As the Dance of Death depicts, people dancing toward their graves filled the scenery. Europe changed forever. The bubonic plague, or Black Death dramatically took effects on the medieval world. The Black Death was historically significant because, it led to two major changes. It changed the economy of the medieval world permanently and ended feudalism. It was so significant that it continues to be studied today.

          Of these two, the most important was the economic change. Since the plague killed mostly peasants, and serfs, those that remained were in greater demand for their work and could charge a greater amount of money. For example the remaining peasants who were craftsmen, had more work, and could charge a higher amount for their services. These craftsmen were able to move into a higher social class. This led to the evolution of the middle class. Without this, the flowering of Europe might never have taken place.

         The fear of death led to a loss of interest in material goods and money. With this economic change, feudalism was weakened, and eventually brought down. Restrictions under feudalism had limited cultural expansion. For example: during feudal times the only language that was written was Latin. After the fall of feudalism people translated various holy books (such as, The Bible, Koran, and Torah) into different languages, which helped spread knowledge of different religions. Since there was less emphasis on social classes in the renaissance, the middle class could grow with greater specialization in the work. During the Black Death, people fled the disease, left cities and tried to escape to the mountains. This had much impact on the geographical and economical changes of Europe because of this migration of the population. From this migration new cities were created which improved opportunities for trade.

If we still study the bubonic plague today, it must have had some significant impact on the medieval world. Since the dreaded epidemic, books have been written, plays have been acted, and documentaries filmed. This strange plague, its origin unsure, killed two thirds of the population of Europe. In fact, if people hadn’t fled their cities and survived, we might not even be here to today learning about it.

         The historical significance of the bubonic plague has shown itself through economic change, benefits of the renaissance and its continued study. As humans, we can realize the importance of historical events, and study them, to learn more about them.