Plague

Plague is usually understood as a generic term for Bubonic plague, the mortal disease caused by the bacillus Yersinia pestis, which is spread by fleas from rats and some species of mice to human beings. Plague has reached epidemic and even pandemic proportions during the history of Asia and Europe, disrupting civilizations and altering the course of human affairs when plague brought terror and panic in crowded cities, decimating populations like a visitation of the gods. In the New World, the first contact with Europeans brought pandemics of measles and smallpox, though not of plague, that led to the collapse of American cultures.

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See Plague (disambiguation), Yersinia pestis, Bubonic plague.

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Famous outbreaks of plague that are examined in their individual entries:

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::Great Plague of Athens (430-427 BC)

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:::causal agent: bubonic plague/smallpox/measles/typhus?

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::Antonine Plague (165 – 180)

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:::causal agent: smallpox/measles?

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::Plague of Cyprian (250),

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:::causal agent: smallpox/measles?

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::Plague of Justinian (541 – 542)

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:::causal agent: bubonic plague

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::Plague of Constantinople (747-748)

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::The "Black Death" of 1347 – 50:

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:::Great Plague of England (1348-1350)

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::::causal agent: bubonic plague

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:::Great Plague of Ireland (1348-1351)

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::::causal agent: bubonic plague

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:::Great Plague of Scotland (1348-1350)

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::::causal agent: bubonic plague

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:::Great Plague of Russia (1349-1353)

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::::causal agent: bubonic plague

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::Great Plague of Iceland (1402-1404)

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:::causal agent: bubonic plague

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::Great Plague of Milan (1629-1631)

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::: aka Italian Plague of 1629-1631.

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:::causal agent: bubonic plague

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::Great Plague of London (1664-1665)

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:::causal agent: bubonic plague

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::Great Plague of Vienna (1679-1680's)

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:::causal agent: bubonic plague

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::Plague Riot in Moscow (1771)

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:::causal agent: bubonic plague

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::The Third Pandemic, a third major plague pandemic of historic times, began in China in 1855.

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See also:

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• Influenza Pandemic of 1918 or Spanish Flu
• Population history of American indigenous peoples

Bubonic plague: Bubonic plague is an infectious disease that is believed to have caused several epidemics or pandemics throughout history. Bubonic plague is the most common form of plague, and is characterized by swollen, tender, inflamed lymph glands (called buboes); other forms are Septicemic plague, which occurs...

Yersinia pestis: Yersinia pestis is a species of rod-shaped bacterium, belonging to the family Enterobacteriaceae. It is the infectious agent of bubonic plague, and can also cause pneumonic plague and septicemic plague. All forms have been responsible for enormous mortality in many fearsome epidemics throughout the...

Flea: :For other meanings of 'flea', including Michael Balzary, a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, see flea (disambiguation)...

Plague related Images and Photos (experimental)

The Plague 1691-94	The Plague of Locusts	The Plague of the Zombies	The Plague in Rome 1869
The Plague of the Cattle Murrain	Plague of 1630: Townspeople Try to Escape to the Country	The Bucolic Plague : How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers (Hardcover)	Plague in Florence as Described by Boccaccio
B.P.R.D. Plague of Frogs Volume 1 Graphic Novel	Baltimore Volume 1: The Plague Ships Graphic Novel	B.P.R.D. Plague of Frogs Vol 1 Hardcover Graphic Novel	B.P.R.D. Plague of Frogs Volume 3 Hardcover Graphic Novel