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black death

 

            No one was immune as it swept in off the shores and into the countryside laying its .
             Europe had prospered readily for about 300 years prior to .
             the beginning of the 1300s, but a series of natural disasters occurred. Poor harvests and .
             famine were common and as the prosperous years came to a close, economies were in .
             recession at the onset of the Black Death. Europe, on a whole, would take a step .
             backward. .
             There have been plagues throughout recorded history, but none were of the .
             magnitude nor had the far reaching effects that the Black Plague had. Its namesake came .
             from symptomatic hemorrhages that turned black. Though most people associate the .
             Black Death with the middle ages, forms of the Bubonic Plague have been known in China .
             as early as 224 BC. The Black Death embarked on a journey as an epidemic in the Gobi .
             Desert in the 1320s. By 1400, China's population of 125 million had been reduced to 90 .
             million. Southwest Asia and Europe followed suite with strikingly similar losses in their .
             population base. In 1347, the Kipchaks who were nomads from the Euro-Asian Steppe, .
             were thought to deliberately infect a European city with the disease. The Kipchaks had .
             laid siege to a Genoese trading post in Crimea. Hoping to weaken the defenders, they .
             used a catapult to lob infected corpses into the compound. Trading vessels from Crimea .
             subsequently brought cargo infested with the disease burdened rodents and crew west. .
             Starting in Sicily in 1347, it began a four year reign of terror traveling as far as .
             Greenland. During this four year period it is believed Europe lost one full third of its .
             population. .
             The effects the Plague had on the economy and the laws governing the state were .
             severe. England is a perfect example. By 1349, the population had been so severely .
             decreased that the commoner had the upper-hand on the land-lords. This was significant .
             in that they were able to demand a higher wage and the markedly increase in their .


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