TOEFL Experts Reading Practice 21
Bubonic plague is caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium, which is endemic in wild rodents, including rats. When these animals are present in great numbers and density, a “plague reservoir” provides a springboard for epidemics. As the infected rat population dies, their fleas migrate to humans and spread the disease. Such a reservoir has long existed in the central steppes of Asia. Consequently, China, India, and much of the Middle East have long endured epidemics, including the Justinian plague, which ravaged the Byzantine Empire in 541. However, Europe was spared, at least on a grand scale, for another 800 years.
In 1346, the central steppes of Asia were part of the Mongol Khanate of the Golden Horde; a Mongol army besieged the Italian trading outpost in Kaffa, a Black Sea port. The Mongol force suffered from plague, and during the siege the bodies of those dead were catapulted into the town. The following spring, the Italians fled home by ship and brought the plague to Europe. At that time, Europe was exceedingly vulnerable to such an epidemic. Burgeoning medieval trade networks allowed the disease to spread rapidly by ship, up to several hundred kilometers a week. The lack of modern medical knowledge ensured that no effective measures were taken to curb its spread. In 1347, the Adriatic-Italian seaports were infected, and from there the plague followed the sailing routes to Sicily and then Marseilles; after a lull during the winter, when cold temperatures inhibit the flea population, 1348 saw the plague spread to Spain, the rest of France, and then England and northern Europe. From Norway, the trading ships of the Hanseatic League carried it to the Baltic cities and Russia. By the time the epidemic had run its course in 1353, all of Europe had been significantly ravaged.
While the fragmentary nature of medieval records has hindered scholars, recent research has caused an upward revision in the already horrific estimate of the mortality rate. It is now thought that more than half of the population perished. While some more northern or isolated regions were less afflicted, the Italian cities may have lost as many as 80 percent of their people. All told, perhaps 50 million died, a number comparable with global deaths caused by the Second World War. One of the first acknowledged great books of Western literature, The Decameron, chronicles the impact as it describes the plight of a group of Italian gentry that fled to the countryside in a vain attempt to avoid infection. The cities became cemeteries, in which streets were littered with unburied dead, and houses were abandoned or occupied only by the dying.
It would be 300 years before the population returned to its 1347 peak. Thus, it is little wonder that this plague, named the Black Death, remains in the human consciousness hundreds of years later, as the disruption of such depopulation greatly affected the development of European society. Some of the changes actually brought unforeseen benefits: the resulting labor shortage raised wages and the standard of living for the surviving peasantry, many of whom then acquired land left vacant by the deaths of the previous owners and tenants. It has also been theorized that this disruption spurred the development of modern capitalism, since labor-intensive feudal organization was no longer practical.
Other consequences were much darker. The epidemic struck swiftly and terribly; people sickened within days of infection and died within a week. Naturally enough, panic, fear, and anger quickly tore the social fabric apart. As neither government nor religious leaders had any factual understanding of the terrifying malady that had befallen them, these leaders did not oppose the inevitable scapegoating of members of religious or ethnic minorities, beggars, foreigners, or those with disfiguring diseases other than plague. In 1349, authority figures condoned, or even encouraged, the extermination of many Jewish communities in central Europe.
Today, in developed countries, it is easy to view the plague as a relic of the medieval past, especially since the disease can be treated with modern antibiotics. However, less celebrated outbreaks regularly occurred in Europe into the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century, another bubonic plague epidemic killed tens of millions. Much more recently, panic reminiscent of the fourteenth century quickly asserted itself when many quickly succumbed during the Ebola outbreak from 2014 to 2016.
Bubonic plague is caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium, which is endemic in wild rodents, including rats. When these animals are present in great numbers and density, a “plague reservoir” provides a springboard for epidemics. As the infected rat population dies, their fleas migrate to humans and spread the disease. Such a reservoir has long existed in the central steppes of Asia. Consequently, China, India, and much of the Middle East have long endured epidemics, including the Justinian plague, which ravaged the Byzantine Empire in 541. However, Europe was spared, at least on a grand scale, for another 800 years.
In 1346, the central steppes of Asia were part of the Mongol Khanate of the Golden Horde; a Mongol army besieged the Italian trading outpost in Kaffa, a Black Sea port. The Mongol force suffered from plague, and during the siege the bodies of those dead were catapulted into the town. The following spring, the Italians fled home by ship and brought the plague to Europe. At that time, Europe was exceedingly vulnerable to such an epidemic. Burgeoning medieval trade networks allowed the disease to spread rapidly by ship, up to several hundred kilometers a week. The lack of modern medical knowledge ensured that no effective measures were taken to curb its spread. In 1347, the Adriatic-Italian seaports were infected, and from there the plague followed the sailing routes to Sicily and then Marseilles; after a lull during the winter, when cold temperatures inhibit the flea population, 1348 saw the plague spread to Spain, the rest of France, and then England and northern Europe. From Norway, the trading ships of the Hanseatic League carried it to the Baltic cities and Russia. By the time the epidemic had run its course in 1353, all of Europe had been significantly ravaged.
While the fragmentary nature of medieval records has hindered scholars, recent research has caused an upward revision in the already horrific estimate of the mortality rate. It is now thought that more than half of the population perished. While some more northern or isolated regions were less afflicted, the Italian cities may have lost as many as 80 percent of their people. All told, perhaps 50 million died, a number comparable with global deaths caused by the Second World War. One of the first acknowledged great books of Western literature, The Decameron, chronicles the impact as it describes the plight of a group of Italian gentry that fled to the countryside in a vain attempt to avoid infection. The cities became cemeteries, in which streets were littered with unburied dead, and houses were abandoned or occupied only by the dying.
It would be 300 years before the population returned to its 1347 peak. Thus, it is little wonder that this plague, named the Black Death, remains in the human consciousness hundreds of years later, as the disruption of such depopulation greatly affected the development of European society. Some of the changes actually brought unforeseen benefits: the resulting labor shortage raised wages and the standard of living for the surviving peasantry, many of whom then acquired land left vacant by the deaths of the previous owners and tenants. It has also been theorized that this disruption spurred the development of modern capitalism, since labor-intensive feudal organization was no longer practical.
Other consequences were much darker. The epidemic struck swiftly and terribly; people sickened within days of infection and died within a week. Naturally enough, panic, fear, and anger quickly tore the social fabric apart. As neither government nor religious leaders had any factual understanding of the terrifying malady that had befallen them, these leaders did not oppose the inevitable scapegoating of members of religious or ethnic minorities, beggars, foreigners, or those with disfiguring diseases other than plague. In 1349, authority figures condoned, or even encouraged, the extermination of many Jewish communities in central Europe.
Today, in developed countries, it is easy to view the plague as a relic of the medieval past, especially since the disease can be treated with modern antibiotics. However, less celebrated outbreaks regularly occurred in Europe into the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century, another bubonic plague epidemic killed tens of millions. Much more recently, panic reminiscent of the fourteenth century quickly asserted itself when many quickly succumbed during the Ebola outbreak from 2014 to 2016.
- The Black Death, the outbreak of bubonic plague that ravaged Europe in the fourteenth century, not only caused horrific suffering but also altered the course of social history.