Despite the fact that in the Middle Ages and in the modern period Europe experienced several plague epidemics, the most ferocious and destructive was the one that raged in the XIV century and claimed the lives of 1/3 of the then population of Europe - about 25 million people. However, it brought not only death: after its end, the appearance of the Old World began to change, and so thoroughly that the consequences of those events still affect our lives.
We never cease to be amazed at how all the events in history are interconnected - and the "black death" epidemic and its consequences have become a vivid example of this.
Women are shorter
Dr. Sharon de Witte from the University of South Carolina (USA), together with a team of scientists, examined the remains of 800 people who lived before and after the bubonic plague epidemic. The results of this study showed that the "black death" made people generally healthier and increased life expectancy: the descendants of people who survived the epidemic began to live up to 70–80 years, which was practically not observed before. This is explained by the fact that the disease killed primarily those whose immunity was weakened, and those who survived with a stronger "defense mechanism" gave healthier offspring.
In addition, scientists have found that the plague also affected the puberty of girls, making it earlier. This led to the fact that the growth of women, including modern women, has become lower than it could have been, since during the transition period, bone growth slows down.
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The plague helped solidify the English language
In 1066, Normans, who spoke the Norman dialect of French, conquered England, thanks to which this language became the state language, actually ousting English from the sphere of government and education. But the peasantry still spoke their native English.
After the plague epidemic, English again came to the cities with the peasants: as you know, the rural population was hurt by the "black death" much less than the urban. Due to the huge human losses, there were not enough workers, and the former villagers, who began to replace the dead workers, were able to speak out about their rights more loudly.
Along with this, the language began to regain its lost positions, since the former villagers did not speak the Norman dialect that was alien to them. In 1362, a law was passed, according to which all decrees from now on had to be written and read in English, and half a century later, King Henry V again began to write letters in English.
In a word, if it were not for the plague epidemic, now the international language of communication would most likely be the very dialect of French that the Normans, led by William the Conqueror, brought to the English lands.
Plague may have been the first biological weapon
According to one of the versions, the plague in Europe in 1346 began after the Khan of the Golden Horde Janibek, who failed to take the fortress of Kafu (modern Feodosia) by siege, threw the corpses of people who died from the plague on its territory. In Europe, the fatal disease penetrated together with the Genoese merchants, whose trading settlement was Kafa. In short, if you believe in this theory, then it was Khan Janibek who was the first to use biological weapons, triggering the death mechanism, which destroyed most of the population of Europe.
The center of the appearance of the plague is considered to be the Gobi Desert, located on the territory of modern China and Mongolia. The main reason was climate change: droughts forced rodents and lagomorphs, which carry the plague, to settle closer to people. The situation was further complicated by the fact that among the Mongols, marmot meat - one of the culprits of the epidemic - was considered a delicacy. All this led to the fact that in about 1320 the "black death" began its march across Asia, and then across Europe.
Anti-Semitism Rises in Europe
In 2011, a group of scientists conducted a study to find out about the causes of anti-Semitism in Europe, which ultimately led to the Holocaust. And it turned out that it was the “black death” that swept Europe 700 years before the Second World War, which became one of the catalysts of the terrible tragedy of the 20th century.
The fact is that it was the Jews who, at the height of the plague epidemic, were accused of poisoning water in wells in order to exterminate the Christian population. Of course, such accusations have sounded before, because anti-Semitism originated long before the onset of a new era, but it was during this period that it reached one of its peaks.
The reason was the lower mortality rate among Jews than among the rest of the inhabitants of the cities affected by the bubonic plague. Modern scholars believe that this was due to the fact that the Jews, following kashrut, more carefully monitored their hygiene. There is also an opinion that the owners of the zero blood group are most susceptible to plague infection: it prevailed among the Europeans of that time, but practically did not occur among the Jewish population.
The development of medicine has accelerated
Before the plague came to Europe, hospitals in the Old World were more like hotels, where they provided shelter and food not only to travelers, but also to the poor, but much less attention was paid to the treatment of diseases.
With the advent of the "black death", everything changed: doctors and scientists began to look for the causes of the disease and ways to fight it. It became clear that one could not hide from the plague even behind the high walls of castles: the rich and noble perished in the same way as the poor.
One of the greatest "achievements" of the plague was the emergence of the concept of "quarantine" - a word translated from Italian means "time, consisting of 40 days." In 1348, the authorities of Venice began to send all ships coming to the port to the island of Lazaretto, located not far from the coast, where they stayed for 40 days. After the expiration of this period, doctors went aboard the ship, who were looking for those who were infected with the plague. If there were none, the ship could enter the port. By the way, in the same year a hospital was opened on the island, where plague patients were kept.
The first "quarantine" law was passed in 1374 in the Italian city of Reggio nel Emilia. He prescribed not only a 40-day delay of the ships, but also the resettlement of people who had signs of the plague, to certain territories and the prohibition of their contact with everyone else.
The church began to lose its power
Despite the fact that the period of the Reformation, as a result of which religion ceased to play a major role in European politics, began only 2 centuries later, the prerequisites for it appeared precisely in the middle of the XIV century.
People who until that time had completely trusted the clergy saw that there was no help in the fight against the epidemic from the clergy, while the secular authorities tried to prevent the spread of the disease: they organized the removal of bodies from the streets and their burial, and also forcibly closed taverns and brothels. where, due to close contacts, the infection spread quickly.
Martin Luther, initiator of the Reformation.
As a result of the epidemic, more than 40% of all clergy died, and many monasteries were virtually deserted. This led to the ingraining of superstitions and the beginning of the persecution of witches: the "selection" of monks to half-empty monasteries became less demanding, and many ignorant people who believed in witchcraft got into the church, which until that moment had forbidden such heresy. Incidentally, the consolidation of the concept of "Sabbath" in the minds of people and in literature is attributed precisely to the "post-chum" period.
Urban and industrial development accelerated
As we have already said, the cities were affected by the plague much more than the villages, however, there were also numerous victims. The Black Death epidemic has changed agriculture. If earlier peasants were mainly farmers, then after the epidemic more attention was paid to livestock raising: it requires fewer hands than working on the land, because only a couple of people can cope with even a large herd. In addition, the peasantry had the opportunity to achieve more rights: in conditions of a shortage of workers, the feudal lords had to make concessions.
Plague in Florence. Image based on Giovanni Boccaccio's description of the epidemic.
Until the middle of the XIV century, workshops - associations of artisans of one or similar professions - were rather closed communities in which the secrets of craftsmanship were inherited, but after the epidemic they were forced to accept new members from among the peasants who poured into the cities. It was at this time that women began to join the traditionally male work, as there was a sorely lack of people able to work.
In addition, labor shortages in the long run were also a catalyst for the industrial revolution as people began to make attempts to mechanize production.
The "Black Death" that struck Europe in the middle of the XIV century was not the last plague epidemic, but it was she who completely changed the development of European civilization, and therefore the whole world as a whole.