Black Death

[Lisa Wolfe]

Recurrence

An epidemic of plague dies out after a few months because it has no host in which the bacteria can survive. However, that does not mean the infection is not surviving somewhere, in a rodent or flea or warm place, to act as a reservoir, so sooner or later it breaks out again.[64]

The plague repeatedly returned to haunt Europe and the Mediterranean throughout the 14th to 17th centuries.[65] According to Biraben, plague was present somewhere in Europe in every year between 1346 and 1671.[66] The Second Pandemic was particularly widespread in the following years: 1360–1363; 1374; 1400; 1438–1439; 1456–1457; 1464–1466; 1481–1485; 1500–1503; 1518–1531; 1544–1548; 1563–1566; 1573–1588; 1596–1599; 1602–1611; 1623–1640; 1644–1654; and 1664–1667.[67] According to Geoffrey Parker, "France alone lost almost a million people to plague in the epidemic of 1628–31."[68]

In England, in the absence of census figures, historians propose a range of preincident population figures from as high as 7 million to as low as 4 million in 1300,[69] and a postincident population figure as low as 2 million.[70] By the end of 1350, the Black Death subsided, but it never really died out in England. Over the next few hundred years, further outbreaks occurred in 1361–62, 1369, 1379–83, 1389–93, and throughout the first half of the 15th century.[71] An outbreak in 1471 took as much as 10–15% of the population, while the death rate of the plague of 1479–80 could have been as high as 20%.[72] The most general outbreaks in Tudor and Stuart England seem to have begun in 1498, 1535, 1543, 1563, 1589, 1603, 1625, and 1636, and ended with the Great Plague of London in 1665.[73]

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In 1466, perhaps 40,000 people died of plague in Paris.[74] During the 16th and 17th centuries, plague visited Paris for almost one year out of three.[75] The Black Death ravaged Europe for three years before it continued on into Russia, where the disease hit somewhere once every five or six years from 1350 to 1490.[76] Plague epidemics ravaged London in 1563, 1593, 1603, 1625, 1636, and 1665,[77] reducing its population by 10 to 30% during those years.[78] Over 10% of Amsterdam's population died in 1623–1625, and again in 1635–1636, 1655, and 1664.[79] There were 22 outbreaks of plague in Venice between 1361 and 1528.[80] The plague of 1576–1577 killed 50,000 in Venice, almost a third of the population.[81] Late outbreaks in central Europe included the Italian Plague of 1629–1631, which is associated with troop movements during the Thirty Years' War, and the Great Plague of Vienna in 1679. Over 60% of Norway's population died from 1348 to 1350.[82] The last plague outbreak ravaged Oslo in 1654.[83]

In the first half of the 17th century, a plague claimed some 1.7 million victims in Italy, or about 14% of the population.[84] In 1656, the plague killed about half of Naples' 300,000 inhabitants.[85] More than 1.25 million deaths resulted from the extreme incidence of plague in 17th-century Spain.[86] The plague of 1649 probably reduced the population of Seville by half.[87] In 1709–1713, a plague epidemic that followed the Great Northern War (1700–1721, Sweden v. Russia and allies)[88] killed about 100,000 in Sweden,[89] and 300,000 in Prussia.[87] The plague killed two-thirds of the inhabitants of Helsinki,[90] and claimed a third of Stockholm's population.[91] Europe's last major epidemic occurred in 1720 in Marseilles.[82]

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The Black Death ravaged much of the Islamic world.[92] Plague was present in at least one location in the Islamic world virtually every year between 1500 and 1850.[93] Plague repeatedly struck the cities of North Africa. Algiers lost 30,000–50,000 to it in 1620–21, and again in 1654–57, 1665, 1691, and 1740–42.[94] Plague remained a major event in Ottoman society until the second quarter of the 19th century. Between 1701 and 1750, 37 larger and smaller epidemics were recorded in Constantinople, and 31 between 1751 and 1800.[95] Baghdad has suffered severely from visitations of the plague, and sometimes two-thirds of its population has been wiped out.[96]

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Third plague pandemic

The Third plague pandemic (1855–1959) started in China in the middle of the 19th century, spreading to all inhabited continents and killing 10 million people in India alone.[97] Twelve plague outbreaks in Australia between 1900 and 1925 resulted in well over 1000 deaths, mainly in Sydney. This led to the establishment of a Public Health Department there which undertook some leading-edge research on plague transmission from rat fleas to humans via the bacillus Yersinia pestis.[98]

The first North American plague epidemic was the San Francisco plague of 1900–1904, followed by another outbreak in 1907–1908.[99] From 1944 through 1993, 362 cases of human plague were reported in the United States; approximately 90% occurred in four western states: Arizona, California, Colorado, and New Mexico.[100] Plague was confirmed in the United States from 9 western states during 1995.[101] Currently, between 10 and 15 people in the United States are estimated to catch the disease each year, typically in western states.[102]

The plague bacterium could develop drug-resistance and again become a major health threat. The ability to resist many of the antibiotics used against it has been found so far in only a single case of the disease in Madagascar, in 1995.[103]

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Plague Riot in Moscow in 1771: During the course of the city's plague, between 50,000 and 100,000 died (1/6 to 1/3 of its population).

[Lisa Wolfe]

The Great Plague of London in 1665. The last major outbreak of the bubonic plague in England

[Lisa Wolfe]

[Lisa Wolfe]

References

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    ^ "BBC – History – Black Death". bbc.co.uk. 2011-02-17.
    ^ Austin Alchon, Suzanne (2003). A pest in the land: new world epidemics in a global perspective. University of New Mexico Press. p. 21. ISBN 0-8263-2871-7.
    ^ "Plague, Plague Information, Black Death Facts, News, Photos – National Geographic". Science.nationalgeographic.com. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
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    ^ Ziegler 1998, p. 25
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    ^ Hecker 1859, p. 21 cited by Ziegler, p. 15.
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    ^ a b c Byrne 2004, pp. 21–9
    ^ Giovanni Boccaccio (1351/3). Decameron.
    ^ Ziegler 1998, p. 18,19
    ^ D. Herlihy, The Black Death and the Transformation of the West (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1997) p. 29.
    ^ Horrox, Rosemary (1994). Black Death. ISBN 978-0-7190-3498-5.
    ^ "Plague Backgrounder". Avma.org. Archived from the original on 2008-05-16. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
    ^ Horrox 1994, p. 159
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    ^ a b c d e f g h G. Christakos, Interdisciplinary Public Health Reasoning and Epidemic Modelling: the Case of Black Death (シュプリンガー・ジャパン株式会社, 2005), ISBN 3-540-25794-2, pp. 110–14.
    ^ Gasquet 1893
    ^ R. Totaro, Suffering in Paradise: The Bubonic Plague in English Literature from More to Milton (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 2005), p. 26.
    ^ Byrne 2004, p. 8
    ^ Byrne 2004, p. 27 quoting Ann Carmichael (1986). Plague legislation. pp. 515–6.
    ^ Ziegler 1998, p. 233
    ^ Walloe, Lars (2008). Vivian Nutton. ed. Medieval and Modern Bubonic Plague: some clinical continuities. Pestilential Complexities: Understanding Medieval Plague. Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL. p. 69.
    ^ M. Kennedy. "Black Death study lets rats off the hook". Guardian.co.uk (London: The History Press Ltd). ISBN 0-7524-2829-2..
    ^ B. Slone. The Black Death in London. London: The History Press Ltd. ISBN 0-7524-2829-2..
    ^ Drancourt, M., Aboudharam, G., Signoli, M., Dutour, O. & Raoult, D. (1998). "Detection of 400-year-old Yersinia pestis DNA in human dental pulp: an approach to the diagnosis of ancient septicemia". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S a 95: 12637–12640. see alsoMichel Drancourt; Didier Raoult (2004). "Molecular detection of Yersinia pestis in dental pulp". Microbiology 150 (2): 263–264. DOI:10.1099/mic.0.26885-0.
    ^ a b "Stephanie Haensch et al, "Distinct Clones of ''Yersinia pestis'' Caused the Black Death"". Plospathogens.org. 7 October 2010. Retrieved 2011-12-10.
    ^ Schuenemann VJ, Bos K, DeWitte S, Schmedes S, Jamieson J, Mittnik A, Forrest S, Coombes BK, Wood JW, Earn DJD, White W, Krause J, Poinar H (2011): Targeted enrichment of ancient pathogens yielding the pPCP1 plasmid of Yersinia pestis from victims of the Black Death. PNAS 2011; published ahead of print August 29, 2011, doi:10.1073/pnas.1105107108
    ^ Bos, Kirsten I.; Schuenemann VJ, Golding GB, Burbano HA, Waglechner N, Coombes BK, McPhee JB, DeWitte SN, Meyer M, Schmedes S, Wood J, Earn DJD, Herring A, Bauer P, Poinar HN, Krause J (12 October 2011). "A draft genome of Yersinia pestis from victims of the Black Death". Nature. DOI:10.1038/nature10549.
    ^ ABC/Reuters (Tuesday, 29 January 2008). "Black death 'discriminated' between victims (ABC News in Science)". Abc.net.au. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
    ^ "Health. De-coding the Black Death". News.bbc.co.uk. Wednesday, 3 October 2001, 21:51 GMT 22:51 UK. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
    ^ "Black Death's Gene Code Cracked". Wired.com. 2001-10-03. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
    ^ Philip Daileader, The Late Middle Ages, audio/video course produced by The Teaching Company, (2007) ISBN 978-1-59803-345-8.
    ^ Q&A by Kathryn Jean Lopez (2005-09-14). "Q&A with John Kelly on The Great Mortality on National Review Online". Nationalreview.com. Retrieved 2011-12-10.
    ^ Egypt – Major Cities, U.S. Library of Congress
    ^ Snell, Melissa (2006). "The Great Mortality". Historymedren.about.com. Retrieved 2009-04-19
    ^ Richard Wunderli (1992). Peasant Fires: The Drummer of Niklashausen. Indiana University Press. p. 52. ISBN 0-253-36725-5.
    ^ J. M. Bennett and C. W. Hollister, Medieval Europe: A Short History (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006), p. 329.
    ^ a b Black Death, Jewishencyclopedia.com
    ^ "Jewish History 1340–1349".
    ^ "Texas Department of State Health Services, History of Plague". Dshs.state.tx.us. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
    ^ J. M. Bennett and C. W. Hollister, Medieval Europe: A Short History (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006), p. 372.
    ^ "Plague readings". University of Arizona. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
    ^ Quotes from the Plague
    ^ "4". WHO Plague Manual. World Health Organisation.
    ^ "The Great Plague". Stephen Porter (2009). Amberley Publishing. p.25. ISBN 1-84868-087-2
    ^ J. N. Hays (1998). "The burdens of disease: epidemics and human response in western history.". p 58. ISBN 0-8135-2528-4
    ^ "Epidemics and pandemics: their impacts on human history". J. N. Hays (2005). p.46. ISBN 1-85109-658-2
    ^ Geoffrey Parker (2001). "Europe in crisis, 1598–1648". Wiley-Blackwell. p.7. ISBN 0-631-22028-3
    ^ The Black Death in Egypt and England: A Comparative Study, Stuart J. Borsch, Austin: University of Texas
    ^ Secondary sources such as the Cambridge History of Medieval England often contain discussions of methodology in reaching these figures that are necessary reading for anyone wishing to understand this controversial episode in more detail.
    ^ "BBC – History – Black Death". bbc.co.uk. p. 131. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
    ^ Gottfried, Robert S. (1983). The Black Death: Natural and Human Disaster in Medieval Europe. London: Hale. ISBN 0-7090-1299-3.
    ^ "BBC – Radio 4 Voices of the Powerless – 29 August 2002 Plague in Tudor and Stuart Britain". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
    ^ Plague, 1911 Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica
    ^ Vanessa Harding (2002). "The dead and the living in Paris and London, 1500–1670.". p.25. ISBN 0-521-81126-0
    ^ Byrne 2004, p. 62
    ^ Vanessa Harding (2002). "The dead and the living in Paris and London, 1500–1670.". p.24. ISBN 0-521-81126-0
    ^ "Plague in London: spatial and temporal aspects of mortality", J. A. I. Champion, Epidemic Disease in London, Centre for Metropolitan History Working Papers Series, No. 1 (1993).
    ^ Geography, climate, population, economy, society. J.P.Sommerville.
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    ^ "Medicine and society in early modern Europe". Mary Lindemann (1999). Cambridge University Press. p.41. ISBN 0-521-42354-6
    ^ a b Harald Aastorp (2004-08-01). "Svartedauden enda verre enn antatt". Forskning.no. Retrieved 2009-01-03.
    ^ Øivind Larsen. "DNMS.NO : Michael: 2005 : 03/2005 : Book review: Black Death and hard facts". Dnms.no. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
    ^ Karl Julius Beloch, Bevölkerungsgeschichte Italiens, volume 3, pp. 359–360.
    ^ "Naples in the 1600s". Faculty.ed.umuc.edu. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
    ^ The Seventeenth-Century Decline, S. G. Payne, A History of Spain and Portugal
    ^ a b "Armies of pestilence: the effects of pandemics on history". James Clarke & Co. (2004). p.72. ISBN 0-227-17240-X
    ^ "Kathy McDonough, Empire of Poland". Depts.washington.edu. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
    ^ "Bubonic plague in early modern Russia: public health and urban disaster". John T. Alexander (2002). Oxford University Press US. p.21. ISBN 0-19-515818-0
    ^ "Ruttopuisto – Plague Park". Tabblo.com. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
    ^ "Stockholm: A Cultural History". Tony Griffiths (2009). Oxford University Press US. p.9. ISBN 0-19-538638-8
    ^ "The Islamic World to 1600: The Mongol Invasions (The Black Death)". Ucalgary.ca. Retrieved 2011-12-10.
    ^ Byrne, Joseph Patrick (2008). Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics, and Plagues: A-M. ABC-CLIO. p. 519. ISBN 0-313-34102-8.
    ^ "Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast and Italy, 1500–1800". Robert Davis (2004) ISBN 1-4039-4551-9.
    ^ Université de Strasbourg. Institut de turcologie, Université de Strasbourg. Institut d'études turques, Association pour le développement des études turques. (1998). Turcica. Éditions Klincksieck. p. 198.
    ^ "The Fertile Crescent, 1800–1914: a documentary economic history". Charles Philip Issawi (1988). Oxford University Press US. p.99. ISBN 0-19-504951-9
    ^ Infectious Diseases: Plague Through History, sciencemag.org
    ^ Bubonic Plague comes to Sydney in 1900, University of Sydney, Sydney Medical School
    ^ Chase, Marilyn (2004). The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco. Random House Digital. ISBN 0-375-75708-2.
    Echenberg, Myron (2007). Plague Ports: The Global Urban Impact of Bubonic Plague: 1894–1901. Sacramento: New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-2232-6.
    Kraut, Alan M. (1995). Silent travelers: germs, genes, and the "immigrant menace". JHU Press. ISBN 0-8018-5096-7.
    Markel, Howard (2005). When Germs Travel: Six Major Epidemics That Have Invaded America And the Fears They Have Unleashed. Random House Digital. ISBN 0-375-72602-0.
    Kalisch, Philip A. (Summer 1972). "The Black Death in Chinatown: Plague and Politics in San Francisco 1900–1904". Arizona and the West (Journal of the Southwest) 14 (2): 113–136.
    Risse, Guenter B. (2012). "Bubonic Plague Visits San Francisco's Chinatown". Plague, Fear, and Politics in San Francisco's Chinatown. JHU Press. ISBN 1-4214-0510-5.
    Shah, Nayan (2001). Contagious divides: Epidemics and race in San Francisco's Chinatown. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-22629-1.
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    ^ USA (2011-10-03). "An overview of plague in the United States". Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 2011-12-10.
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    ^ Drug-resistant plague a 'major threat', say scientists, SciDev.Net

Further reading

    Byrne, J. P. (2004). The Black Death. London: Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-313-32492-1.
    Cantor, Norman F. (2001), In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made, New York, Free Press.
    Cohn, Samuel K. Jr., (2002), The Black Death Transformed: Disease and Culture in Early Renaissance Europe, London: Arnold.
    Gasquet, Francis Aidan (1893). The Great Pestilence AD 1348 to 1349: Now Commonly Known As the Black Death. ISBN 978-1-4179-7113-8.
    Hecker, J.F.C. (1859). B.G. Babington(trans). ed. Epidemics of the Middle Ages. London, Trübner.
    Herlihy, D., (1997), The Black Death and the Transformation of the West, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
    McNeill, William H. (1976). Plagues and Peoples. Anchor/Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-11256-4.
    Scott, S., and Duncan, C. J., (2001), Biology of Plagues: Evidence from Historical Populations, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    Shrewsbury, J. F. D., (1970), A History of Bubonic Plague in the British Isles, London: Cambridge University Press
    Twigg, G., (1984), The Black Death: A Biological Reappraisal, London: Batsford.
    Ziegler, Philip (1998). The Black Death. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-027524-7. 1st editions 1969.