The Aftermath of the Black Death: How It Helped Create Modern Society
by Nischal Pokhrel
In mid-fourteenth century Europe, when a mysterious plague started to kill the population in thousands, chaos ensued. Not unlike the pandemic we recently experienced, this plague traveled from Asia to Europe in no time, and within a few years had claimed millions of lives. The damage caused was so extreme that the pandemic was called “The Great Mortality” or “The Great Pestilence.” Now called “The Black Death,” it brought great changes to medieval Europe and its effects remain until today. The plague changed the world we live in today, not only in terms of medical alertness but also in the religious and social structure of the world. Consideration of the past is necessary for preparing for the future, and the Black Death taught humans to learn from mistakes and fight something horrible in solidarity.
The Black Death changed everything we know about modern society, making it better than before, bringing together diverse groups of people to fight against a common enemy and to lay the foundation for a better and more balanced world. With the huge decline of populations and economies, new ideas were needed to get the entire continent of Europe back on its feet. During this journey, societies produced significant positive changes that revolutionized existing ideas regarding the function of society, including gender equality, labor rights, and the role of religion in a functional society.
One of the significant long-term changes that the Black Death brought was in employment opportunities for women. As the population declined after the plague, the depleted number of remaining workers demanded higher pay and/or better benefits, leading the rich to retaliate and hire women instead just so the wage could be minimized. In “World History: Cultures, States, and Societies to 1500,” the authors note that the few people who survived the plague had a better life as the ratio of survivors to the available lands was very high. The nobles had no option but to provide them with services they would not have received had the plague not occurred (World History 467). This transformation of life for the peasants changed the relationship between the working and elite classes that would alter the world’s economic state in the coming centuries. It was perhaps the first spark of light that gave ordinary citizens the liberty to demand their rights. The living standard for the common people was raised when the plague was over, and the involvement of women in the field opened new doors to equal labor rights. Şevket Pamuk, in the journal article titled “The Black Death and the origins of the ‘Great Divergence’ across Europe, 1300-1600,” writes, “Land rents, as well as interest rates, went down both in absolute terms and relative to wages. Landowners began to lose while incomes of laborers, peasants and women rose” (294). The aftermath of the Black Death created a balance in economy that had favored the elites in the past.
The socio-economic factor of the world was not the only thing that the Black Death changed. It brought people closer to God. During times of crisis, when no help is received, people often turn to the divine and ask for help. The mass destruction of the plague is a clear example of this phenomenon. Many religious interpretations were made to make sense of the horrific and tragic pandemic. Ibn al-Wardi, an Arab writer and philosopher, in his 1348 essay, “An essay on the Report of the Pestilence,” reports the message of God and humans’ fate during the plague. He argues, “It has been established by the Prophet that the plague-stricken are martyrs. And this secret should be pleasing to the true believer” (al-Wardi). His message assures people to remain calm during the hard times, for God loves them all, and it was a calling; that only those who stay faithful to God will be considered martyrs. At a time when a cure was not possible, and those who suffered from the plague most certainly died, his message calmed people and prepared them for death, for only those who were “true believers” would face the fate of dying with the plague. It was as if he was implying that the plague was God’s doing and giving up your life to it may bring you closer to Him. The faith in religion grew with this idea, and we can see the impact of it at present, where some religious groups continue to explain every disaster as being God’s will and are ready to die for His name. Faith often feeds into the fear of people and brings out the worst, but if looked at through an optimistic eye, it gives people strength that no medicine can provide. The only endurance to the disease without care is hope, and during the plague, it was delivered by God, which brought rich and poor, old and young, all together, bringing the society even closer than they were before. This proximity has a direct effect on the social cohesion of a community.
As many people during the plague were workers, all the texts we can study today were written by those who had access to reading and writing. In her lecture video titled “Europe on the Brink of Black Death,” Professor Dorsey Armstrong highlights this issue. Armstrong suggests that 90% of the population were working people, and the remaining 10% were people who prayed and could read and write (Armstrong). This data tells us that most written records tell us about those 10 percent more than the rest of the population, making it harder for us to understand the reality of the situation of the time. This can mean that we have very limited factual information about the issues that most of the population faced, which is unfortunate if one wishes to fully understand the history of the time by examining the life of the public that lived in medieval Europe.
However, we know for certain that the Black Death profoundly changed European society. The increase in religious faith can also be seen in an excerpt from the 1348 “Report of the Paris Medical Faculty,” where the reason behind this plague is seen because of astronomical changes and the involvement of divinity. The authors state, “We are of opinion that the constellations, with the aid of nature, strive by virtue of their Divine might, to protect and heal the human race; and to this end, in union with the rays of the sun, acting through the power of fire, endeavor to break through the mist” (The Report). When learned people release statements like this, the farmers and workers have no choice but to believe them, and at the time when the words of God ruled the entire country, this statement helped change the perception of the disease, in a way, providing them strength for what was to follow. This faith increased the number of people who believed in God, not just for the harvest but for the meaning of life. But this aspect has two sides. While most of the resources we have today point to the people being inclined to believe in the power of God, there might have been others who saw this from the completely opposite perspective. After all, if this world belonged to God, then evil must exist for Him to kill innocent people. The authors of “World History” note, “The horrific experience of the Black Death also caused some people to question fundamental Christian teachings about the mercy and benevolence of God or even of his power to affect the outcome of the plague” (555). This idea may have separated people into two camps: those who had complete faith and those who were partial or non-believers, the traces of which we can observe in the modern world.
Every historical event creates a chain of events that changes the future in one way or another. To say that nothing of the past contributes to the future is a weak and false argument. However, arguing about the amount of influence the past inflicts on the present is an entirely valid exercise. We can see that the Black Death brought significant changes in how society operates and how people view the idea of divinity in the modern world. We may have gotten where we are today despite the Black Death pandemic in Medieval Europe, but we would definitely not be living in the same world as we are today if not for the sad and horrendous past.
Works Cited
Armstrong, Dorsey, director. Europe on the Brink of the Black Death. The Great Courses, 2016. Kanopy, https://www.kanopy.com/product/europe-brink-black-death
Berger, Eugene Clark, et al. World History: Cultures, States, and Societies to 1500. University of North Georgia Press, 2016.
al-Wardi, Ibn. “An Essay on the Report of the Pestilence.” 1348.
Pamuk, Şevket. “The Black Death and the Origins of the ‘Great Divergence’ across Europe, 1300-1600.” European Review of Economic History, vol. 11, no. 3, 2007, pp. 289–317. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/41378468?sid=primo
“The Report of the Paris Medical Faculty.” 1348.
