Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down essays

Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down essays I buried with my own hands five of my children in a single grave. No bells. No tears. This is the end of the world. (Deaux, 1969) These are the words of Italian author Agniol di Tura, but they reflect the emotions of an entire nation in the 1300s. It was at that time that Europe was struck by the hardest blow that a plague would ever swing. The Bubonic Plague hit Europe with a ferocity that could never have been predicted. The spread of the Bubonic Plague in the fourteenth century happened quickly as a result of poor living conditions, trade routes and ignorance of the disease. The first reported case of the plague was in 543 when it hit Constantinople. (Hecker, 1992) This was a minor outbreak and there were others similar to it, but since no one knew where it came from and so few were dying from it, no one took the time to find out. But then in 1334, an epidemic struck the northeastern Chinese province of Hopei that people couldnt ignore. It killed up to 90% of the population- around 5,000,000 people. (Armstrong, 1981) This caught peoples attention, but by then it was Sadly, some of the events that aided the rapid spread of the Plague could have been avoided. In 1347, in the southern Ukraine near the Black Sea, the native people began dying of a mysterious disease. They suffered from headaches, weakness, and many staggered when they tried to walk. But most obviously, each carried a common trademark of the plague- they all began to develop large swellings of the lymph nodes in the groin and underarm areas. Fear and anger at the disease gave way to accusation. The natives of the area pointed the blame for their curse at the Italian traders who traveled in and out of their ports. Convinced that they were the reason for their suffering, the natives attacked the ports. After a week of fighting, the natives found their soldiers dying of the diseas...