No one was immune as it swept in off the shores and into the countryside laying its .
Europe had prospered readily for about 300 years prior to .
the beginning of the 1300s, but a series of natural disasters occurred. Poor harvests and .
famine were common and as the prosperous years came to a close, economies were in .
recession at the onset of the Black Death. Europe, on a whole, would take a step .
backward. .
There have been plagues throughout recorded history, but none were of the .
magnitude nor had the far reaching effects that the Black Plague had. Its namesake came .
from symptomatic hemorrhages that turned black. Though most people associate the .
Black Death with the middle ages, forms of the Bubonic Plague have been known in China .
as early as 224 BC. The Black Death embarked on a journey as an epidemic in the Gobi .
Desert in the 1320s. By 1400, China's population of 125 million had been reduced to 90 .
million. Southwest Asia and Europe followed suite with strikingly similar losses in their .
population base. In 1347, the Kipchaks who were nomads from the Euro-Asian Steppe, .
were thought to deliberately infect a European city with the disease. The Kipchaks had .
laid siege to a Genoese trading post in Crimea. Hoping to weaken the defenders, they .
used a catapult to lob infected corpses into the compound. Trading vessels from Crimea .
subsequently brought cargo infested with the disease burdened rodents and crew west. .
Starting in Sicily in 1347, it began a four year reign of terror traveling as far as .
Greenland. During this four year period it is believed Europe lost one full third of its .
population. .
The effects the Plague had on the economy and the laws governing the state were .
severe. England is a perfect example. By 1349, the population had been so severely .
decreased that the commoner had the upper-hand on the land-lords. This was significant .
in that they were able to demand a higher wage and the markedly increase in their .