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What were some of the long-term effects of the Black Death?
Why it sucked to be alive in Eurasia in the time of the Black Death…
The Black Death has become an important symbol of the fragility of humankind and which has become the embodiment of all our fears and is perhaps one of the strongest visions of the late Dark Ages. Its effect on society can be felt even today and its psychological impact hasn’t lessened in more than six centuries and has actually become a synonym of disaster and destruction, but it’s interesting to note that the disease brought on not only another bleak page in the history of humanity, but it also helped shape the world as we know it today.
The aftermath of the Black Death managed to affect every aspect of the medieval world. Everything from the Church to the strategic balance of power was shaken by its destructive march in the countries, cities and homes of Europe. Everything began to change in its aftermath – the direct consequences being the rapid shift of the social-demographic empowered the lower classes of the affected nations of the West, due to the significant shortages of labor or the beginning of a new way of thought which paved the way for a whole new chapter in the history of mankind – the Renaissance.
The biggest and most severely felt consequence of the Black Death was the tremendous loss of life – which is by various sources placed between 75 and 200 million in the 14th century alone and the ensuing decline in the population for the next 200 years and which killed between 20 and 80 percent of the people depending on the geographic location of the country. It is hard to establish the exact death toll due to the inaccurate statistics left from that timeframe, but also due to the perpetual state of fear caused by the outbreaks and which almost inevitably led to the comparison of the pandemic with the Book of Revelation 6:8 “… His name was Hell and Death followed with him. Authority over one fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword, with famine, with death … was given to him…” which ironically may have led the authors of the various chronicles of the time to actually lower the mortality of the Plague in order to show the similarities with the Biblical vision of the Apocalypse in order to prepare for the “Final Judgment”. In reality the average mortality rate is disputed to be ranging between the overly optimistic estimate of 20% by Ann Carmichael to John Aberth’s estimated 40-60% based mainly upon local studies to a maximum of 75% according to Naphy and Spicer. There isn’t an accurate way to determine the correct mortality rate, however, due to the aforementioned inherent unreliability of the historical texts and also due to the fact that the sheer intensity of the outbreaks and the mass panic it caused have made it impossible to ascertain the actual loss of life and also due to the fact that it is impossible to differentiate the deaths caused directly by the disease and by the direct consequences of it. For example the Plague led to a steep decline of trade between the countries, which lead to further famine and wars between the various states in Europe. On the other hand this enormous loss of life led to an increased importance of the common laborers in the West and therefore led to a significant improvement both in a social and financial terms, because their scarcity led to a need for the Nobility to recognize them and therefore to begin the social revolution which arguably led to the end of the Dark Ages and to the beginning of the Renaissance.
This loss of life and the preceding Great Famine of 1315 and the Hundred Year’s War led to a pronounced economic depression in the years after the plague and also led to a series of popular revolts in Medieval Europe due to the increased effective power of the average laborer, but this failed to yield significant results until the beginning of the 1500’s, due to the opposition from the rich landowners and nobility, who tried to retain their status and power, but failed due to the significantly diminished available workforce. An example of this attempt to keep the common peasantry from obtaining a wider recognition of their work is for example the 1351 Statute of Laborers, which in effect tried to put an effective cap on the wages that could be paid to the average person. This attempt at retaining the status quo failed largely due to the failure to set an adequate wage cap, because of the inherent error in using the wage levels from before the Black Death as a measurement point, due to the fact that the Plague led to a severe shift in the economics in the various countries and also due to the fact, that these levels were actually taken during one of the worst economic crises in England up to that time. These heavy-handed attempts to control the populace were the flashpoint of a series of revolts in every Western nation, which further exacerbated the already significant economic disaster in the wake of the Great Epidemic and which in turn led to a further decline in the rate of recovery for the whole continent. The positive outcome of these disturbances can be considered the advent of capitalism, where the common man could be reimbursed relatively fairly for his labor and can also be attributed as the beginning of democratization of the Western world. The problem with these reforms however was relatively slow and most historians agree that the earliest signs of a real improvement after the Great epidemic can be seen in the latter part of the 1400’s and the 1500’s, when although the population count was still somewhat in decline, the actual conditions of life and labor had significantly improved in comparison with the immediate pre-Plague years. As a consequence of the Plague could be considered the emergence of the Ottoman empire on the European political stage for the next 600odd years.
The last important consequence of the Black Death is the diminishing importance of religion and as a direct consequence the resurgence of the scientific pursuits after the stranglehold upon it was finally slacking after almost 1000 years of stagnation and suppression. The Church was particularly ravaged by the Plague, due to the basic Christian rights and especially the “Last Rites” and the right to be buried according to the Christian faith. This and also the ravaged ranks of the various monastic orders due to the sheltering of sick and dying in the confines of the Monasteries led to an impressive proportional death-rate amongst the clergy, which led to an increased need for new clergymen , which in turn led to a decreasing quality of the available Holy men. Another important factor is the inability of the Church to control and eventually vanquish the disease and may in fact led to a further loss of life, due to the practices of Catholicism ,i.e. Mass which may have actually created a more fertile “feeding ground” for the infection to spread amongst the various parishes, which further undermined the powerbase of the Faith. The increasing disillusionment of the ordinary people was further exacerbated by the increasing corruption within the institution, which further drove away the populace. This crumbling of the Church led to the resurrection of science after a millennium of suppression and persecution, because for the first time in centuries the Church was unable to give a plausible explanation for the happenings around the world. This resurrection may be considered as the real precursor to the Rennaisance and even perhaps as an early herald to the Reformation, of which we still experience the benefits even today. This reemergence of science led to the abandonment of such esoteric pursuits like alchemy and witchcraft and the actual transformation of science into a real foundation of society. Some of the benefits could actually be seen even during some of the biggest outbreaks of the Italian Plague of 1629-31 during which the city of Milan began one of the first effective and scientifically based public health measures and which managed to restrict the infection until March 1630,when it flared due to the Carnival, because of the relaxed measures taken during the event, but the preceding results show the benefit of science and more specifically medicine. This reemergence of science later enabled man to do everything from curing diseases to the explanation of the beginning of life to even the ability to touch the stars.
In conclusion, the Bubonic plague that swept across Europe between the 14th and early 18th centuries led to more than death, destruction and pain. It led to the reevaluation of the common man, which in turn enabled the arrival of the true democratic reforms, of which today United Europe reaps the benefits, or which also enabled the ordinary worker to receive a fairer compensation for his labour, but also helped bring the end of the Catholic domination of the secular world and end the millennium of suppression of independent thought and in turn place science at the forefront of society.
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