List of Bubonic plague outbreaks

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[edit] Use of the term plague

The term plague is usually define mnd as a pestilence, an epidemic disease causing a high rate of mortality. Plagues of disease are a major factor in the development of human civilization, impacting and altering the course of wars, migrations, population growth, urbanization, and cultural development. The term carries such extreme connotations that it is often synonymous with a "calamity", projecting an image of a disastrous evil or affliction.

During the overwhelming disease outbreaks of the Middle Ages, the single word "plague" became strongly identified with bubonic plague, the virulent contagious febrile disease caused by the bacillus Yersinia pestis, often known as the Black Death. This disease, which is spread by fleas from rodents, including rats and some species of mice, to human beings, reached epidemic and even pandemic proportions during the history of Asia and Europe, disrupting civilizations and altering the course of human affairs. Disease brought terror and panic in crowded cities, decimating populations like a visitation of the gods. In the New World, first contact with Europeans brought similar overwhelming pandemics of measles and smallpox, though not of bubonic plague, that led to the a drastic drop in population and the collapse of American cultures.

[edit] See also

[edit] Bubonic plague outbreaks

Famous outbreaks of bubonic plague examined in individual entries:

  • The "Black Death" of 1347–51:
    • Great Plague of England (1348–1350)
      • causal agent: bubonic plague
    • Great Plague of Ireland (1348–1351)
      • causal agent: bubonic plague
    • Great Plague of Scotland (1348–1350)
      • causal agent: bubonic plague
    • Great Plague of Russia (1349–1353)
      • causal agent: bubonic plague
  • Great Plague of Iceland (1402–1404)
    • causal agent: bubonic plague
  • London Plague (1592–1594)
    • causal agent: bubonic plague
  • Italian Plague of 1629-1631 or Great Plague of Milan (1629–1631)
    • causal agent: bubonic plague
  • Great Plague of Seville (1649)
    • causal agent: bubonic plague
  • Great Plague of London (1664–1665)
    • causal agent: bubonic plague
  • Great Plague of Vienna (1679–1680s)
    • causal agent: bubonic plague
  • Great Plague of Marseille (1720–1722)
    • causal agent: bubonic plague
  • Plague Riot in Moscow (1771)
    • causal agent: bubonic plague
  • The Third Pandemic, originated in China (1855–1950s)
    • causal agent: bubonic plague