Black Death Flashcards
How many people were killed from the Black Death?
75-200 million
Where did the Black Death start?
Asia (China)
How did the Black Death spread
Along trade routes/roads like Silk Road
From boats from China into North Africa
Fleas that were in rats
Reasons why the Black Death spread so rapidly
- Lack of medical research
- Incorrect treatment eg. Bloodletting
- Fleas on rats
Describe the living conditions in 14th century Europe
Dirty, unhealthy and unstable
Quarantine
Isolate infected people to prevent airborne spreading (effective)
Blazing fire
To kill or burn the virus, the pope sat between to bonfires (effective)
Flagellants
A group of religious people who would beat themselves for their sins and the suffering of Christ (not effective)
Bloodletting
The deliberate cutting of someone to cause bleeding; this was used to remove ‘dirty blood’ leeches were also used (not effective)
Also to remove “excess blood” from the body as doctors thought that caused illness
Also to balance out the humours:
They believed that too much of one humour would cause illness, the humours were phlegm, yellow bile, black bile and blood.
Incense
Homes were fumigated with incense or simply smoke from a thatch to purify the ‘bad air’ (not effective)
Why did plague doctors wear their outfits?
Intended to protect them from airborne diseases during outbreaks of the bubonic plague in Europe
Flowers in it’s beak-like mask because they thought the sweet smell would prevent the catching the virus
3 different types of plague
- Bubonic (causes large puss filled boils)
- Pneumonic (affects lungs to cause shortness of breath and coughing
- Septicemic (affects blood and weakens the infected person)
4 beliefs of the cause of the Black Death
- People sinning so God punished them
- Poor people
- Bad air/thoughts/smells
- Foreign people eg. Muslims
