “Black Death”? Probably horrible pictures of devastated medieval cities, chaotic mass graves, and all-around madness. Modern scientists can’t give a precise number of people who died from this disease, but it certainly killed more people than World War II.

You might be surprised, but all these horrors actually had some positive consequences. Really, this is no joke. If you want to know more, read our list of bubonic plague essay topics and learn something new, pal! You can use them for writing your own paper, or to buy cheap essays from qualified writers.

Analytical Black Death Essay Topics

• The semantics of the word “plague” in modern English.
• The Black Plague – the first biological weapon in human history.
• The main symptoms of the bubonic plague.
• Who became the main victims of persecutions during the pandemics, and why?
• Medieval hypotheses about the reasons for the plague.
• Effective and useless means of protection against the plague in medieval cities.
• Medical treatment of the plague in the Middle Ages.
• How could medieval Europeans decrease the risk of spreading the disease?
• The image of a plague doctor in modern popular culture.
• The movement of the White Penitents during the pandemics.
• The origins and use of the expressions “Black Death” and “Great Plague.”
• The pattern of the third plague pandemic in the 19th century.
• Explain the etiology of the Black Plague.
• Quarantine measures in Italian cities against the Black Plague.
• Who were the Flagellants? How did these practitioners interpret the Black Death?
• Explain the term “choreomania.” How is this phenomenon related to the Black Plague?
• Why was the bubonic plague called the Black Death?
• Was the costume of a plague doctor actually helpful?
• Is the bubonic plague dangerous today?
• Why did the Black Death stop?

Cause and Effect Bubonic Plague Essay Topics

• What consequences did the bubonic plague have for medieval Europe?
• The rapid development of medicine as a result of the Black Death.
• Was the bubonic plague one of the reasons for the Protestant Reformation?
• The cultural consequences of the Black Death in the Late Middle Ages.
• How did the Black Plague get to Europe, and what factors accelerated its spread?
• The effects of the Black Plague on the Industrial Revolution.
• The influence of the pandemics on the genes of Europeans.
• How did the Black Death contribute to the end of the Middle Ages?
• What were the main effects of the plague on China?
• How did the Black Death influence the emancipation in European countries after the pandemics?

Compare and Contrast Bubonic Plague Topics

• Compare and contrast the state of urban and rural populations after the Black Plague.
• Compare and contrast the bubonic plague and pneumonic plague: symptoms, course of the disease, and treatment.
• Compare and contrast the medieval and modern medical description of the bubonic plague.
• Compare and contrast the state of the Catholic Church before and after the pandemic.
• Compare and contrast the perception of the Black Death in different religions.

Black Death Essay Topics: Art and Literature

• The basic principles of existentialism in the novel “The Plague” by Albert Camus.
• What role does the plague play in “The Decameron” by Giovanni Boccaccio?
• The caricature of feudal society in the fable “The Animals Sick of the Plague” by Jean de La Fontaine.
• The history of the plague doctor’s mask in culture.
• The role of the plague in the movie “The Seventh Seal” directed by Ingmar Bergman.
• What techniques make the novel “A Journal of the Plague Year” written by Daniel Defoe realistic?
• How does the plague and its consequences drive the plot in the novel “The Betrothed” by Alessandro Manzoni?
• What is a greater evil portrayed in the movie “Black Death” – the plague, or human viciousness?
• Define the term “The Danse Macabre.” What is the connection between this allegory and the Black Plague?
• Symbolism of the painting “Plague” by Arnold Böcklin.

These Black Death essay topics are enough to compose an outline for a dissertation, let alone for an essay. But if your heart tells you to have some rest and watch “Game of Thrones” – listen to it! Pay for an essay at EssayBulls.com from professional experts, or buy coursework essay or any other paper types. And be bullsome!

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Impact of the Black Death Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

Social impacts of the black death, economic impacts of the black death, political impacts of the black death, reference list.

The Black Death was, no doubt, the greatest population disaster that has ever occurred in the history of Europe. The name is given to the bubonic plaque that occurred in the fourteenth century in Europe killing millions of people. The plaque began in the year 1348, and by the year 1359, it had killed an approximate 1.5 million people, out of an estimated total population of about 4 million people.

So terrifying was the Black Death that peasants were blaming themselves for its occurrence, and thus some of them resulted to punishing themselves as a way of seeking God’s forgiveness. The bubonic plaque was caused by fleas that were hosted by rats, a common phenomenon in the cities and towns. The presence of rats in the cities and towns was due to the fact that the towns were littered, and they were poorly managed.

The worst part of it is the fact that the medieval peasants did not know that the plaque was caused by the pleas hosted by the rats. They actually believed that the plague was caused by the rats themselves. As more and more people died from the Black Death, the impacts of the plague became more profound.

The plague affected the demographic composition of the society, and thus it had far-reaching effects on the social, economic, political and even cultural realms of the medieval society. To this day, the Black Death is remembered as the worst demographic disaster to be ever experienced in European history (Robin, 2011). This paper is an in-depth analysis of the impacts of the Black Death.

The Black Death had far reaching social impacts on the people who lived during the fourteenth century. An obvious social impact of the plague is the fact that the Black Death led to a significant reduction in the human population of the affected areas. This had extensive effects on all aspects of life, including the social and political structure of the affected areas.

Before the plague, feudalism, the European social structure in medieval times, had created a society in which inequality was rife, with many poor peasants, and rich lords. This fuelled overpopulation, which was a catalyst for the mortality of the plaque. After the plaque, a large number of the overpopulated peasants became victims of the plaque, and thus the lords lacked labourers in their farms. This also led to a significant reduction in the population (Bryrne, 2011).

The people who were spared by the plague lived full lives. They regarded themselves as the next victims of the bubonic plague. This led to immoral behaviour that saw societal codes like the sexual codes broken. People did not care about having virtues anymore because they knew that death was approaching fast. As people lost their partners to the plague, the marriage market grew, fuelling more sexual immorality (Carol, 1996).

Also among the immediate social impacts is the fact that at one point, the number of people who were dying from the bubonic plague was seemingly more than the number of the living. This made it virtually impossible for the living to take care of the ailing, or even for the living to bury the deceased. This was a social crisis that has remained in the books of history as a remarkable impact of the bubonic plague.

Immediately after the occurrence of the Black Death, all economic activities were paralysed. The first economic activity to suffer substantially from the plaque was trade. Although people were not aware that it was the infectiousness of the plaque that was making it to kill more people, they were afraid to travel to plagued areas for fear of coming into contact with rats, which they believed was the source of the disease. This substantially affected trade ties between villages and communities in the medieval European society.

After the occurrence of the Black Death, other impacts of the plague started affecting the community. The population of the European parts affected by the plaque reduced drastically, leading to a severe shortage of labour for the farms. The demand of peasant farmers increased, with the lords competing for them by relocating them from their villages to the farms of the latter. This made the peasants have a competitive economic edge, as they were able to negotiate for better salaries.

As the Black Death claimed more lives, farms were left unattended because the peasants who were responsible for ploughing had fallen victims of the plague. Where the lords were lucky to have had some harvest, it was challenging to bring it home due to a serious shortage of manpower.

Some harvest got destroyed in the field as there were no men to bring it home. Some animals got lost because the people who used to look after them had also fallen victims of the plague. These problems led to a number of other impacts in the medieval society of the fourteenth century (Bridbury, 1973).

As farms went unploughed and some harvest remained in the fields, people in the villages starved for food. Cities and towns also faced severe shortages of food since the farming villages around the towns did not have sufficient foodstuffs. Lords had to strategize economically in order to survive, and thus most of them resulted to keeping sheep since it was easier without the manpower.

Economic activities that required the presence of large numbers of peasants like the farming of grains lost their popularity. This, in turn, led to serious shortage of basic commodities like bread. This, coupled with the fact that the production of all kinds of foodstuffs had decreases, led to inflationary prices on commodities (“The Black Death And Its Effects”, 1935). The poor were left thriving in an environment full of hardships as the prices of foods skyrocketed.

The Black Death had a number of political impacts. First of all, the feudal social system of the fourteen-century European population demanded that peasants could not relocate from their villages at will. For a peasant to relocate from his/her village, he/she had to seek the permission of his/her lord.

After the Black Death, it became increasingly difficult for lords to get the number of peasants they required to provide them with the labour for their farms. This made lords to disregard the law, and relocate peasants to their villages so that they could work in their farms. Most of the times, the lords even declined to return the latter to their rightful villages in a bid to get maximum benefit from their labour.

Another political impact of the Black Death also stems from the reduced population of the affected areas. This is because after the number of peasants reduced, and they were able to negotiate salaries and even relocate from their villages, contrary to feudal law, the government imposed stricter rules to regulate the way peasants offer their manpower to the lords.

This was done by the introduction of the 1351 “statute for labourers” (Bridbury, 1973). The statute provided that payments to peasants were to be made with reference to the payments that were made in 1346. This meant that peasants would receive payments using the terms that were prevailing before the plague occurred.

The statute was structures such that both the lord and the peasant could be accused of breaking the law by either the peasant receiving a higher payment, or the lord giving the same. The effect of this statute was that a good number of peasants disobeyed it, leading to, arguably inhumane punishment. This fuelled revolt among the peasants who sought to fight for their rights in the 1381 Peasants Revolt (Bentley et al., 2008).

After oppressive statutes like the statute for labourers came into force, peasants started to be resistant. They therefore organized a number of revolts in a bid to attract the attention of legislators to their plea of fairness. The most serious of these revolts was the aforementioned 1381 peasant revolt. The peasants had gathered in huge numbers and marched to London. They killed senior officials of the King and took control over the tower of London.

Among their main grievances was the fact that, thirty-five years after the occurrence of the Black Death, the population had reasonably grown and the pre-existent demand for labour had substantially reduced. The lords were therefore threatening to withdraw the privileges they had given to peasants since their demand was no more. This led to the revolt as the peasants sought to fight for their privileges.

From the discussion above, it is evident that the Black Death had a lot of impacts on the European medieval society. It changed the demographic set-up of the community and thus it substantially affected the social activities of the peasants. This can be evidenced by the aforementioned increase in cases of sexual immorality as people had lost their partners in the plague.

The Black Death also had a number of economic impacts which resulted from the drastic decrease in the population of peasants. This can be evidenced by the aforementioned change by lords from grain farming to sheep farming. Lastly, the Black Death had a number of political impacts which can be exemplified by the development of the aforementioned statute for labourers.

Studies of the impacts of the bubonic plague are still ongoing. This is despite the fact that most of the impacts were realized immediately after the plague and their effects on the society analyzed. Political activists during the time, who were mostly lords, had observed the effects of the plague and made societal changes that were bound to benefit them.

However, scientists still believe that the European society still suffers significant effects of the bubonic plague. For instance, it has been established that England, where the greatest effects of the bubonic plague were perhaps felt, has significantly lower genetic diversity than it is suspected to have had in the eleventh century. Geneticists explain this by the argument that the deaths that resulted from the Black Deaths were the cause of the low genetic variation in Europe.

Bentley, Jerry H., Ziegler, Herbert F., Streets, Heather E. (2008) Traditions and

Encounters: A Brief Global History, ch9,15,19, McGraw-Hill, Inc.

Bridbury, A. (1973). The Black Death. The Economic History Review, 26: 577 – 592.

Bryrne, J. (2011). Black Death. World Book Advanced. Web.

Carol, B. (1996). Bubonic Plague in the nineteenth-century China.

Robin, N. (2011). Apocalypse Then: A History of Plague. Special Report. World Book Advanced. Web.

The Black Death And Its Effects. (1935). Readings in English History Drawn from the Original Sources: Intended to Illustrate a Short History of England. Boston: Ginn.

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IvyPanda. (2018, August 22). Impact of the Black Death. https://ivypanda.com/essays/impact-of-the-black-death/

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IvyPanda . (2018) 'Impact of the Black Death'. 22 August.

IvyPanda . 2018. "Impact of the Black Death." August 22, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/impact-of-the-black-death/.

1. IvyPanda . "Impact of the Black Death." August 22, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/impact-of-the-black-death/.

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Black Death

By: History.com Editors

Updated: March 28, 2023 | Original: September 17, 2010

The Black Death was a devastating global epidemic of bubonic plague that struck Europe and Asia in the mid-1300s. The plague arrived in Europe in October 1347, when 12 ships from the Black Sea docked at the Sicilian port of Messina. People gathered on the docks were met with a horrifying surprise: Most sailors aboard the ships were dead, and those still alive were gravely ill and covered in black boils that oozed blood and pus. Sicilian authorities hastily ordered the fleet of “death ships” out of the harbor, but it was too late: Over the next five years, the Black Death would kill more than 20 million people in Europe—almost one-third of the continent’s population.

How Did the Black Plague Start?

Even before the “death ships” pulled into port at Messina, many Europeans had heard rumors about a “Great Pestilence” that was carving a deadly path across the trade routes of the Near and Far East. Indeed, in the early 1340s, the disease had struck China, India, Persia, Syria and Egypt.

The plague is thought to have originated in Asia over 2,000 years ago and was likely spread by trading ships , though recent research has indicated the pathogen responsible for the Black Death may have existed in Europe as early as 3000 B.C.

Symptoms of the Black Plague

Europeans were scarcely equipped for the horrible reality of the Black Death. “In men and women alike,” the Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio wrote, “at the beginning of the malady, certain swellings, either on the groin or under the armpits…waxed to the bigness of a common apple, others to the size of an egg, some more and some less, and these the vulgar named plague-boils.”

Blood and pus seeped out of these strange swellings, which were followed by a host of other unpleasant symptoms—fever, chills, vomiting, diarrhea, terrible aches and pains—and then, in short order, death.

The Bubonic Plague attacks the lymphatic system, causing swelling in the lymph nodes. If untreated, the infection can spread to the blood or lungs.

How Did the Black Death Spread?

The Black Death was terrifyingly, indiscriminately contagious: “the mere touching of the clothes,” wrote Boccaccio, “appeared to itself to communicate the malady to the toucher.” The disease was also terrifyingly efficient. People who were perfectly healthy when they went to bed at night could be dead by morning.

Did you know? Many scholars think that the nursery rhyme “Ring around the Rosy” was written about the symptoms of the Black Death.

Understanding the Black Death

Today, scientists understand that the Black Death, now known as the plague, is spread by a bacillus called Yersinia  pestis . (The French biologist Alexandre Yersin discovered this germ at the end of the 19th century.)

They know that the bacillus travels from person to person through the air , as well as through the bite of infected fleas and rats. Both of these pests could be found almost everywhere in medieval Europe, but they were particularly at home aboard ships of all kinds—which is how the deadly plague made its way through one European port city after another.

Not long after it struck Messina, the Black Death spread to the port of Marseilles in France and the port of Tunis in North Africa. Then it reached Rome and Florence, two cities at the center of an elaborate web of trade routes. By the middle of 1348, the Black Death had struck Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon and London.

Today, this grim sequence of events is terrifying but comprehensible. In the middle of the 14th century, however, there seemed to be no rational explanation for it.

No one knew exactly how the Black Death was transmitted from one patient to another, and no one knew how to prevent or treat it. According to one doctor, for example, “instantaneous death occurs when the aerial spirit escaping from the eyes of the sick man strikes the healthy person standing near and looking at the sick.”

How Do You Treat the Black Death?

Physicians relied on crude and unsophisticated techniques such as bloodletting and boil-lancing (practices that were dangerous as well as unsanitary) and superstitious practices such as burning aromatic herbs and bathing in rosewater or vinegar.

Meanwhile, in a panic, healthy people did all they could to avoid the sick. Doctors refused to see patients; priests refused to administer last rites; and shopkeepers closed their stores. Many people fled the cities for the countryside, but even there they could not escape the disease: It affected cows, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens as well as people.

In fact, so many sheep died that one of the consequences of the Black Death was a European wool shortage. And many people, desperate to save themselves, even abandoned their sick and dying loved ones. “Thus doing,” Boccaccio wrote, “each thought to secure immunity for himself.”

The Black Death: A Timeline of the Gruesome Pandemic

Track how the Black Death ravaged humanity through history.

How the Black Death Spread Along the Silk Road

The Silk Road was a vital trading route connecting East and West—but it also became a conduit for one of history's deadliest pandemics.

Pandemics That Changed History

In the realm of infectious diseases, a pandemic is the worst case scenario. When an epidemic spreads beyond a country’s borders, that’s when the disease officially becomes a pandemic. Communicable diseases existed during humankind’s hunter‑gatherer days, but the shift to agrarian life 10,000 years ago created communities that made epidemics more possible. Malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, […]

Black Plague: God’s Punishment?

Because they did not understand the biology of the disease, many people believed that the Black Death was a kind of divine punishment—retribution for sins against God such as greed, blasphemy, heresy, fornication and worldliness.

By this logic, the only way to overcome the plague was to win God’s forgiveness. Some people believed that the way to do this was to purge their communities of heretics and other troublemakers—so, for example, many thousands of Jews were massacred in 1348 and 1349. (Thousands more fled to the sparsely populated regions of Eastern Europe, where they could be relatively safe from the rampaging mobs in the cities.)

Some people coped with the terror and uncertainty of the Black Death epidemic by lashing out at their neighbors; others coped by turning inward and fretting about the condition of their own souls.

Flagellants

Some upper-class men joined processions of flagellants that traveled from town to town and engaged in public displays of penance and punishment: They would beat themselves and one another with heavy leather straps studded with sharp pieces of metal while the townspeople looked on. For 33 1/2 days, the flagellants repeated this ritual three times a day. Then they would move on to the next town and begin the process over again.

Though the flagellant movement did provide some comfort to people who felt powerless in the face of inexplicable tragedy, it soon began to worry the Pope, whose authority the flagellants had begun to usurp. In the face of this papal resistance, the movement disintegrated.

Social Distancing and Quarantine Were Used in Medieval Times to Fight the Black Death

In the 14th century, health officials didn't understand bacteria or viruses, but they understood the importance of keeping a distance and disinfecting.

How One 17th‑Century Italian City Fended Off the Plague

The town of Ferrara managed to avoid even a single death from the widespread contagion. How did they do it?

5 Hard‑Earned Lessons from Pandemics of the Past

How do populations survive a pandemic? History offers some strategies.

How Did the Black Death End?

The plague never really ended and it returned with a vengeance years later. But officials in the port city of Ragusa were able to slow its spread by keeping arriving sailors in isolation until it was clear they were not carrying the disease—creating social distancing that relied on isolation to slow the spread of the disease.

The sailors were initially held on their ships for 30 days (a trentino ), a period that was later increased to 40 days, or a quarantine — the origin of the term “quarantine” and a practice still used today. 

Does the Black Plague Still Exist?

The Black Death epidemic had run its course by the early 1350s, but the plague reappeared every few generations for centuries. Modern sanitation and public-health practices have greatly mitigated the impact of the disease but have not eliminated it. While antibiotics are available to treat the Black Death, according to The World Health Organization, there are still 1,000 to 3,000 cases of plague every year.

Gallery: Pandemics That Changed History

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Black Death

1 unlocking the secrets of the black death: mysteries of yersinia pestis.

Introduction The Plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. There are three extremely well-known pandemics; the first well-documented crisis was the Plague of Justinian. The most infamous, with the highest estimated death toll, was the Black Death. Then came the Great Outbreak of London as a result of the migration of the bacteria. Yersinia […]

2 The Echoes of History: Analyzing Epidemics (Black Death Plague), Then and Now

Abstract Preceding medical and biological research suppressed historic domestic and worldwide pandemics, but is modern society confident in the anterior brand of resilience? The World Health Organization (WHO) publicized an assertion that specified the potential of an unidentified infection as inevitable as opposed to probable, which evokes the process of procuring remedies as an endless […]

3 Black Death: Unveiling the Deadly History and Pathogenesis of the Plague

Introduction Throughout history, there have been many pathogens that are well-known. One of the best-known pathogens is Yersinia Pestis (Y. pestis), more commonly known as the Plague. There are three basic forms of Plague: bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic. Each form has similar symptoms with small variations, and the mortality rates vary. Y. Pestis Pathogenesis The […]

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A qualified writer will create a clear, plagiarism-free essay for you!

4 Unveiling the Horror: The Black Death and its Catastrophic Impact on Europe

Introduction “The Black Death”, “The Great Mortality”, “The Bubonic Plague”, all of these refer to a time in history where disease followed by death were almost inevitable. Disease was covering Europe and killing its people without hesitation; death rates were unbelievably high. The Ravaging Plague It is important to realize that about 1/3 of the […]

5 Black Death in Modern Times: Assessing Spread and Potential Impact

Introduction The topic that I chose was how the bubonic plague would spread if there was a modern-day pandemic. I chose this exploration because the bubonic plague interests me. I learned in history class about the Black Death, which wiped out around two-thirds of the world’s population during the fourteenth century (Benedictow). I wanted to […]

The Black Death

28 pages • 56 minutes read

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Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

How did the unknown origin of the plague, as well as the inability to find a cure, affect the lives and attitudes of the citizens of Europe?

Research another pandemic—either the Spanish Flu of 1918, or the Covid pandemic of 2020. How has reading The Black Death contributed to your understanding of how a society should react to a global pandemic or health crisis? How were medieval reactions to the Black Death similar to those of the recent past? How were they different?

How did the limited state of medieval medical knowledge contribute to the spread of the Black Death? Why did superstition and disinformation spread in the absence of scientific understanding?

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Black Death essay topics

The Black Death was an epidemic that killed upward of Europe’s one-third population between 1346 and 1353. The great plague of 1665 is estimated to have killed fifteen to twenty per cent of the population in certain locales. The medieval European social demographic surprisingly rebounded from the Black Death. A common misconception is that black refers to skin discolorations accompanying the disease.

Nevertheless, Black is the metaphorical sense of terrible. In modern times, it is what is known as a pestilence. If you have a problem selecting black death essay topics, contact us and ask for our help. Our writers are professionals and can help create a black death thesis statement that will catch the eyes of your professor. Occasionally, you might have encountered the term black death in history books, movies or plays. It brings to mind grim memories, the pain and suffering in ancient times. Talk of madness-allover all, mass graves and devastation in the medieval city, there were many catastrophic effects of the Black Death.

Not even modern science has unearthed the casualties of the black death epidemic. However, claims and anecdotal evidence suggest that it killed nearly twice as many people as those who lost their lives in the second world war. You may ask whether there could be at least positive consequences. If you come across bubonic plague essay topics, they are the same thing. We will take you through various categories of black death essay topics.

Compare and contrast black death topics

• Compare the management of the bubonic plague and a devastating international communicable disease outbreak.
• Can the Black Death be equated to ebola or the coronavirus outbreak?
• Compare and contrast the pneumonic plague and the bubonic plague
• Compare the impacts of the Black Death on urban and rural populations
• Compare and contrast the perception of the Black Death among different cultures
• Compare and contrast the Black Death and smallpox
• Justinian plague vs bubonic plague
• Compare and contrast modern and medieval definitions and control of bubonic plague
• Black Death vs Ebola outbreak
• How were the great plague and the Black Death similar?

Cause and effects topics on the bubonic plague

• The main effects of the bubonic plague in China
• The impacts of the Black Death on the emancipation of the European counties post the pandemic period
• The Role f Black Death in the protestant reformation, a cause and consequences analysis
• The causes and effects of the Black Death
• Myths surrounding the lack of Death
• Did the pandemics during medieval times affect the genes of Europeans 
• Black Death and religion 
• Impacts of Black Death on western civilization
• How the Black Death affected feudalism
• The economic consequences of the Black Death
• Social responses to the Black Death
• Impacts of black Death on society 
• The consequences of the Black Death on international relations
• How Black Death affected families
• The consequences of the bubonic Plague on the European export market
• Did the Black Death lead to the strengthening of medical research?
• Impacts of the Black Death on the industrial revolution
• Black Death was the genesis of the end of the Middle Ages
• Factors that led to the spread of the Black Death in Europe
• Cultural and spiritual consequences of the Black Death in the Late Middle Ages
• The genesis of the Black Death
• The impacts of the Black Death on immigration
• The Impacts of black deaths on disease control and emergency management

Expository topics on the black death/bubonic plague

• Black Death in india
• Black Death in London
• Life during the black Death
• What caused the Black Death?
• How black Death inspired art 
• Religious effects of the Black Death
• How the Black Death changed medicine
• Black Death and its impact on agriculture and architecture 
• What were the perceptions of people on the black Death
• How did the black plague end?
• Positive impacts of black Death 
• Bulbous plague
• Bubonic plague in New York
• Etiology of the black Death
• Social effects of black Death
• Was black Death a hemorrhagic fever?
• How the black Death affected trade
• Septicemic plague and treatment approaches
• Black Death and the magna carta
• How the black death response changed emergency response by nations
• Quarantine strategies used by medieval cities during the black plague
• White penitents movement during the 17th century pandemics
• Hypotheses of the medieval people on the cause of black Death
• Des bubonic plague pose danger to modern society?
• Why black Death stopped 
• Symptoms and progression of the black Death
• Main victims of persecutions during the pandemics 
• The black plague the first biological weapon?
• Flagellants and the interpretation of black Death
• The image of a plague doctor in modern pop culture 
• Origins of the names great plague and black Death
• Italian cities response to the black plague 
• How medieval Europe could have managed the bubonic plague
• Cultural effects of the black plague
• Black Death and slavery

Good research topics about black Death

• Black Death and its influence on the renaissance
• Plague, politics and pogroms: the black Death, rule of law, and the persecution of Jews in the holy roman empire
• The black Death and bubonic plague during the Elizabeth era
• Black Death and its effects on europe’s population, economy, religion and politics
• After the black Death: labor legislation and attitudes towards labor in late-medieval western Europe
• Before and after the black Death: money, prices, and wages in fourteenth-century England
• Diseases and hygiene issues in England: the black death plague
• The black Death and its effect on the change in medicine
• The black Death: bubonic plagues worst disaster
• The black Death: human history’s biggest catastrophe
• Economic shocks, inter-ethnic complementarities and the persecution of minorities: evidence from the black Death 
• Agricultural and rural society after the black Death
• Microbes and markets: was the black Death an economic revolution
• The black Death: key facts about the bubonic plague
• Confusion and chaos in Europe during the spread of the black Death 
• The black death and property rights
• The black Death and the comprehensive outlook of human development
• The most significant pandemics – the black Death
• The black Death: how different were Christian and Muslim
• Demographic decline black death and the ottoman turks

English and literature topics on black Death

• Canterbury tales of the black Death
• Influence of black Death on medieval literature
• Analysis of science, alchemy, and the great plague of London by Scott shelly
• The influence of the black Death on medieval literature and language
• Analysis of the black death poem by Matthew Henning
• The symbolism used in the painting plague by Arnold 
• Black death and renaissance beliefs on Death
• Famous black death paintings
• Famous poems about plagues
• Black death artifacts 
• Guillaume de Machaut’s poem jugement dou and black death

Simple & easy black death essay titles

• Black Death and its effects on European and Asian societies
• The black Death and its effects on western civilization
• Black Death slowly creeps across Asia, Europe and Great Britain 
• The black Death: long term and short-term effects
• Pandemics, places and populations: evidence from the black Death
• Adverse shocks and mass persecutions: evidence from the black Death
• The black Death: the darkest period of European history 
• Socio-economic, political, religious and cultural consequences of the black Death
• The black Death killed more than a third of the population
• Agrarian labor productivity rates before the black Death
• The black Death and devastation it caused: political, economic and social structures of medieval Europe
• Political, psychological, economic and social aftermath of the black Death 
• European goods market integration in the very long run: from the Black Death to the first world war. 
• Christian and Muslim views on the 14th century plague, known as black Death
• Social and religious changes influenced by the black Death
• Reform and relearn: how the black Death shaped the renaissance
• The destruction and devastation caused by the black Death
• Black Death: the history of how it began, the symptoms and more

Research questions about the black Death

• How did the Black Death affect European societies of the mid-fourteenth century?
• How the Black Death left a lasting impression in the medieval society?
• How the Black Death greatly improved the European society?
• How the Justinian plague paved the way to the way to the black Death?
• What is the black Death called now?
• Was the black Death the largest disaster of European history
• How different were the Christian and muslim responses to the Black Death.
• Why did the black Death kill so many people?
• What was more significant to Europe: the Black Death or the peasants revolt.
• Is the black Death still alive?
• Will HIV and aids be the Black Death of the twenty-first century?
• Who discovered the cure for the Black Death?
• How did the Black Death spread so quickly?
• What was the chance of surviving the Black Death?
• Is there a vaccine for the Black Death?
• What was it like living during the Black Death?
• Did anyone recover from the Black Death?
• In what country is the black Death believed to have started?
• How is the black plague similar to covid-19?
• What were the positives of the Black Death?
• Which country was hit hardest by the Black Death?
• Who was affected the most by the Black Death?
• Which countries were not affected by the Black Death?
• Are some people immune to the Black Death?

Black death essay titles

• The impact of the black Death on European and Asian societies
• The black death and western civilizations impact
• The black Death infiltrates asia, Europe and great Britain slowly
• The long and short term effects of the black Death
• Pandemics, locations and populations: black death evidence
• Adverse shocks and mass executions: black death evidence
• The black Death: the darkest era in European history
• The black Death’s socioeconomic, political, religious and cultural effects
• More than a third of the population perished in the Black Death.
• Pre-black death agrarian labor productivity rates
• The black Death and its impact on European culture
• Political, economic and social structures in medieval Europe were devastated by the Black Death.
• The black Death’s devastation and destruction
• The black Death and the transformation of the west
• The black Death: the history of how it began, the symptoms and more

Important books that document the black Death

• Plagues, healers and patients in early modern Europe by Eamon, William
• The plague pamphlets of Thomas dekker by Thomas dekker; f.p Wilson
• The black Death in Egypt and England: a comparative study by stuart j borsch
• Historical Dictionary of Late Medieval England, 1272-1485  by Ronald H. Fritze and William B. Robison
• Hunting the double helix: how DNA is solving puzzles of the past by anna meyer
• Events That Changed Great Britain, from 1066 to 1714  by Frank W. Thackeray; John E. Findling
• Plantagenet England, 1225- 1360 by Michael Prestwich
• The Black Death: The Greatest Catastrophe Ever: Ole J. Benedictow Describes How He Calculated That the Black Death Killed 50 Million People in the 14th Century, or 60 percent of Europe’s Entire Population  by Benedictow, Ole J
• The later middle ages, 1272-1485 by George homes
• Encyclopedia of the Black Death, Volume 1 , by Joseph Patrick Byrne
• The black Death: an essay on traumatic change by atlas, Jerrold
• The Decameron  by Giovanni Boccaccio
• The Black Death  by Rosemary Horrox
• The story of rats: their impact on us and our impact on them by s. Anthony Barnett
• What a pest: why the black Death still wont die by anthes Emily
• Death and the Pearl Maiden: Plague, Poetry, England  by David K. Coley
• Science, Alchemy, and the Great Plague of London  by Scott Shelley
• Plague bug wasn’t all that fierce: DNA analysis suggests living conditions fed black Death

These are some of the most common black death essay topics. We have wittingly twisted them around to help you write the best thesis, term papers and short essays on black Death. If you have gone through the list and feel like it is too much grim to write, we can help you. Eddusaver is the best when it comes to English essay writers!

In case you can’t find a sample example, our professional writers are ready to help you with writing your own paper. All you need to do is fill out a short form and submit an order

Topics on Black Death to Inspire You

Occasionally, maybe in movies, history books, novels, or plays, you might have probably encountered the term Black Death. Of course, it brings to mind the pain, grim memories, and suffering in ancient times. Talk of chaotic mass graves, madness-allover, and devastation in the medieval city, there were many catastrophic effects of the Black Death.

Not even modern science has unearthed the casualties of the Black Death epidemic. However, there are claims and anecdotal evidence to suggest that it killed nearly twice as many people like those who lost their lives to World War II.

Could there at least be positive consequences you may ask? Well, maybe this list of Black Death essay topics will tell us more. If you come across bubonic plague essay topics, they are the same thing. However, for now; be our guest. In a few minutes as we take you through different categories of Black Death, essay topics.

What is the Black Death?

The Black Death was an epidemic that killed upward of one-third of the population of Europe between 1346 and 1353 (more on proportional mortality below). The Black Death was the Great Plague of 1665, which by some estimates killed fifteen to twenty percent of the population in certain locales.

Surprisingly, the medieval European social-demographic system rebounded from the Black Death. A common misconception is that black refers to skin discolorations accompanying the disease. However, Black is meant in the metaphorical sense of terrible. It is what we know as pestilence, in modern times.

If you are confused about the best Black Death essay thesis, find out more about Black Death by reading:

• Sample black death essay
• Sample Black Death book review of Black Death : The book is The Black Death, 1346:1353: The complete history by Ole J. Benedictow.

Our writers can also help you come up with a Black Death thesis statement that will catch the eyes of your professor. Talk to us.

Cause and Effects Topics on the Bubonic Plague

• The impacts of the Black Death in the emancipation of the European counties post the pandemic period.
• The main effects of the bubonic plague in China
• The causes and effects of the Black Death
• The role of Black Death in Protestant Reformation, a cause and consequences analysis
• Did the pandemics during medieval times affect the genes of Europeans
• Myths surrounding the Black Death
• Impacts of Black Death on Western Civilization
• Black Death and Religion
• The economic consequences of the Black Death
• How black death affected Feudalism
• Impacts of Black Death on society
• Social Responses to the Black Death
• How black death affected families
• The consequences of the Black Death on international relations
• Did the Black Death lead to the strengthening of medical research?
• The consequences of the bubonic plague on the European Export market
• Black Death as the genesis of the end of the Middle Ages
• Impacts of the Black Death on the Industrial Revolution
• Cultural and Spiritual consequences of the Black Death in the late Middle Ages
• Factors that led to the spread of the Black Death in Europe
• The genesis of the Black Death
• The impacts of Black Deaths on Disease Control and Emergency Management
• The impacts of the Black Death on immigration

Related Reading: Argumentative essay topics and ideas.

Compare and Contrast Black Death Topics

• Can Black Death be equated to Ebola or Coronavirus outbreak?
• Compare the management of the bubonic plague and a devastating international communicable disease outbreak (Zika Virus, Ebola, Coronavirusetc.)
• Compare the impacts of the Black Death on urban and rural populations
• Compare and contrast pneumonic plague and the bubonic plague
• Compare the position of the Catholic and Protestant churches pre-and post-bubonic plague
• Compare and contrast the perception of the Black Death among different cultures
• Compare and contrast modern and medieval definition and control of the bubonic plague
• Compare and contrast black death and smallpox
• How were the Great Plague and Black Death Similar?
• Black Death Vs. Ebola outbreak
• Justinian plague vs. Bubonic Plague

Expository Topics on Black Death/Bubonic Plague

• Black Death in London
• Black Death in India
• What caused the Black Death?
• Life during the Black Death
• Religious effects of Black death
• How Black Death inspired art
• Black death and its impact on agriculture and architecture
• How the black death changed medicine
• How did the Black Plague end?
• What were the perceptions of people on the Black Death?
• Bulbous Plague
• Positive impacts of Black Death
• Social effects of Black Death
• Bubonic Plague in New York
• How the Black Death affected Trade
• Was Black Death a hemorrhagic fever?
• Black Death and the Magna Carta
• Septicemic plague and treatment approaches
• How the Black Death response changed Emergency Response by nations
• Etiology of the Black Death
• White Penitents movement during the 17th-century pandemics
• Quarantine strategies used by Medieval cities during the Black Plague
• Does bubonic plague pose danger to modern society?
• Hypotheses of the Medieval people on the cause of Black Death
• Symptoms and progression of the Black Death
• Why Black Death stopped
• Is the black plague the first biological weapon?
• Main victims of persecutions during the pandemics
• Origins of the names Great Plague and Black Death
• The image of a plague doctor in modern pop culture
• Flagellants and the interpretation of Black Death
• How Medieval Europe could have managed the bubonic plague
• Italian cities' response to the Black Plague
• Black Death and Slavery
• Cultural effects of the Black Plague

English and Literature Topics on Black Death

• Influence of black death on medieval literature
• Canterbury tales of the black death
• The Influence of the Black Death on Medieval Literature and Language
• Analysis of Science, Alchemy, and the Great Plague of London by Scott Shelly
• The symbolism used in the painting Plague by Arnold Böcklin.
• Analysis of The Black Death poem by Matthew Henning
• Famous Black Death Paintings
• Black Death and Renaissance beliefs on death
• Black Death artifacts
• Famous poems about Plagues
• Guillaume de Machaut's Poem Jugement dou and Black Death

Important Books the Document the Black Death

• The Plague Pamphlets of Thomas Dekker By Thomas Dekker; F. P. Wilson
• Plagues, Healers, and Patients in Early Modern Europe by Eamon, William
• Hunting the Double Helix: How DNA Is Solving Puzzles of the Past by Anna Meyer
• The Black Death in Egypt and England: A Comparative Study by Stuart J. Borsch
• The Later Middle Ages, 1272-1485 by George Holmes
• Plantagenet England, 1225-1360 by Michael Prestwich
• The Story of Rats: Their Impact on Us, and Our Impact on Them by S. Anthony Barnett
• The Black Death: An Essay on Traumatic Change by Atlas, Jerrold
• Plague Bug Wasn't All That Fierce: DNA Analysis Suggests Living Conditions Fed Black Death by Bascom, Nick
• What a Pest: Why the Black Death Still Won't Die by Anthes Emily
• Historical Dictionary of Late Medieval England, 1272-1485 by Ronald H. Fritze and William B. Robison
• The Black Death: The Greatest Catastrophe Ever: Ole J. Benedictow Describes How He Calculated That the Black Death Killed 50 Million People in the 14th Century, or 60 percent of Europe's Entire Population by Benedictow, Ole J
• The Prospect of Global History by James Belich ; John Darwin; Margret Frenz; Chris Wickham
• Events That Changed Great Britain, from 1066 to 1714 by Frank W. Thackeray; John E. Findling
• Science, Alchemy, and the Great Plague of London by Scott Shelley
• The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
• Death and the Pearl Maiden: Plague, Poetry, England by David K. Coley
• The Black Death by Rosemay Horrox
• Encyclopedia of the Black Death, Volume 1 , by Joseph Patrick Byrne

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Black Death Essays

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Home — Essay Samples — History — Medieval Europe — Black Death

Essays on Black Death

When it comes to writing an essay on the Black Death, also known as the Bubonic Plague, it’s crucial to choose a topic that is not only interesting but also relevant and impactful. The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, and its impact on society, culture, and economy was immense. Therefore, selecting the right essay topic is essential to ensure that you can delve deeper into this historical event and provide valuable insights to your readers.

The Black Death had a profound and lasting impact on European society. It led to widespread death and suffering, economic collapse, and significant shifts in religious and cultural practices. As a result, studying the Black Death is crucial for understanding the broader historical context of the period and its long-term consequences. By choosing the right essay topic, you can contribute to the ongoing scholarly conversation about the Black Death and its impact on human history.

When selecting a Black Death essay topic, it’s important to consider your interests, the available research material, and the specific angle or perspective you want to explore. Whether you’re interested in the medical, social, economic, or cultural aspects of the Black Death, there are plenty of thought-provoking essay topics to choose from.

Recommended Black Death Essay Topics

There are numerous topics to consider in the Black Death essays. Whether you are interested in the history, social impact, or scientific aspects of this devastating pandemic, there is a wide range of topics to explore. Below is a list of Black Death essay topics categorized by different themes.

Medical Aspects

• The spread of the Black Death: causes and transmission
• The impact of the Black Death on medieval medicine
• The role of physicians and healers during the Black Death
• Comparing the Black Death to modern-day pandemics

Social and Economic Impact

• The demographic consequences of the Black Death
• The economic repercussions of the Black Death
• Changes in labor and land ownership after the Black Death
• The Black Death and the decline of feudalism

Religious and Cultural Effects

• Religious responses to the Black Death
• The portrayal of the Black Death in art and literature
• The Black Death and the development of public health measures
• The impact of the Black Death on social and cultural norms

Global and Comparative Perspectives

• The Black Death and its impact beyond Europe
• Comparing the Black Death to other historical pandemics
• The Black Death in the context of global trade and travel
• The Black Death and its legacy in different regions of the world

These are just a few examples of the wide range of essay topics that you can explore when writing about the Black Death. By choosing a topic that resonates with your interests and expertise, you can produce an engaging and insightful essay that contributes to our understanding of this pivotal moment in history.

The Black Death: Impact, Consequences, and Societal Shifts

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The Black Plague in Medieval Europe

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The Black Death of 1348 as The Greatest Biomedical Disaster in World History

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How The Black Death Pandemic Affected The Lifes of People

Impact of black death on england, perception of black death in the world, the bubonic plague pandemic and its impact on the world, social effects of the black plague, the biggest pandemics in history and how they affected people’s lifes, major sources for the black deaths, microbial disease report: the plague, black death vs. covid-19: a comparative analysis, the profound impact of the black death, black death: humanity's grim catalyst, essay on the black death.

75,000,000–200,000,000

1346 - 1353

Eurasia, North Africa

The Pestilence, the Great Mortality, the Plague.

The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Afro-Eurasia, and became the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history. The Black Death had profound effects on the course of European history.

The Black Death is believed to have been the result of plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, but it may also cause septicaemic or pneumonic plagues. The disease was likely transmitted from rodents to humans by the bite of infected fleas. The Definitive appearance of the Black Death was in Crimea in 1347 and reached southern England in 1348.

Yersinia pestis causes three types of plague in humans: bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic, and it is likely that all three played some role in the pandemic. The Bubonic Plague causes fever, chills, vomiting, diarrhea, terrible aches and pains. Also, it attacks the lymphatic system, causing swelling in the lymph nodes. The disease was also terrifyingly progressive, people who went to bed at night could be dead by morning. The bacillus travels from person to person through the air.

The Black Death estimated to have killed 30 percent to 60 percent of the European population. The bacterial infection still occurs but can be treated with antibiotics. The Black Death had profound effects on the course of European history.

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• French Revolution
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Essay On The Black Death

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Death , Town , History , Sociology , Health , Population , Europe , Pandemic

Words: 2000

Published: 11/13/2019

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The Black Death

Introduction

The Black Death stands out as one of the most destructive pandemics to occur in human history that claimed many lives in Europe between 1348 and 1350. The underlying cause of the pandemic has been a controversial subject, characterized with different perspectives concerning the explanation for its cause. The first reports of the Black Death were in Europe during the summer of 1346 and this occurred in the town of Caffe in the Crimea. The city of Caffa was under siege by the Tartars who would launch corpses infected with the disease over the walls of the city with the intentions of weakening the city’s defenses. The residents of Caffa escaped the attack to other areas through use of boats and in the process carried the disease with them. The Black Death was a term which collectively referred to three separate plagues with the Bubonic and septicaemic plague being carried by fleas while the pneumonic plague was viral in nature and was spread through the air.

The Black Death killed approximately 30-40 percent of the population, resulting to a significant reduction in the world’s population (Byrne, 2004). As the population in Europe started growing, cities began to grow at unprecedented rate bringing with it conditions like waste accumulation, overcrowding and water pollution which only served to provide an enabling environment for the black death to occur. Various sources attribute the main cause of the Black Death to be the outbreak of bubonic plague as a result of the bacterium yersinia pestis. The plague spread throughout Europe and the Mediterranean as a result of being carried by oriental rat fleas residing on black cats which resided in passenger and merchant ships.

Recent forensic search reveals that the major cause of the Black Death was a bubonic plague thought to have originally come from China and spread to regions of Europe by merchant ships. The European’s population recovered from the plague in duration of one and a half centuries. It is evident that the Black Death pandemic had vast effects on the religious and socio-economic turmoil on the history of Europe.

In order to ascertain the religious and socio-economic consequences of the Black Death, it is important to first analyze an overview of the causes of the Black Death pandemic. Prior to the onset of Black Death during the mid 14th century, Europe had not witnessed epidemic ailments. Historians contest that the Black Death had its origin in China and spread to other parts in Europe by ship. It is evident that the scale of the Black Death pandemic had severe impacts on the social structure of Europe’s population (Campbell, 2009). Due to lack of contemporary records concerning the plague, the principal cause of the pandemic has been subject to controversy with different researchers and historians contesting to different causes of the pandemic. The most accepted explanation for cause of the Black Death was the bubonic plague, which argues that the pathogen responsible for causing the plague is Yersinia pestis transmitted by rats and fleas (Herlihy, 1997). The following section outlines the consequences of the plague with respect to socio-economic and religious factors.

The massive population losses associated with the Black Death meant that it had some effects on the social, economic and religious structures of the European population during the 14th century and the subsequent years that followed in the history of Europe. A rough estimate on the mortality rate of the Black Death suggests that in a period of two years, the pandemic claimed one out of every three lives, nothing like that had ever happened in human history. For instance, it is estimated the Black Death claimed lives of about 45-75 percent population of Florence within one year, resulting to the collapse of its economic system (Herlihy, 1997). About 60 per cent of Venice population died within a span of 18 months, approximately 500-600 deaths daily. Such death rates had significant effects on the population structure of the most affected areas. Higher mortality rates affected certain professions whose line of duty required contact with the already sick, for instance the doctors and clergymen (Ormrod, 1996).

The survival rates during the times of the pandemic for such professions were low. For example, eight physicians died out of nine in Perpignan. The high mortality rates significantly affected the religious structure of Europe’s population since most of the clergies had contact with the patients, and this implied that their survival rates were at stake. Historical accounts report that 30 percent of the cardinals succumbed to the pandemic. Recovery of the population loss took approximately 150 years, with urban population recovering faster due to factors such as immigration. Population in the rural areas recovered gradually also due to increased migration to the urban centers. Special groups were the most affected by the Black Death Pandemic, for instance, the friars. It is evident that the Black Death drew a dividing line in the middle Ages into a strong medieval culture and later middle Ages characterized by a strong population and a reduced population respectively (Byrne, 2004).

The Black Death was responsible for economic disruption in Europe during the 14th century, and its effects propagated in the following years. The most affected were the urban cities since they experienced an economic meltdown due to disruption in business activities because there was no time to concentrate on business yet a plague had hit the population. Projects such as building and construction came to a halt. The plague significantly affected Mills and machinery industry by inflicting death on the skilled personnel who had the ability to attend to such machineries (Olea & Christakos, 2005). The Black Death did not spare artisans either, resulting to an economic sabotage for the guilds. This reveals the severity of the labor shortage during the years that the plague was peaking and the subsequent years that followed. As the population reduced, Europe supply of goods increased sand since there was little population, the prices significantly dropped. This meant that those who survived the plague, their standard of living increased. The economic activities in the rural areas also succumbed to the pandemic. This is because most of the population died, and the few survivors decided to move on. It is evident that there was labor shortage in the rural areas during the peak of the pandemic (Olea & Christakos, 2005). It is arguable that the economic disruption caused by Black Death is responsible for the guild revolts that occurred during the century and rebellions in the rural areas of Europe. For instance, England witnessed the Peasant’s revolt during 1381. There a series of revolts that occurred in Europe, such as the rebellion from Catalonian that took place during 1395, and the Jacquerie rebellion that took place during 1358. This serves to reveal the impacts of the Black Death pandemic with regard to economic disruptions and the social structure of Europe’s population (Olea & Christakos, 2005).

The Black Death pandemic affected all of Europe’s population without discrimination, therefore having serious effects on the social relations of the European population. Most chronicles reported that the plague affected everyone, irrespective of one’s social status. Generally, all the elements that made up the community suffered from the plague. For instance, learning institutions found in places mostly affected by the plague closed down. Historical accounts report that only 26 professors survived out of the 40 found in Cambridge University. Religious institutions also succumbed to the effects of the plague through death of the priests and Bishops and their successors (Ormrod, 1996). The most affected religious institution was the Catholic Church. The increased mortality rates associated with Black Death had immense effects on social relations among European population. The European population during the time had no knowledge of the underlying cause of the plague during the time, because of this; they vested their vengeance of the Jews and other foreigners as possible causes of the plague. This is evident by the massive attacks on Jewish communities during 1349. Even the European governments had no mechanism to approach the plague since there was no one who knew how the plague was transmitted from one person to another; as a result, people believed that it was God’s wrath, which resulted to such devastating occurrences (Herlihy, 1997).

The Black Death pandemic had cultural effects in terms of art and literature in Europe within the generation that had a firsthand experience on the plague and subsequent generations. Chroniclers, who were famous writers, are the ones responsible for keeping records on the events of the Black Death. The despair associated with Black Death got its way into the famous works of art and literature in Europe during the later years in the 14th century. The most striking evidence is the tomb sculptures of the times (Olea & Christakos, 2005). Black Death significantly influenced the decorations on the tomb sculptures. The onset of the 1400 saw some tomb sculptures being designed as a way of remembering the pandemic. Artists who designed sculptures on tombs incorporated themes depicting the Black Death by sculpting bodies showing the signs of the pandemic. The pandemic also got its way into paintings of the time, with a painting style commonly referred to as danse macabre, meaning the Dance of Death (Herlihy, 1997). The painting style emphasized on a combination of skeletons interacting with normal beings during their undertaking of daily activities. The most striking element about the paintings is that each scene had an element of living combined with skeletons. This works of art and literature were commissioned with the aim of remembering the Black Death pandemic. Therefore, the Black Death played a big role in influencing subsequent works of Art and Literature across Europe. (Byrne, 2004).

The Black Death pandemic played a significant role in influencing the political cause of Europe. A significant number of political nobles and reigning monarchs died of the plague. The most notable being the queen of France and the queen of Aragon. The plague also affected government operations since it caused the adjournment of parliaments. The war in Europe came was affected by the plague since most of the soldiers died because of the Black Death pandemic. The most notable political effect of the Black Death pandemic was at local levels of governance, whereby city councils were destroyed and the closure of courts. The effects on political disruption were not permanent because government had to resume its duties immediately after the Black Death pandemic (Cohn, 2002).

An overview of the effects of the Black Death Pandemic serves as a demarcation of the Middle Ages in the European History. The consequences of the Black Death cannot be underestimated in the history of Europe. The economic, social and political disruptions of the Black Death marks an integral part of the History of Europe as evident in its effects described in the paper. It is evident that the Black Death pandemic had vast effects on the religious and socio-economic turmoil on the history of Europe.

Byrne, J. (2004). The Black Death. London: GreenWood Publishing Group. Campbell, B. (2009). Factor markets in England before the Black Death. Continuity and change, 24 (1), 79-106. Cohn, S. (2002). The Black Death Transformed: Disease and Culture in Early Renaissance. London: Arnold Publishers. Herlihy, D. (1997). The Black Death and the Transformation of the West. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Olea, R., & Christakos, G. (2005). Urban Mortality and the Black Death. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press. Ormrod, W. (1996). The Black Death in England. Stamford, UK: Paul Watkins.

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Police shooting of Baltimore teen prompts outrage among residents

Myreshia Macon, the mother of a 17-year-old who was shot and killed by Baltimore police officers, right, visits a memorial for her son near the scene of the shooting in Baltimore, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Myreshia Macon, the mother of a 17-year-old who was shot and killed by Baltimore police officers, left, is comforted by a loved one while visiting a memorial for her son near the scene of the shooting in Baltimore, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Dried blood can be seen, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, near a memorial at the scene where Baltimore police officers shot and killed a fleeing juvenile suspect in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Writing can be seen on a memorial, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, near the scene where Baltimore police officers shot and killed a fleeing juvenile suspect. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

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BALTIMORE (AP) — After police officers shot and killed a fleeing teenager, residents of his southwest Baltimore neighborhood are outraged at what they consider the latest case of excessive force targeting a young Black man.

Authorities have released few details about the Monday night shooting, which follows two others that unfolded under similar circumstances last year in Baltimore. All three encounters escalated quickly, starting when officers saw someone on the street and believed they could be armed.

The teen displayed “characteristics of an armed person” and ran away when officers tried to engage with him, Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said in a news conference later that night. He said police caught up to the juvenile suspect and a brief struggle ensued. Three officers opened fire after realizing he had a gun, Worley said.

None of the officers were injured. Officials said a loaded handgun was recovered from the scene.

Bodycam footage of the shooting hasn’t been released yet and police declined to answer questions about how many times the teen was shot and whether he pointed a gun at officers. They also didn’t say whether he was shot in the back or whether officers gave any verbal warning before opening fire.

“They didn’t just kill him — that was overkill,” said Taavon Bazemore, 55, who lives and works in the neighborhood. “Y’all using a whole lot of force for no reason. He shouldn’t have a gun, but that don’t give you the right to kill him.”

Bazemore, who said his cousin was killed by Baltimore police in 2001, said he believes there’s a double standard for law enforcement officers. In this case, he questioned whether they could have used a stun gun or some other less lethal form of restraint.

“It’s not right and it’s not fair,” he said. “We’re talking about a kid. He’s a child.”

Police shootings in other cities have also raised similar issues in recent years, with prosecutors, courts and the public considering when an officer should use whatever means necessary to stop a fleeing suspect.

Authorities have not publicly identified the teen, saying only that he was underage. The Maryland Attorney General’s Office, which is tasked with investigating in-custody deaths, cited juvenile privacy laws in their decision to withhold his name.

Neighbors said he was 17 years old. They said he sometimes picked up work at a nearby convenience store and was a familiar face in the area.

Loved ones created a makeshift memorial and left handwritten messages on the corner where he died, using tealight candles to spell his name and decorating a street sign with streamers and balloons.

His mom, Myreshia Macon, visited the memorial late Wednesday afternoon.

In addition to processing the shock of her son’s death, she said she’s frustrated that police are withholding critical details about what happened in the moments before he was killed.

“I’m just broken. Broken and upset,” she said. “The same way they’re keeping the public out of the loop, they’re keeping me blindsided, too. I don’t know nothing.”

The Baltimore Police Department has implemented a series of reforms in recent years after the 2015 death of Freddie Gray turned an unwelcome spotlight on the agency. Much of its efforts have focused on restoring public trust, but residents of the city’s majority-Black communities often complain that little has changed.

Peggy Kallon, who runs a corner store in the neighborhood, said she’s heartbroken over the shooting. While acknowledging that police officers have a difficult and dangerous job, she questioned their reasoning in this case.

“He was a good kid,” she said. “Seventeen years old and they just shot him like that. … I’m speechless.”

Associated Press photographer Stephanie Scarbrough contributed to this report.

Trial begins in case of white woman who fatally shot Black neighbor in Florida

• Associated Press

OCALA — A Florida jury will determine whether a  60-year-old white woman  was justified when she fired through the door of her Central Florida apartment a year ago, killing a Black mother during an ongoing dispute over neighborhood children.

In opening statements on Tuesday, jurors were told that shortly before Ajike “A.J.” Owens was killed on June 2, 2023, the children had been playing in a small field outside the apartment where  Susan Lorincz  lived in Ocala, which is 80 miles northwest of Orlando.

Lorincz told investigators that the children were running and yelling outside her apartment. She went outside, saw some skates on the ground and threw them at the children.

She went back inside her apartment, defense attorney Morris Carranza told jurors.

Owens, who was the mother of several of the children and who lived across the street, went to Lorincz’s apartment to confront her. Owens was apparently angry at how Lorincz dealt with the children, lawyers said in opening statements.

Owens banged loudly on her door, Carranza said.

“A.J. was pounding, and she was cursing,” Carranza said during opening statements. He said that Owens had threatened his client, and she feared the woman would break the door down.

He said Lorincz was standing a few feet from the front door, beside her table, as the pounding on the door continued.

Prosecutors said the door was locked and told jurors that Owens was not armed.

Carranza argued that Lorincz was fearful that Owens would harm her.

She believed “in her mind, in her soul and in her core that she had no choice” but to fire one round from her .380-caliber handgun, her attorney told the jury.

Yvonne Costa, who lived in the apartment that shared a wall with Lorincz, testified Tuesday that she heard loud voices shortly before the shooting, but she couldn’t understand what was being said.

Then the pounding started. It was loud, she testified.

“The wall in between our two apartments started shaking,” Costa said. “It was very loud. And it scared me.”

She testified she then heard a loud pop, followed by more screaming. She ran to her bedroom to call 911.

Witnesses said that Owens stumbled from the porch, and she yelled for someone to call 911 before falling to the ground.

Lorincz is charged with manslaughter and faces up to 30 years in prison.

State Attorney William Gladson has said his office contemplated filing a second-degree murder charge but that prosecutors concluded there was insufficient evidence that Lorincz had “hatred, spite, ill will or evil intent” toward Owens.

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