Bubonic Plague and it's Effects on England Free Essay Example

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Social and Cultural Turmoil

The Black Death was responsible for many peoples’ lives and contributed greatly to loss of population in the thirteen hundreds as it provided England with several social effects, one reason for this was the amount of shock and depression. QUOTE INTEGRATION “The disease killed between 30-40% of the entire population. Given that the pre-plague population of England was in the range of 5-6 million people, fatalities may have reached as high as 2 million dead” (Ross).

The dying population led to shortage of resources, malnutrition, and extreme poverty of many peasants. This meant death for many English citizens as they faught for jobs and resources. Moving on, the Black Death was responsible for the discrimination of the English people. In 1363, “England’s legislative arm, parliament, passed ‘sumptuary laws’, forbidding non-aristocrats from wearing certain types of clothing” (Pcwriter). Meaning, people who were less fortunate weren’t allowed to wear certain types of clothing. Publicly degrading them and making it obvious who was wealthy and who the English government didn’t have to worry about.

The disease killed almost half of England's population and leaded to discrimination of the English people causing devastation.

Economic Struggles and Labor Unrest

The Black Death also provided England with economic effects in those horrific times. The Black Death killed around 25 million people in Europe and this had lasting effects on England. Jobs were a big issue for England while going through the Black Death. Quote Integration “As people died, it became harder and harder to find people to plow fields, harvest crops, and produce other goods and services. Peasants began to demand higher wages”. To cope, “An English law in 1349 tried to force workers to accept the same wages they received in 1346” (The Economic Impact of the Black Death of 1347-1352 15.1). This meant that they had to do the same amount of work but got paid the same amount that they did before the plague. Making them work for the same amount of money in horrible working conditions. The Balck Death also cut off a lot or resources for England. With the huge loss of jobs as well as people, England lacked a lot of resources. Quote Integration “Once the plague started to kill in early august, peasants fled their fields, livestock were left to fend for themselves and crops left to rot” (Ross). This meant landowners weren’t making enough to pay rent and were forced to leave their land as well as major loss in crops and animals. The Black Death had huge negative effects on England's economy and there was complete shock and depression throughout England.

The Black Death also affected England's religious beliefs. The high death rate in England killed off priests in many parts of the country. The death of the priests led people to lose faith in Christianity. Religion was very important at this time. It was a part of the daily life of a Christian. “...the Black Death contributed to the decline in the confidence and faith of the Christian laity towards the institution of the chruch and its leader-ship' (Zentner). Nobody could make sense of where it originated from and how to get rid of it. As a result, Individuals left the Catholic church since they figured God couldn't help them anymore. Along with that, the Balck Death also had a big impact on art and literature. Years after the Black death began, European culture turned very depressed. A lot of art was turned with dark representations of death. “La Dance Macabre, or the dance of death, was a contemporary allegory, expressed as art, drama and printed work” (McLean).