A pandemic is a disease that diffuses to the entirety of a country or the entire world.The pandemics have wreak havoc on human beings since ancient times.Some of them caused dramatic restructuring of the economic ,social ,and the political spheres of human societies.The earliest known pandemic occurred during the Peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta in 430 BC.As much as two-thirds of the population died.
The following are the 3 deadly pandemics that have shaped human history:
1. Plague of Cyprian[249 AD-262 AD]
The name Cyprian commemorates the name of an early bishop writer of Carthage who saw it all unfold.
The Plague of Cyprian was a pandemic that occurred from 249 AD to 262 AD in the Roman empire.It proved to be a complete nightmare for the people of the empire as the pandemic is said to have killed 5.000 people a day during its peak.
This pandemic caused severe manpower shortages for food production and the army,nearly inflicting a fatal blow to the empire,though the dramatic success of the late emperors restored the empire to its former glory.
The most significant consequence of this plague was the popularization of Christianity.Many members of the clergy took care of afflicted people and this at time of the urgency won an immense amount of converts to the faith.Later in 4th century AD,the declaration by emperor Constantine on the legalization of Christianity paved the way for the spread of Christianity.
2. Plague of Justinian [541 AD-542 AD]
Plague of Justinian was named after Justinian I,the Roman emperor that reigned over the empire from 527 AD to 565 AD.The pandemic afflicted the entire Roman empire especially Constantinople{the capital of the empire],where it devastatingly struck the population.Other regions terrorized by this plague include areas occupied by the Sasanian empire,port cities around the entire Mediterranean sea.The trading ships which harbored rats that carried fleas infected with plague expanded its reach.
The primary occupation of the majority of the population was agriculture. The depopulation in many parts of the empire especially in Constantinople caused an immense shortage of labor, as as result, food availability saw a massive decline , this lead to famine in 542,545,546 AD.
The reduction in taxes paid to the government as well as very sharp decline in population significantly weakened the military.This minimized the capacity of the empire to deal with disruption from within and protection against foreign threats.The downfall of the Roman empire also facilitated in the expansion of Islam as it lost a significant amount of territories to the caliphate[the political and religious institution of Islam ,introduced after the death of the prophet Muhammad.
3. The Black Death[1347 AD-1351 AD]
The Black Death was the most fatal pandemic in recorded human history and it peaked in the Euro-Asian region from 1347 and 1351.It is estimated to have excruciatingly wiped out between 75 million to 200 million human lives.It was unceasingly intense particularly in Europe where it annihilated 20 percent of the entire population of Europe.This had pronounced consequences for the feudal society [society divided between clergy,nobility,and peasants,with the former two holding significant powers over the peasants]of Europe.The outcomes can be categorized into social,political,and economic spheres.
Socially,the people who were afflicted by this disease abandoned their family and friends and also denounced their faith in religion as they felt that there prayers did not cease the carnage.The standard of living of serfs[landless laborers] improved and they were also granted autonomy.This is because insufficient amount of labor brought down the income of the lords[large landowners who subjugated the peasants]and they had to agree to provide better wages and working conditions for the serfs to work for them.
Economically,the revenue of lords suffered immensely,and at the same time this led to better working conditions,increased wages,raised standard of living for all the peasants and workers.The massive decline in population caused downfall in both agricultural and industrial sectors.The wages overtook the prices as there were fewer people to buy the products.This also led to the development of an early capitalist system.
Politically,the feudal system which involved the peasants performing all sorts of duties such as becoming a militia for lord in times of war collapsed.This in effect meant the decline in the political clout of lords which was also a factor in the rise of monarchies in Europe in fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Nice research
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