Assignment Example on Black Death Epidemic

a. Venetian or Genoese trade route?

It is more likely that the Black Death epidemic originally entered Europe on the Genoese trade route. The Genoese trade route has direct access to open ocean, which could allow a foreign bacteria to be spread. The trading ships that headed to Messina in October 1347 carried along the black plague disease caused by rodents and insects. Many people in the ship were infected by the epidemic. When the people evacuated from the ship, the disease rapidly spread to Messina. The Venetian route, on the other hand, did not go straight. It went above Messina. The Genoese route went direct to the Messina, and the attack thus reached Europe through this trade route.

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b. Did the plague seem to travel more quickly along shipping routes or overland?

The plague seemed to travel rapidly along shipping routes since the people mostly used ships to trade. Ships were the most common means of transport that were used at the time. However, there was only one route that was used in land unlike the water routes. This is thus evidence that the plague spread faster through the shipping routes. This disqualifies the argument that it could be spread overland by rodents and insects such as fleas and rats since the land routes were fewer as compared to the water routes. The water routes were more active.

I think that the Black Death epidemic reached Paris along the shipping routes. This is because ships were the most common means of transport. Paris was also hit by three routes. The Genoa route, the Venetian Route, being the water routes and the Hanseatic route the land route. It had more shipping routes.

d. Why do you think the plague took so long to reach London when it had arrived in nearby Paris a year earlier?

I think the plague took so long to reach London because most people had been affected by the plague in Paris, and thus there was a decrease in population due to the deaths caused by the disease. It could also be due to the fact that the people in mainland Europe and Britain did not come in contact due to the great sea separating them. The Black Death epidemic was only caused by contact with the infected individuals. The people of London and Europe did not come in contact. The rodents and the insects, on the other hand, could not swim over twenty miles across the sea, not unless they hid in the ships. France and Britain were also under war at that time, and thus very little ships went to London for trading or other purposes.

Reflection

The interactive map helped me to understand better the transmission of the black plague. Even though there was no exact origin of the plague, it arrived Europe in 1347. The plague was first identified in Messina, and high chances are that it was brought in by the traders who dealt with porcelain and silk. The black plague was then spread to the islands of Corsica and Sardinia since the people in Messina fled when the epidemic raged. The map has helped me to know from which city the plague spread, and the order in which the cities were affected. Using the map also opened my mind since I can identify the shipping routes and the overland routes and identify those often used by the Europeans. This has helped me answer the questions above. The water and the land marks were important also in answering the questions given. Without the map, I would have faced difficulties in answering the questions above.