page_title: Black Death
section_title: Social
hierarchical_section_title: Black Death / 14th-century plague / Consequences / Social
caption_attribution_description: Español: Obra moral que muestra el triunfo de la Muerte sobre las cosas mundanas, simbolizado a través de un gran ejército de esqueletos arrasando la Tierra. Al fondo aparece un paisaje yermo donde aún se desarrollan escenas de destrucción. En un primer plano, la Muerte al frente de sus ejércitos sobre un caballo rojizo, destruye el mundo de los vivos, quienes son conducidos a un enorme ataúd, sin esperanza de salvación. Todos los estamentos sociales están incluidos en la composición, sin que el poder o la devoción pueda salvarles. Čeština: Triumf Smrti od Petra Bruegela, namalován jako reakce na morové rány v Evropě Polski: Triumf Śmierci Petera Breughela Starszego pokazujący pacyfikację Niderlandów.
context_page_description: The Black Death was the deadliest pandemic recorded in human history. The Black Death resulted in the deaths of up to 75–200 million people in Eurasia and North Africa, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351. Plague, the disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, was the cause; Y. pestis infection most commonly results in bubonic plague, but can cause septicaemic or pneumonic plagues.
  The Black Death was the beginning of the second plague pandemic. The plague created religious, social, and economic upheavals, with profound effects on the course of European history.
  The Black Death most likely originated in Central Asia or East Asia, from where it travelled along the Silk Road, reaching Crimea by 1347. From there, it was most likely carried by fleas living on the black rats that travelled on Genoese merchant ships, spreading throughout the Mediterranean Basin and reaching Africa, Western Asia, and the rest of Europe via Constantinople, Sicily, and the Italian Peninsula.
context_section_description: One theory that has been advanced is that the devastation in Florence caused by the Black Death, which hit Europe between 1348 and 1350, resulted in a shift in the world view of people in 14th-century Italy and led to the Renaissance. Italy was particularly badly hit by the pandemic, and it has been speculated that the resulting familiarity with death caused thinkers to dwell more on their lives on Earth, rather than on spirituality and the afterlife. It has also been argued that the Black Death prompted a new wave of piety, manifested in the sponsorship of religious works of art. However, this does not fully explain why the Renaissance occurred specifically in Italy in the 14th century. The Black Death was a pandemic that affected all of Europe in the ways described, not only Italy. The Renaissance's emergence in Italy was most likely the result of the complex interaction of the above factors, in combination with an influx of Greek scholars following the fall of the Byzantine Empire.
  As a result of the decimation in the populace the value of the working class increased, and commoners came to enjoy more freedom. To answer the increased need for labour, workers travelled in search of the most favourable position economically.
  Cairo's population, partly owing to the numerous plague epidemics, was in the early 18th century half of what it was in 1347. The populations of some Italian cities, notably Florence, did not regain their pre-14th century size until the 19th century.
  The demographic decline due to the pandemic had economic consequences: the prices of food dropped and land values declined by 30–40% in most parts of Europe between 1350 and 1400. Landholders faced a great loss, but for ordinary men and women it was a windfall. The survivors of the pandemic found not only that the prices of food were lower but also that lands were more abundant, and many of them inherited property from their dead relatives, and this probably destabilised feudalism.
caption: Pieter Bruegel's The Triumph of Death reflects the social upheaval and terror that followed plague, which devastated medieval Europe.
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "6767", "Image ImageLength": "4829", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8, 8]", "Image Compression": "Uncompressed", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "5", "Image Make": "Hasselblad", "Image Model": "Hasselblad H3D-39", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "4", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image PlanarConfiguration": "1", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CC 2018 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2018:07:26 16:38:15", "Image Artist": "Baztan Lacasa Jose", "Image Copyright": "Museo Nacional del Prado", "Image ExifOffset": "384", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "890", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8842", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "14", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2018:05:22 09:02:29", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2018:05:22 09:02:29", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "870723/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "761471/100000", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "2659/1000", "EXIF MeteringMode": "other", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "80", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2126", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1517", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "147059/100", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "147059/100", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "56", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "DC76024125", "EXIF LensModel": "HC 80"}