When Twelve Genoese Ships Arrived In 1347 Messina, Sicily,

When twelve Genoese ships arrived in 1347 Messina, Sicily, barely any of the crew were alive. They were sickly looking and covered in black boils. Quickly, the ships were sent off but it was too late. Within a few days, the disease started affecting the town, making the Black Death’s first of many appearances in Europe (Martin 12). The Bubonic plague, known as the Black Death, was a disease that devastated the Western World in late 1347. The disease originated in eastern Asia but was spread by rat-infested ships traveling along trade routes. The people of Europe had never been exposed to the disease before therefore lacked the necessary antibodies to fight it off. The disease appeared in waves until the eighteenth century. It was†¦show more content†¦The abundance of fleas and rats combined with the ability for the disease to become airborne allowed for rapid spreading, large outbreaks, and high mortality rates. When the Black Plague arrived, Europe was already in a s tate of distress. Europe’s population had grown so large that it was becoming difficult to sustain the population. They converted all available land to cereal production to produce the basic need of bread, but they remained one bad harvest or natural disaster away from death. At the time, the climate was going through a cold phase. This left Europe with harsh winters and wet summers allowing for many failed harvests leading to significant famines and deaths (Naphy Spicer 27). The arrival of the plague in Sicily marked the inauguration of the cycle of movement that raged through Europe. The Plague would slow down during the winter months then regained its fierce momentum during the summer months as it made its way through the Western World, traveling by ships and arriving in ports. When the people of Messina first started becoming infected with the plague, some of them fled to Catania. These immigrants unknowingly brought the plague with them and the people of Catania began f alling ill. Catania imposed quarantine laws, regulations on immigrants, and buried their dead outside the city walls, but none of it made a difference as hundreds of people began dying here as wellShow MoreRelatedThe Black Death, Dulce N. Parra1533 Words   |  7 Pages The Black Death Dulce N. Parra Period 3 â€Æ' Through the years of 1347 and 1350, a terrible plague took over Europe. In those three years, the plague killed approximately 25 million people or one-third of Europe’s population. Not one family did not lose a family member to the plague. About one hundred people died daily, and mostly of them were never buried in a proper manner. Their bodies scattered the street of the city unclaimed. This plague was the Black Death, the most deadly natural disasterRead MoreThe Black Death Hit The Shores Of Europe983 Words   |  4 Pageshit the shores of Europe in October 1347. After a long a tough journey, through the Black Sea, twelve ships or Genoese docked at the Sicilian Port. Those who greeted the ships had a horrifying site of dead sailors and the sailors who were alive were greatly ill. It is said that the sailors had awful fevers, were not able to keep food down, and they were covered in black boils that oozed blood and puss. This is where the name Black Death came from. Although the ships were ordered to leave the port, theRead MoreThe Black Death Changed Europe1064 Words   |  5 PagesThe flea feeds on the blood of the rat which is infected by the bacteria. For a reason still unknown today the bacteria started multiplying in the flea blocking it s stomach. This caused the flea to throw up the infected rats blood into the human when it feeds on it. Thomas Malthus, a British economist, wrote in his An Essay on the Principle of Population that three things could keep the human population in check. He said war, famine, and disease were these three things. So far in history The BlackRead MoreThe Black Death Essay1812 Words   |  8 Pageshas to understand the Black Death started in the Middle Ages and it spread throughout the European continent. Around 1347, thirteen Genoese galleys entered the harbor of Messina, Sicily carrying the disease. Actually, the ships contained rats infected by flea that transmitted the tiny bubonic bacterium to the people on land. When the ships arrived at the harbor, it took only twelve months for the pandemic to kill a third of the population. Eventually, by January sixty percent of population in Marseilles