The Black Death of the 14th century was the largest biomedical disaster in the history of Europe. The black plague spread rapidly, killing off at least one third of Western Europe's population, estimating around 20 million deaths, and threatening the stability of civilization. This had enormous economic, political, and social effects on the people of Western Europe. The plague outbreak caused them to abandoned their jobs, family and friends, flee cities, and even cut themselves off from the rest of society. During this time, European civilization faced huge economic and political tragedies, in addition to nearly all aspects of human life. Religion, careers, art, music, and leisure are just a few of the areas that were affected. The disease devastated every aspect of society. These difficulties required alterations in the way people went about their daily routines, as well as changed the future of Europe.
The Black Death caused as much emotional, economic, and physical turmoil as any crisis in European history. Most people thought it was much more than just a disease; it was God's way of punishing them.
An obvious effect of the Black Death was the major decline in population. Because the death rate was so high, the demographic and economic growth of Europe was impaired until late in the seventeenth century. Death and sickness caused the number of available workers to become limited during the time of the plague. Due to the lack of imported and local goods, the economy experienced a rapid inflation in prices. .
Ironically, there was a positive side to the black plague disaster. The labor shortage created a higher demand for employees, and people received more pay for their work. Even the lower class citizens and the common man were affected by the increase in wages. Farms were abandoned and workers were scarce. If a serf left one master, he was instantly hired elsewhere. In order to keep the peasants working for them, the lords raised their salaries.
