![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.historydefined.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Flagellants-Black-Death-Netherlands-atonement-sins-God-1.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Effects of the Population Decline<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps the most tangible aspect of life in the aftermath of the Black Death<\/a> was the sheer level of death that had occurred. This had two major impacts in the aftermath of the plague. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Firstly, people needed to adjust psychologically to the passing of their loved ones. People had been buried swiftly during the plague to avoid the spread of further contamination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, in its aftermath, people needed to mourn and try and process what had occurred. Often this had a sinister edge, such as when people sought to find someone to blame. There were pogroms of Europe\u2019s Jews across the continent immediately following the epidemic as adherents of Judaism became a scapegoat for the suffering of Christians.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n More pragmatically, there was a massive labor shortage due to the plague for decades to come. As this happened, Europe\u2019s peasants<\/a> and laborers suddenly found themselves in a very advantageous position as wages skyrocketed.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon, however, governments, anxious to prevent the lower orders from gaining too much power, introduced legislation such as the Statute of Labourers passed in England in 1351, which capped wage increases and even the ability to ask for pay hikes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite these measures, there is no doubt that workers found themselves in a more advantageous position for several decades after the Black Death.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n It has also been suggested that the Black Death contributed greatly to the emergence of the Renaissance in Italy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The plague had provoked a crisis in the politics of Late Medieval Europe. All of a sudden, governments had to start reacting with speed and efficiency to the spread of the plague. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As they did, they began becoming more efficient. Bodies needed to be buried quickly to stop the spread of the disease. Resources needed to be allocated to regions that were particularly badly hit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Improved reporting systems had to be developed so that the royal courts in London, Paris and elsewhere knew when a major outbreak had hit York or Bordeaux, for instance.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of this saw governments becoming more potent in terms of managing people. While the Renaissance is typically perceived as a cultural movement, it was, to an equal extent, about the emergence of strong, centralized states<\/a> with efficient bureaucracies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Black Death was, in large part, responsible for the first development of this. And it was in Italy where this process occurred most tangibly as city-states like Venice, Florence, and Genoa adopted new powers to fight the plague.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Black Death also incited profound changes in European people\u2019s belief systems. One of the most striking aspects of this was the emergence of the European witch craze.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an age when scientific knowledge was still very basic, and people understood the world through religion, magic, and elements of residual Pagan belief, people turned to the supernatural to try to explain why the appalling events of the late 1340s and early 1350s had occurred. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some began to believe that a rise in the number of individuals in league with the devil within society could only explain the suffering inflicted upon them.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the medieval church had condemned the belief in witches and witchcraft, from the time of the Black Death, there was a growing consensus that witches were present within society, stirring up evil for people everywhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Black Death Possibly Led to the Renaissance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Changing Belief Systems<\/h2>\n\n\n\n