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I found it really interesting that observers and historians at the time were able to trace the black plague back to eastern asia. It was also interesting that the Mongols had this disease- especially since the Muslims and some others believed they were God's punishment for the sins of the people. This map I found shows the route the plague took, traveling throuh Asia and Europe. Another map I found shows a timeline of the plague's spread in Europe- it was really interesting how it seemed to travel in rings inland.
I found this site that explains the plague. It talks about the effects on a more personal level. It discusses how different groups were affected and how they reacted and tried to deal with the plague.
This is an interactive map I found that shows the spread of the plague from 1347-1350.
I was interested in how the Bubonic Plague was spread. This website has information about the plague as well as how one gets a plague. Here is a website that also talks about the spread of the plague. It says one cannot be infected just by contact with an infected person, but one must inhale the bacterium (this often occurs when you come into contact with one another).
Rats were not the only animal that spread the fleas that had the plague. Dogs and cats could also have the fleas on them and spread the plague to their owners.
Also, there have been recent outbreaks of the plague in Colorado. Here is the article.
In the reading it said "Anthrax has been claimed as a contributing factor." I wasn't sure what Anthrax was, so I looked it up.
On a Wikipedia article I found that Anthrax is a disease found in humans and animals that is caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. It is highly lethal in some forms, and it is one of only a few bacteria that can form long-lived spores. It said that when the host of the bacteria dies, the bacteria turns itself into a dormant spore, and waits for another host to continue its life cycle.
Is Anthrax treatable, and how can it be prevented?
I found the answer to this on a CDC website. It said that "in countries where anthrax is common and vaccination levels of animal herds are low, humans should avoid contact with livestock and animal products and avoid eating meat that has not been properly slaughtered and cooked." I also found that there is an anthrax vaccine, but it is intended for animals and shouldn't be used in humans. There is a vaccine for humans, however, that can be taken before receiving the disease.
So the reading mentioned two trade routes, the Silk Road and the Volga Valley. I knew what the silk road was but not what the Volga Valley. I looked it up and found out it is a river in Russia that freezes over in the winter. It is a very large river. It is the longest in Europe. It was an important trading route connecting Scandinavia and Bulgaria with Persia and Khazaria(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volga). Here is a small picture of the map. I also was wondering if the pneumonic plague is pneumonia or just something similar to pneumonia. After looking it up I learned that the symptoms of the pneumonic plague was pneumonia. I also learned that this type of plague was least common and transmitted through humans
The reading mentioned that one of the ways that the Black plague was spread was by trading, and some isolated civilizations were not exposed to the plague. This is an instance where isolation was beneficial. I wondered if there were other instances in history that isolation was beneficial to a society. I thought about how Ancient China grew in a completely different way and was culturally different than the other 3 river civilizations. It also lasted very much longer than the others...it is still around, and it has been occupied less than the others. This had to do with its isolation by distance, mountains, deserts etc.
I google image searched black plague and i found a lot of similar looking depictions. Here is the classic image of the black death.
How exactly was it spread? Like fro instance maybe it was spread by the traders who were coming through. While rwading this article I found out that it was passed from human to human by coughig, so this was an airbone disease and also from rats. More info about it can be found at BLACK DEATH
I also found that the first occurance of this deadly diesease was on a trading ship from China to Europe, so maybe trading is the reason why it spread so fast.
More info about it here SPread of black death
Well according to both of these links ( Cold , Flu ) the common cold and the flu both have peak infection month in the winter. Now would that at all correlate with the sudden climate cooling, and the prevalence of the bubonic plague? I am not quite sure but it also makes since that the plague never crossed the Sahara. Why? Maybe because the temperatures there are a lot hotter? After looking on the internet for a while I still can’t find something that would support my idea, but I think it could be a good guess as to why the climate and plague correlate.
I thought that it was interesting how Ibn Battuta was around the plague so much, but it took him awhile to actually catch it himself. I was looking up things about the plauge and this site came up. It's about the Elizabethean time period and it connects the plague with people and things such as Queen Elizabeth and the Globe Theater.
Here is a site (It's slightly childish...) that explains what Ibn Batutta saw during his trip that coincided with the black plague.
Also, I found a map that shows the cities the path that the black plague took and the cities that it hit.
I was very interested in the way the Mongols used the black death to their own advantage. I wanted to see if there were any other cases of this effective form of biological warfare at the time.
Although I couldn't find any other documented instances, I still researched the Battle of Caffa more.
With thousands of Mongols dying from the plague daily, they lost interest in the siege. However, they still had the desire to kill everybody in the city, so they catapulted most of the corpses of their fallen men over the city walls (so that would be thousands of corpses).
The people of Caffa were defenseless, since they were cornered in their city. They tried to throw as many in the water as they could, but the Mongols kept on catapulting more bodies over. Soon the plague overwhelmed the city, killing thousands.
As stated by the chronicler Gabriele De’ Mussi, "...hardly one in several thousand was in a position to flee the remains of the Tartar army".
And as we know, some of the people that left did actually have the plague.
Besides Bubonic and Pneumonic diseases, what else could have caused the plague?
A NYTs article says that the plague could have been caused by an Ebola like virus. This was hypothesized by two scientists from Liverpool University. According to sources the plague had a long incubation period and spread from human to human sometimes, these are characteristics that coincide with a virus rather than a bacterium. This would also explain how it spread into areas that don’t have large rat populations. There is proof that the bubonic plague was responsible for at least some of the deaths. DNA of the bacterium has been found in the teeth of victims.
NYT: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D07EFDE123DF931A35753C1A9679C8B63
I found this really cool map that shows the dates of when the black death made it to certain areas of Eurasia.
I also wanted to find out when and why the black death ended. Here I found that "The survivors lived in constant fear of the plague's return, and the disease did not disappear until the 1600s." It wasn't as bad as it was in the beginning because there were just small out breaks across Europe and Asia.
Also, here I found that "By the end of 1350 the Black Death had subsided, but it never really died out in England for the next several hundred years. There were further outbreaks in 1361-62, 1369, 1379-83, 1389-93, and throughout the first half of the 15th century. It was not until the late 17th century that England became largely free of serious plague epidemics."
I couldn't really find out why it died out. I assume it just died out, but I'm not positive.
I also wanted to find some pictures of the buboes on patients bodies. Here is a picture of one of these buboes. I was kind of disgusted so I decided to just find a picture of the rat flea. Here is the culprit.
- I was interested in the population fluctuations due to the plague. The reading says that some of the observations from chroniclers were "notoriously unreliable", but I wanted to see some data. I found this graph that shows an estimate of the populations in Europe before, during, and after the plague.
Also in the reading it mentions flagellants. On Wikipedia it mentions that a common belief during the plague was God's Wrath. He was punishing people for their sins. The flagellants response was to go around from city to city whipping themselves as a sign of self-punishment. These actions were supposed to reflect that of the sufferings of Jesus Christ before his crucifixion. Wikipedia also mentions that the flagellants might have contributed to the plague as well because they were venturing to otherwise unaffected towns and spreading the disease.
One last thing I remember learning about in 8th grade when we talked about the was the word abracadabra. The word was written in the shape of an upside-down pyramid like this . The parchment would be fold into a the shape of a cross. It would be worn around the neck and this charm/amulet would be though to protect people from the Plague
this
^Website where I found information
In the beginning of the reading the author says that the Black Death was probably the most lethal event ever experienced in human history, up to that time. What has ever topped that? Has there ever been a pandemic that was more harmful than that?
Also, the reading mentions that one of the first symptoms of the septicemic plague is death. How is that a symptom? Wouldn't that be an effect? Because if the victim dies than there is no way the the diseases can get worse. However, on the other hand if someone gets a symptom such as a fever than the disease can build and gradually get worse, but if the victim dies immediately than how is that a symptom?
Also, I didn't understand how the bubonic and pneumonic plagues could mix. Could someone who already has the pnemonic plague get bit by a flea who carries the bubonic plague? Then would they mix?
I thought it was interesting how the lawyer in Northern Italy called Mongols and Muslims "Tatars". As I read that I began to wonder where that came from and if it is still used today? I was also wondering if it is disrespectful?
Also, I didn't know what Georgians, Saracens an Nubians were.
Finally, the end of the reading states that some regions seemed to have made slight gains from the massive pandemic. How would they gain anything from that? And if they really did gain things would they have helped them, agriculturally, domestically, socially, economically ect.
While I was reading, I thought that it was interesting how they kept mentioning swellings a symptom to tell if you had the disease, if you weren't killed. This got me curious about how the swelling started in the specific areas like groin. I could not find a site that told me how the infections started in certain places, but I found a link that told me that the bite of the infected animal directly attacked your lymphatic system.
I was also curious to find a map of where the bubonic plague started and traveled to. Bubonic Plague Map. There are dates on the map that show spread.
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