What Are The Effects Of The Plague In The 19th Century

The plague from 1347 to 1350 in Europe was one of the miserable events in European history. Merchants brought the plague from Constantinople to Europe in 1347 and the plague began to spread quickly throughout Europe. During these 3 years were the peak of the plague in Europe and huge percentages of people died. Siena was also one of the central commercial city-states in Italy that suffered from the plague. When the plague arrived to Siena in 1348, fifty percentage or probably more of the population decreased by the plague. A consequence of high mortality rates with only few years led to social disorder. Siena had been more devastated than other cities due to the high plague mortality. Even after the plague ended, Siena had never recovered as …show more content…
The plague had indirect impacts to the government in financial and economical aspects because the government couldn't govern Siena and decline taxations and labor. The Council of Nine became not wealthy after they suffered from the plague due to financial and economic disorder. It took so much time to renew the government for making a decision what they would do or reduce one-third size of the government because four committees died by the plague. Despite renewing the government, they couldn't cover their revenues completely from the great losses of the urban population.1 Siena needed more revenues from various sources than before to reestablish a state, govern contado and compete with other states such as Florence. However, Siena's city growth became more limited after the outbreaks of the plague due to the slow recovery and political instability. According to Caffero, percentages of income represented the Biccherna income as less than the total income.2 Siena's Biccherna spent money the outbreaks of the plague little bit less than before. Siena recovered their finances quickly, but they had to increase taxations from various sources such as voluntary loans from wealth inhabitants. Other states such as Florence and Milan recovered from the plague earlier than Siena. Florence surpassed Siena with political and economical situations. The Council of Nine needed to respond to the new world order and public support, but they couldn't manage it. Their …show more content…
It wasn't only Agnolo who buried his children into his own lands. People's behavior adjusted the plague such as children's abandonment by parents. High plague mortality of urban population in Siena was disastrous. Many sources didn't have the exact estimated Sienese population before the outbreaks of the plague because including contado was complicated. Historians still have been debating the estimated plague mortality, but they estimated Sienese population dropped around one half or more. Siena took a long process that they couldn't recover population until the 19th century. One question came up with the Sienese population that why did Siena was really stuck in the high plague mortality. One of answers might be Sienese population couldn't keep up with the plague catastrophe in the short term. Many historians agreed with the statement that Siena was populated before the outbreaks of the plague. According to Bowsky, the first estimated Sienese population during the Council of Nine related to the year of 1300.9 "The Sienese walls then enclosed a surface area about one-half that within the Florentine walls."10 Sienese population would have been about half size of Florence that the latest research represented Florence held about 95,000 people.11 Siena might have as many as 47,500 in the city alone.12 Sienese population rapidly increased in the early 14th century that