Section: Social Studies

124) The Bubonic Plague of the mid-fourteenth century was the most devastating natural disaster in European History. We now konw that this plague was caused by rats that were infected by bacteria-carrying fleas. The rats carried the disease as they were unknowingly transported with cargo ships through trade routes. A third of the entire population of Europe is thought to have been killed by this plague.

What caused the Bubonic Plague?

1. poor sanitation in crowded European cities.
2. a disease carried by sailors through trade routes.
3. a highly contagious virus spread by human contact.
4. rats that carried the disease through crowded cities.
5. fleas on rats that carried the deadly bacteria through trade routes.

Although poor sanitation did cause the population of rats to grow, and the disease spread by human contact and along trade routes, the source of the Plague has been determined to be fleas that were carried by rats.