In the early 1300s, an epidemic known as the Black Death broke out in China or Egypt and soon spread to Europe via flea-infested rats. Within 5 years, it had killed 25 million people—one-third of Europe’s population.

The plague arrived in Europe in 1347, when a trade ship returning from the Black Sea landed in Sicily. Most people on board were already dead from the disease, and the survivors soon infected the entire town. From Sicily, the sickness spread north through Italy and into other countries. The plague spread especially quickly in Britain because of its crowded cities and squalid living conditions. Homes were quarantined (quarantina in Italian means “40 days,” the original required isolation period) if even one family member showed symptoms, and others living there were left to their fate. There was not enough room or enough healthy people to dispose of all the dead, and bodies piled up in the streets. Ironically, cats were suspected as a cause and driven out of town—though they were the one instrument that possibly could have controlled the infected rat population. It was believed that the Black Death was a punishment from God, and Jews, foreigners, lepers, and beggars were blamed and persecuted in the period of social upheaval triggered by the mass deaths.

Today, most doctors believe the Black Death was caused by the bubonic plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis. Both the Black Death and the bubonic plague are characterized by chills, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and the formation of black boils (from which the Black Death gets its name) on the neck, groin, and armpit from bleeding into lymph nodes. Bubonic plague is almost always fatal within a week if not treated, especially when the bacteria spread to a victim’s lungs. The plague still exists in some parts of the world today, although antibiotics are now available to treat it.

Some scientists, however, believe that the Black Death was not, in fact, the bubonic plague. They suggest that the Black Death spread from person to person rather than through infected rats and argue that it was caused by some other unidentified infectious agent.

ADDITIONAL FACTS

  1. Bubonic plague returned to Europe several times over the next few centuries. More than 300 years after the initial outbreak, an epidemic broke out in London in 1665. As many as 100,000 people died in 1 year, before winter and a massive fire killed the infected fleas and the plague tapered off.
  2. The children’s song “Ring around the Rosy” is rumored to have originated during the 14th century. “Ring around the rosy” is thought to refer to a reddish rash and “We all fall down” to symbolize death. Most experts, however, doubt that this is true.
  3. The Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375) lived through the plague as it ravaged the city of Florence in 1348. In his book The Decameron—a story of 10 people who escape the disease by fleeing to a villa outside of town—he gives a graphic description of the epidemic’s effects on his city.