Black Death Plague in Eastern Europe
The Black Death is considered as one of the most atrocious loss of lives that happened in Europe from 1346 to 1353. According to History.com (2013) the black plague led to the death of over twenty million European inhabitants. This represented the death of approximately one third of Europe’s population. This mysterious death is believed to have brought by sailors that had arrived through the Black Sea. Among the most terrifying signs of this plague was the oozing of blood from black boils. This definitely threatened the human race in Europe at that time nobody really knew the cause of this disease.
Divine punishment, neighborhood and health practices are some of the humanity areas that affected the European culture. Notably, the European residents believed that the plague mainly occurred as a result of punishment from the divine power (Benedictow, 2005). They believed that God was punishing them for various sins such as fornication, greed, heresy and blasphemy among others. This made the residents to perform rituals in order to appease God. For example, they beat themselves using leather straps with sharp metal pieces (Histroy.com, 2013). As such, the European dwellers believed that by changing their religious ways they would be freed from the Black Death plague.
Secondly, this death led people to change their culture towards their own neighbors. Some residents believed that their neighbors were the cause of the death epidemic. This led to neighbors turning against each other. For example, this notion led to the death of thousands of people from the Jewish race. Consequently, this led to migration by the Jewish to areas in Eastern Europe that were sparsely populated. Thirdly, this Black Death epidemic led to the adoption of modern health practices after realization that it was caused by dirty rats and fleas.
References
Benedictow, O.J. (2005). The Black Death: The Greatest Catastrophe Ever. Retrieved from http://www.historytoday.com/ole-j-benedictow/black-death-greatest-catastrophe-ever.
History.com (2013). BLACK DEATH. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/black-death.