# Canonical recap data for Black Death Peaks in Europe (1347)
# Source: https://recap.at/1347/black-death
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: black-death
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1347/black-death"
title: Black Death Peaks in Europe
aliases:
- Black Death
- Great Mortality
- The Plague of 1347
subtitle: Black Death Peaks in Europe
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1347-01-01
datePrecision: year
year: 1347
decade: 1340
summaryShort: The persecution of Jews during the Black Death consisted of a series of violent mass attacks and massacres. Jewish communities were often blamed for outbreaks of the Black Death in Europe. From 1348 to 1351, acts of violence were committed in Toulon, Barcelona, Erfurt, Basel, Frankfurt, Strasbourg and elsewhere. The pe
summaryLong: The persecution of Jews during the Black Death consisted of a series of violent mass attacks and massacres. Jewish communities were often blamed for outbreaks of the Black Death in Europe. From 1348 to 1351, acts of violence were committed in Toulon, Barcelona, Erfurt, Basel, Frankfurt, Strasbourg and elsewhere. The persecutions led to a large migration of Jews to Jagiellonian Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. There are very few Jewish sources on Jewish massacres during the Plague.
lede: Starting in 1347, the bubonic plague killed roughly 75 million people across Europe over the next few years, wiping out entire towns and destabilizing the continent's economy and social order. Jewish communities became scapegoats, blamed for spreading the disease despite having no connection to it; from 1348 to 1351, mobs massacred thousands in cities including Strasbourg, Basel, Frankfurt, and Barcelona. The violence revealed how quickly societies fracture under catastrophic stress, and demonstrated the lethal power of medical ignorance paired with existing prejudice.
heroImageUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a9/Doutielt1.jpg/1280px-Doutielt1.jpg"
heroImageCredit: Wikipedia · "Persecution of Jews during the Black Death"
importance: 50
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts:
- label: Estimated death toll in Europe
  value: 75 million people (roughly 30–60% of population)
- label: Peak outbreak period
  value: 1348–1353
- label: Primary vector
  value: Yersinia pestis bacterium, spread by fleas on rats
- label: Major Jewish massacres
  value: Strasbourg (1349, ~2,000 killed), Basel, Frankfurt, Barcelona, Erfurt, Toulon
- label: Notable arrival point
  value: Genoese trading ships from Black Sea region, October 1347
- label: Duration of initial wave
  value: Approximately 6–7 years from first European cases to peak mortality
timeline:
- date: 1347-10-01
  title: Black Death arrives in Europe
  description: Genoese merchant ships fleeing Kaffa in the Crimea reach Messina, Sicily, carrying plague-infected rats and fleas. Port authorities initially attempt quarantine but fail to contain the disease.
- date: 1348-01-01
  title: Plague spreads to mainland Europe
  description: The disease reaches southern France and spreads rapidly through Mediterranean ports. By mid-year, major cities including Florence, Venice, and Avignon report mass deaths.
- date: 1348-06-01
  title: First Jewish massacres begin
  description: Communities in Toulon and elsewhere are blamed for the plague and attacked. Medical understanding does not exist; scapegoating becomes systematic across Europe.
- date: 1349-02-14
  title: Strasbourg massacre
  description: Approximately 2,000 Jewish residents are burned alive in a massive pogrom. The city's government-sanctioned violence becomes one of the deadliest single incidents of the persecution wave.
- date: 1349-11-01
  title: Basel massacre
  description: Jewish communities are burned in their homes. Survivors are expelled; the city remains largely depopulated of Jews for decades.
- date: 1350-01-01
  title: Flagellant movement peaks
  description: Religious movements emerge claiming penance can stop the plague. Some groups turn violent against Jewish communities, intensifying persecution.
- date: 1351-06-01
  title: Persecution wave begins to subside
  description: As plague mortality decreases in some regions, organized pogroms become less frequent, though Jewish communities remain decimated and expelled from major European cities.
- date: 1353-01-01
  title: First wave of Black Death subsides
  description: European mortality rates stabilize; the initial catastrophic phase ends, though the plague will return in recurring waves throughout the next centuries.
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Jews_during_the_Black_Death"
  title: Black Death persecutions
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
impactStatement: The Black Death killed an estimated 30–60% of Europe's population between 1347 and 1353, triggering economic collapse, labor shortages that paradoxically strengthened peasants' bargaining power, and a wave of pogroms against Jewish communities. The pandemic reshaped feudalism, accelerated the end of serfdom in Western Europe, and left psychological scars that persisted for centuries. It also demonstrated how medical ignorance and scapegoating could turn a natural disaster into a social catastrophe.
categories:
- disaster
taxonomy:
domain: environmental
eventTypes:
- pandemic
- famine
canonicalClasses:
- collapse
- conflict
- transformation
impactRadius: civilizational
velocity: cascading
predictability: black_swan
intentionality: natural
domainCoupling: systemic
lifecycleClass: conflict
metaDescription: The Black Death killed 75M people across Europe starting in 1347, sparking massive pogroms against Jewish communities.
wikidataQid: Q842848
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260526183241/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Jews_during_the_Black_Death"
  capturedAt: 2026-05-26
  label: Black Death persecutions
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Jews_during_the_Black_Death"
gallery:
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a9/Doutielt1.jpg/1280px-Doutielt1.jpg"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a9/Doutielt1.jpg/800px-Doutielt1.jpg"
  caption: Persecution of Jews during the Black Death
  credit: Wikipedia · "Persecution of Jews during the Black Death"
  width: 330
  height: 224
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/The_Black_Cat_v01no03_%281895-12%29.pdf/page1-500px-The_Black_Cat_v01no03_%281895-12%29.pdf.jpg"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/The_Black_Cat_v01no03_%281895-12%29.pdf/page1-500px-The_Black_Cat_v01no03_%281895-12%29.pdf.jpg"
  caption: The Black Cat v01no03 (1895-12)
  credit: many authors
  width: 802
  height: 1270
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Death_Comes_for_the_Archbishop.pdf/page1-500px-Death_Comes_for_the_Archbishop.pdf.jpg"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Death_Comes_for_the_Archbishop.pdf/page1-500px-Death_Comes_for_the_Archbishop.pdf.jpg"
  caption: Death Comes for the Archbishop
  credit: Willa Cather
  width: 685
  height: 1089
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/The_Black_Cat_v04no04_%281899-01%29.djvu/page1-500px-The_Black_Cat_v04no04_%281899-01%29.djvu.jpg"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/The_Black_Cat_v04no04_%281899-01%29.djvu/page1-500px-The_Black_Cat_v04no04_%281899-01%29.djvu.jpg"
  caption: The Black Cat v04no04 (1899-01)
  credit: many authors
  width: 796
  height: 1332
comparisonThenNow:
- metric: European population loss
  thenValue: 30-60%
  thenYear: 1347
  nowValue: 0%
  nowYear: 2024
  note: Peak mortality occurred 1348-1351; modern Europe has negative growth in some regions but not from plague
- metric: Estimated Jews killed in pogroms
  thenValue: 200,000+
  thenYear: 1350
  nowValue: Legal protections in place
  nowYear: 2024
  note: 1348-1351 saw systematic massacres across German and French territories; modern international law prohibits such persecution
- metric: Time to identify disease cause
  thenValue: Unknown pathogen
  thenYear: 1347
  nowValue: Identified within weeks
  nowYear: 2024
  note: Yersinia pestis identified in 1894; modern genomic sequencing can pinpoint novel pathogens in days
consequences:
- title: Strasbourg massacre
  year: 1349
  description: Over 2,000 Jews were burned alive in the Strasbourg ghetto on February 14, blamed for poisoning wells. The city council authorized the killings despite lacking any evidence.
- title: Expulsion from major cities
  year: 1350
  description: Surviving Jewish communities were expelled from Frankfurt, Basel, and other German cities following accusations of well-poisoning. Many fled eastward toward Poland and Lithuania.
- title: Labor shortage crisis
  year: 1351
  description: The simultaneous death toll from plague and pogrom-related killings created severe labor shortages across Europe. Surviving workers gained bargaining power, leading to wage increases and social unrest among landowners.
- title: Rise of flagellant movements
  year: 1349
  description: Penitential flagellant processions spread across Europe claiming to prevent plague. Some flagellant groups also participated in or encouraged anti-Jewish violence, framing it as divine will.
- title: Shift in medical understanding
  year: 1352
  description: European physicians began questioning miasma theory as the sole explanation for plague spread. Jewish physicians' survival in some communities eventually contributed to new theories about disease transmission.
culturalContext:
topMusic: []
topFilms: []
topTVShows: []
zeitgeistNote: The Black Death era lacked recorded popular music, film, or television. Cultural output consisted of plague-related religious art, mystery plays performed orally in towns, and illuminated manuscripts. Anti-Jewish violence was often framed through Christian theological discourse about sin and divine punishment, reflected in surviving chronicles by Froissart and others.
relatedQueries:
- Black Death Jewish persecution 1348
- Strasbourg massacre 1349 Jews
- medieval scapegoating plague
- well poisoning accusations Middle Ages
- Jewish communities expelled Europe 1350s
- flagellants Black Death anti-Semitism
- Erfurt massacre 1349
- Basel pogrom Black Death
