Black Death

Introduction & Top Questions
Cause and outbreak
Effects and significance

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images & Videos

Medieval illustration of Brotherhood of the Cross flagellants in robes and pointed hats walking in procession, some carrying a crucifix and banners, during the Black Death.

Know the investigations of researchers using genomic information to reconstruct the cause and transmission routes of the bubonic plague and the Black Death

Microscope image showing clusters of pink-stained Yersinia pestis bacteria, the organism that causes plague, against a pale background.

Historical map of Europe showing the spread of the Black Death during the second pandemic from 1347 to 1351. The map uses color-coded regions to indicate the approximate year the plague first reached different areas, with arrows marking the spread along major marine and land routes, and major cities labeled. Areas relatively unaffected are shown in gray.

An open medieval ledger book with handwritten Italian text on aged pages and a worn red leather cover, attributed to Pepo degli Albizzi of Florence.

Medieval illustration of two flagellants, bare-chested and wearing skirts with yellow leggings, whipping themselves as part of a religious ritual during the Black Death in Europe.

At a Glance

Black Death Timeline

Black Death Key Facts

Black Death Causes and Effects

Quizzes

Warm water fuels Hurricane Katrina. This image depicts a 3-day average of actual dea surface temperatures for the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, from August 25-27, 2005.

Disasters of Historic Proportion

Vikings. Viking warriors hold swords and shields. 9th c. AD seafaring warriors raided the coasts of Europe, burning, plundering and killing. Marauders or pirates came from Scandinavia, now Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. European History

European History

Related Questions

Did the Black Death include bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic plague?
How did labor shortages change wages after the Black Death?
How did medieval people explain the cause of the Black Death?
How did pneumonic plague differ from bubonic plague?
How did septicemic plague differ from bubonic plague?
How did the Black Death affect the authority of the Roman Catholic Church?
How did the Black Death affect the economy of Siena?
How did the Black Death change the use of farmland and pasture in Europe?
How did the Black Death weaken the feudal system?
How long did it take for western Europe’s population to recover after the Black Death?
How many people died in Europe during the Black Death?
What are buboes and where do they appear on the body?
What percentage of Europe’s population died during the Black Death?
What were the symptoms of bubonic plague during the Black Death?
When did scientists identify Yersinia pestis as the cause of plague?
When did the Black Death spread through Europe?
Which European regions were hit especially hard by the Black Death?
Which rulers and famous people died during the Black Death?
Why did antisemitism increase during the Black Death?
Why did farmland go out of cultivation after the Black Death?
Why did the Black Death create a labor shortage?
Why might plague have entered Europe in repeated waves from Central Asia?
What were the symptoms of the Black Death?
How did the Black Death affect Europe?
What are other names for the Black Death?
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Who were some of the key figures of the Reformation?
What is the Scientific Revolution?
How is the Scientific Revolution connected to the Enlightenment?
What did the Scientific Revolution lead to?
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Why is the Parthenon important?

Quick Facts

Date:: 1347 - 1351

Location:: Europe

Context:: pandemic

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External Websites

Ohio State University - Origins - The Black Death and its Aftermath
EH.net - The Economic Impact of the Black Death
Historic UK - The Black Death
Clemson University Open Textbooks - Science Technology and Society a Student Led Exploration - The Black Death & the Unexpected Benefits to Society
World History Encyclopedia - Black Death
Gresham College - The Black Death
The University of Iowa Libraries - The Black Death: The Plague, 1331-1770
History Today - The Black Death: The Greatest Catastrophe Ever
Humanities LibreTexts - The Black Death
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft - Origins of the Black Death identified

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Black Death - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Black Death

Q: What were the symptoms of the Black Death?

Yersinia causes three types of plague in humans: bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. Although there is DNA evidence that Yersinia was present in victims of the Black Death, it is uncertain which form the majority of the infection took. It is likely that all three played some role in the pandemic. Bubonic plague causes fever, fatigue, shivering, vomiting, headaches, giddiness, intolerance to light, pain in the back and limbs, sleeplessness, apathy, and delirium. It also causes buboes: one or more of the lymph nodes become tender and swollen, usually in the groin or armpits. Pneumonic plague affects the lungs and causes symptoms similar to those of severe pneumonia: fever, weakness, and shortness of breath. Fluid fills the lungs and can cause death if untreated. Other symptoms may include insomnia, stupor, a staggering gait, speech disorder, and loss of memory. Septicemic plague is an infection of the blood. Its symptoms include fatigue, fever, and internal bleeding.

pandemic, medieval Europe [1347–1351]

Also known as: Great Mortality

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Last updated

Sep. 25, 2026 •History

How many people died during the Black Death?

It is not known for certain how many people died during the Black Death. About 25 million people are estimated to have died in Europe from the plague between 1347 and 1351.

What caused the Black Death?

The Black Death is believed to have been the result of plague, an infectious fever caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. The disease was likely transmitted from rodents to humans by the bite of infected fleas.

Where did the Black Death originate?

The plague that caused the Black Death originated in China in the early to mid-1300s and spread along trade routes westward to the Mediterranean and northern Africa. It reached southern England in 1348 and northern Britain and Scandinavia by 1350.

What were the symptoms of the Black Death?

Yersinia causes three types of plague in humans: bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. Although there is DNA evidence that Yersinia was present in victims of the Black Death, it is uncertain which form the majority of the infection took. It is likely that all three played some role in the pandemic.

Bubonic plague causes fever, fatigue, shivering, vomiting, headaches, giddiness, intolerance to light, pain in the back and limbs, sleeplessness, apathy, and delirium. It also causes buboes: one or more of the lymph nodes become tender and swollen, usually in the groin or armpits.

Pneumonic plague affects the lungs and causes symptoms similar to those of severe pneumonia: fever, weakness, and shortness of breath. Fluid fills the lungs and can cause death if untreated. Other symptoms may include insomnia, stupor, a staggering gait, speech disorder, and loss of memory.

Septicemic plague is an infection of the blood. Its symptoms include fatigue, fever, and internal bleeding.

How did the Black Death affect Europe?

The effects of the Black Death were many and varied. Trade suffered for a time, and wars were temporarily abandoned. Many laborers died, which devastated families through lost means of survival and caused personal suffering; landowners who used laborers as tenant farmers were also affected. The labor shortage caused landowners to substitute wages or money rents in place of labor services in an effort to keep their tenants, which benefited those surviving tenants. Wages for artisans and other workers also increased. Art in the wake of the Black Death became more preoccupied with mortality and the afterlife. Antisemitism greatly intensified throughout Europe, as Jews were blamed for the spread of the Black Death, and many Jews were killed by mobs or burned at the stake en masse.

What are other names for the Black Death?

The Black Death has also been called the Great Mortality, a term derived from medieval chronicles’ use of magna mortalitas. This term, along with magna pestilencia (“great pestilence”), was used in the Middle Ages to refer to what we know today as the Black Death as well as to other outbreaks of disease. “Black Plague” is also sometimes used to refer to the Black Death, though it is rarely used in scholarly studies.

Black Death, pandemic that ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1351, taking a proportionately greater toll of life than any other known epidemic or war up to that time. It is estimated that 25 million people died.

The Black Death is widely believed to have been the result of plague, caused by infection with the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Modern genetic analyses indicate that the strain of Y. pestis introduced during the Black Death is ancestral to all extant circulating Y. pestis strains known to cause disease in humans. Hence, the origin of modern plague epidemics lies in the medieval period. Other scientific evidence has indicated that the Black Death may have been viral in origin.