Beginning from the fall of the once mighty Western Roman Empire, the Dark Ages was a period of strife and deprivation for the common people on Europe. They experienced excruciating starvation that slowly tortured them to death and incurable pandemics that left a trail of contagious corpses in its wake. Unemployed and possessing nothing of value, peasants could not afford the items that are needed for their survival, leaving decaying bodies inside rundown shacks and ghettos. There was a great promotion of Christianity as peasants found salvation through it. However, salvation is never permanent, and so the low ranking people of Europe had many severe difficulties to bear that even Christianity could not solve.
The first problem is the horrendous quality of their daily lives. Many families were desperate for edible food and uncontaminated water. Unfortunately, many families ate bad food, desperately clawing for life. No access to running water meant that it is unknown whether the unsanitary water was teeming with bacteria or not. And to make it worse, the water usually was filthy. People became anorexic and had malnutrition as a result, drastically weighing down their working aptitude and brain activity. Consequently, their bodies and their immune systems become extremely feeble, which easily allows them to contract pathogens or viruses that could not be cured without money. Reliable doctors could not be afforded, and sometimes people were left to rot in their flimsy abodes. Average life span was hugely reduced, but it should not be unforeseen with the brutal lives peasants were living.
Daily life was already tough enough for peasants, and the struggle for survival worsened as various foreign invasions rampaged into Europe, massacring defenseless people. Vikings attacked mercilessly from the north, slaughtering all standing in its path of conquest. Maygars invaded from the east, paying no heed to the cruel murder of innocents. Saracens assaulted from the south with cold blood coursing through their barbarian veins. The rise of Islam, a foreign religion considered dangerous in Europe, also caused numerous Muslim forces to attempt raids on Europe that would threaten both the lives of the peasants and their temporary salvation, Christianity.
One especially ill-fated event was the Justinian Plague, an incurable pandemic that slaughtered approximately twenty-five million people over the course of a year which started in 541 AD. The Justinian Plague and the Black Death were extremely similar give the fact that both are bubonic plagues, and were equal in lethality. Genetic studies determine that the origin of the Justinian Plague was China, which spread to Egypt through trading merchants/immigrants. As traders arrived in Egypt, the cycle was repeated once again: the traders brought back the disease to Europe, along with infected fleas, which spread the plague to putrid rats. Incurable and fatal, the disease spread at an alarming rate, which could not be combated but separating one’s self from infected people and peasants in general. Peasants took the full, upfront brunt of the disease as their horrendous living conditions are basically welcoming the contagion into their residents.
Needless to say, a peasant’s life during the Dark Ages were horrible, possibly worse than horrible, but nothing more. The atrocity and pain experienced was near impossible to be dealt with. Since peasants make up for more than 50% of Europe’s population, Europe was cramped with flimsy shacks and half-dead people. During times like the Justinian Plague, the already filthy homes would be filled with rotting bodies that are contaminated. Sever depopulation and deurbanization were the two major outcomes of the Dark Ages, and though the Renaissance followed shortly after, the Dark Ages would leave a permanent scar on human history.
The first problem is the horrendous quality of their daily lives. Many families were desperate for edible food and uncontaminated water. Unfortunately, many families ate bad food, desperately clawing for life. No access to running water meant that it is unknown whether the unsanitary water was teeming with bacteria or not. And to make it worse, the water usually was filthy. People became anorexic and had malnutrition as a result, drastically weighing down their working aptitude and brain activity. Consequently, their bodies and their immune systems become extremely feeble, which easily allows them to contract pathogens or viruses that could not be cured without money. Reliable doctors could not be afforded, and sometimes people were left to rot in their flimsy abodes. Average life span was hugely reduced, but it should not be unforeseen with the brutal lives peasants were living.
Daily life was already tough enough for peasants, and the struggle for survival worsened as various foreign invasions rampaged into Europe, massacring defenseless people. Vikings attacked mercilessly from the north, slaughtering all standing in its path of conquest. Maygars invaded from the east, paying no heed to the cruel murder of innocents. Saracens assaulted from the south with cold blood coursing through their barbarian veins. The rise of Islam, a foreign religion considered dangerous in Europe, also caused numerous Muslim forces to attempt raids on Europe that would threaten both the lives of the peasants and their temporary salvation, Christianity.
One especially ill-fated event was the Justinian Plague, an incurable pandemic that slaughtered approximately twenty-five million people over the course of a year which started in 541 AD. The Justinian Plague and the Black Death were extremely similar give the fact that both are bubonic plagues, and were equal in lethality. Genetic studies determine that the origin of the Justinian Plague was China, which spread to Egypt through trading merchants/immigrants. As traders arrived in Egypt, the cycle was repeated once again: the traders brought back the disease to Europe, along with infected fleas, which spread the plague to putrid rats. Incurable and fatal, the disease spread at an alarming rate, which could not be combated but separating one’s self from infected people and peasants in general. Peasants took the full, upfront brunt of the disease as their horrendous living conditions are basically welcoming the contagion into their residents.
Needless to say, a peasant’s life during the Dark Ages were horrible, possibly worse than horrible, but nothing more. The atrocity and pain experienced was near impossible to be dealt with. Since peasants make up for more than 50% of Europe’s population, Europe was cramped with flimsy shacks and half-dead people. During times like the Justinian Plague, the already filthy homes would be filled with rotting bodies that are contaminated. Sever depopulation and deurbanization were the two major outcomes of the Dark Ages, and though the Renaissance followed shortly after, the Dark Ages would leave a permanent scar on human history.