ELI5: black death

high confidence

March 31, 2026

// explanation

// eli5Imagine a really bad sickness spread across a whole country really fast, like if everyone at your school got sick at once. A long time ago, around the 1300s, there was a disease called the Black Death that made people very, very sick [1][3]. It was caused by tiny germs that rats had, and the germs spread to people through fleas [4]. So many people got sick that it was like the saddest, scariest time ever for everyone [5].

// sources

[1]Black Death - Wikipedia

The Black Death was a plague pandemic that occurred in Europe from 1346 to 1353. It was one of the most fatal pandemics in human history; as many as 50 million ...

[2]Black Death | Plague, Death Toll, Definition, Cause ... - Britannica

Mar 11, 2026 ... 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 ...

[3]Black Death - Causes, Symptoms & Impact - History.com

Sep 17, 2010 ... The Black Death was a devastating global epidemic of bubonic plague that struck Europe and Asia in the mid-1300s. The plague arrived in ...

[4]The Black Death: The Greatest Catastrophe Ever - History Today

Mar 3, 2005 ... The Black Death was an epidemic of bubonic plague, a disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis that circulates among wild rodents where ...

[5]British History in depth: Black Death - BBC

Mar 10, 2011 ... The Black Death was 'a squalid disease that killed within a week' and a national trauma that utterly transformed Britain. Dr Mike Ibeji follows its deadly path.

[6]What Made The Black Death (The Plague) so Deadly?video

Video by The Infographics Show

[7]What Made The Black Death So Deadly & Who Were The Plague Doctorsvideo

Video by The Infographics Show

[8]Plague 101 | National Geographicvideo

Video by National Geographic

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