Lasting from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, the outbreak of the Black Death devastated Europe
by
bwang (student)
Bryna Wangsawidjaja
The Plague DBQ 1995
Lasting from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, the outbreak of the “Black Death” devastated Europe. Aside from the obvious catastrophe of up to forty-million dead during the time, the various responses of the nations visited by the plague had an impact far greater for both the short and long term future of Europe. The responses include fear/anguish (Docs #5, 2, 6, 13, 14, 8, 1), relying on superstitions (Docs #7, 16, 12, 15, 9, 10), people becoming concerned with profits (Docs #4, 11, 3) or explaining why they occurred (Docs #10, 12, 16, 7): these responses to the plague, involving social economic, political and religious aspects may be viewed by the historians of the time as a unique window into that world, demonstrating the beliefs and concerns of the European population of the fifteenth to eighteenth century.
The fear of the Bubonic plague came from the fact that no one knew the causes of the Plague. People were even more anguished due to the fact that even the most educated people such as doctors and scientist, do not even know the cause of the plague. Fear can be seen in Heinrich von Staden’s document explaining how after the doctors visited them, the houses of the sick were directly nailed up (Doc#5). Also, Erasmus of Rotterdam the theologian sees fear, when he blamed the dirt of the street for causing the Plague (Doc#2). Another example of fear of the Plague was visibly seen in Motto of Giovan Filippo’s document clarifying the things that were done to stop the diseases such as the building of quarantines, the enforcing of regulations and the burning of infected things using bonfires (Doc#6). There was also fear in Samuel Pepys’s document. It was during the plague when the English naval bureaucrat, stated that no one will buy wigs. They feared wearing wigs due to the infection that may spread to them, although it was common that decent men and government officials wear wigs (Doc#13). There was an example of fear in Daniel Defoe’s ‘A Journal of the Plague Year’ that basically asserts that other European countries were scared of England’s ships, so exportation amongst the countries stopped (Doc#14). Nemiah Wallington states that the English had to live in a burden since they might be next to die (Doc#8). The last example of fear was in Schoolmaster at Deventer that stated that new students, possibly teachers or other educated students have driven away from the school since the boys there have died from the plague (Doc#1).
