Black Death

The Black Death, also known as the Black Plague, refers to a devastating pandemic that widely affected Eurasia and North Africa in the middle of the 14th century, killing between one-third and two-thirds of affected populations. Globally, it is estimated that the Black Death killed at least 75 million people. The same disease is thought to have returned to Europe at least every generation with varying degrees of intensity and fatality until the 1700s.

The Black Death was a bubonic plague. "Bubonic" refers to the symptomatic bubo, a swelling of the lymphatic gland. The most common vector of the bubonic plague is from rat to man via fleas.

Effects in Europe

The Black Death first struck Europe in the mid-14th century (1347–1351).