The Black Death D48

The Black Death is the name for a terrible disease that spread throughout Europe from 1347 to 1350

and it was highly contagious

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There was no cure for the disease

How did it start?

The plague likely started in Asia and traveled westward along the Silk Road


The disease was carried by fleas that lived on rats


Historians think that the Black rats living on Europe merchant ships caught the disease

Eventually bringing it to Europe

How bad was it?

By the time the disease ran its course

it had at least killed on third of people in Europe and probably more

In Paris, France it is estimated that around 800 people died a day

There were so many dead that they could not bury them

They had to carry them to massive pits

The people in the Middle Ages did not know that the disease was carried by rats

This made larger cities and towns which were very dirty during the Middle Ages

Sometimes the entire towns or villages were wiped out by the plague

Much of the infrastructure of Europe was gone when the Black Death finally subsided

It was estimated that it took 150 years for Europe to rebuild