2990 x 4502 px | 25,3 x 38,1 cm | 10 x 15 inches | 300dpi
Aufnahmedatum:
1665
Weitere Informationen:
The Great Plague (1665–1666) was a massive outbreak of disease in the Kingdom of England (modern day United Kingdom) that killed an estimated 100, 000 people, 20% of London's population. The disease is identified as bubonic plague, an infection by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, transmitted through a flea vector. It had arrived in Europe 300 years previously as the Black Death and returned in fresh outbreaks every 10 years or so, of which the Great Plague of London was the last major outbreak. The 1665-1666 epidemic was on a far smaller scale than the earlier "Black Death" pandemic, a virulent outbreak of disease in Europe between 1347 and 1353. The plague of 1665 was only remembered afterwards as the "great" plague because it was one of the last widespread outbreaks in England. The Great Plague of 1665 was the last major outbreak of the plague in England. Some other previous outbreaks of the plague in England were the 1636 plague, when some 10, 000 had died, and the 1625 plague, when some 35, 000 died. In 1603, the plague killed 30, 000 Londoners. The English outbreak is thought to have spread from the Netherlands, where the bubonic plague had occurred intermittently since 1599, with the initial contagion arriving with Dutch trading ships carrying bales of cotton from Amsterdam. Amsterdam was ravaged in 1663–1664, with a mortality given as 50, 000. The dock areas outside of London, and the parish of St. Giles-in-the Fields where poor workers crowded into ill-kept structures, were the first areas struck by the plague. As records were not kept on the deaths of the very poor, the first recorded case was a Rebecca Andrews, on 12 April 1665. Another suspected source of the plague was cats and dogs, of which the Mayor of London at the time had the majority exterminated.
