Silk Roads

Who would have ever thought that the Silk Roads would bring about this terrible cruse that would flourish from 1328 until 1351? The Silk Roads is a network of interlinking trade routes that connected Eastern Asia all the way to the European world. The Silk Road contributed to the development of the many civilizations such as China's, Europe's and Arabia's. Not only did Silk and other goods travel along the Silk Roads but various technologies, religions and philosophies, as well as the bubonic plague also known as the "Black Death travel along this path. This horrible and destructive disease has been said to have originated from the Gobi Desert in China and passed first to modern day Isabel, then to India, and finally to Europe. In October if 1347 several Italian merchant ships had returned from a trip to the Black Sea; on that trip they had mainly traded with China. When the ships docked in Sicily, many of the people aboard the ship were already dying of plague. Within days the disease spread through the city. It is also said that this deadly disease was spread by black rats that carried oriental rat fleas which were regular passengers on merchant ships after the disease had reach Crimea, Russia in 1346. Some rulers turned this misfortune into an opportunity to obtain land and succeed in battle. The would do so by catapulting a desisted body of one whom had contracted this disease onto the land of their enemy, and the disease would shortly spread within enemy territory thus causing them to flee the area. The Black Death is estimated to have killed 7500 victims a day, which reduced the world population from an estimated 450 million down to 350 million people during the Middle Ages. With such a sudden drop in population this resulted in higher value being placed on labor. Peasants moved from the country to the towns because they were wealthier than ever before, which led to the decline of the Feudal system .Due to this change in population farming had too changed due to less intensive labor which led to a boost in the cloth and woolen industry casing wool industries to grow rapidly. Also with the change of population people had changed their views towards the church, which caused a great decline in the church's power and influence, and ultimately resulted in the English reformation. The English reformation was a series of event lead to the dismantlement of the Pope's and the Roman Catholic Church's authority over the Church of England in the sixteenth century.

One might wonder why the Bubonic plague was also known as the Black Death. The disease was called the Black Death because one of the symptoms was the blackening of the skin around the swellings or buboes. Buboes were inflamed, tender swelling of lymph nodes; at first they were red, but later turned black. When a victim bled that blood that they exuded was black, thin and had a vile smell with a greenish scum mixed in it. The bubonic Plague was terrible and swift and the symptoms were unbearable. These symptoms included Buboes, high fever and nauseas, bleeding in the lungs, a strong desire to sleep, and mental disorientation. A victim would only live 2-4 after contracting

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