The Foreshadowing of the Black Death

Given the evidence of the bubonic plague, what role does the environment have in the decline of human population?

The environment requires a sense of balance in order for it to thrive and coexist with humanity. The balance between humanity and the environment is something which history has corrupted and forced to become defective and even to the point where it threatens humanity itself. In the instance of the Black Death, that is exactly the case. With humanity becoming ever so advanced, sizable, and elaborate (culturally speaking), humans got distracted and separated themselves from the surroundings which they were immersed in. Keeping in mind the notion of a balance between humanity and the environment, the balance was instituted since the beginning of human history, and the environment/nature has taken and will take any steps necessary in order to teach humanity a lesson that the balance must remain intact and healthy. One measure by which humanity has seen repeated in history, is disease. But, one disease grew into mass proportions, as it cut Europe’s population virtually in half. Now, the environment began this disease in the first place for one sole reason: to make the number of humans inhabiting the environment less, therefore recreating a balanced relationship between humanity and the environment, as there is a reasonable amount of space being taken up versus left alone, resources used versus resources maintained and kept untouched, to avoid potential over-pollution, etc. For whatever reasons, the environment felt the balance was off, and used nature to reinstitute it in society, whether the means by which it does so is pleasant or the total opposite. Using animals (rats, fleas), a powerful force in nature, the environment allowed for them to initiate a deadly, poisonous, threatening, and spreadable disease which effortlessly turned from a disease into a pandemic, classifying it as one of the worst natural diseases humanity has ever seen. Of course, the tactic nature used worked even better as it planned to, as human institutions and advancements allowed for easy spreading, exchanging, and fearing of the bubonic plague. Trading, a fairly new institution in society, among the Silk Road, connected almost all of the towns and nations in Europe and some of Asia. With instinctive contact, trafficking, and mistakable connections, merchandise which would eventually reach most establishments, traders who would come into other contact with humans across their journeys, and animals used in order to efficiently trade all caught, in some fashion, the disease and passed it along to wherever it passed and ended up. Trading was a vital element to the success of the pandemic as without nature’s help, reached epic proportions and effected an unpredictable amount of people. Fortunately for nature, the disease worked and allowed for the balance to be reinstated in society. With a huge fraction of humanity was wiped off of the face of the Earth, less resources were being used, more space was being left natural and undisturbed, and the overall environment was thriving as it did before humanity got ahead of itself. The Black Death is an ideal example of how nature presides over all human developments, and that humanity is a minority when it comes to the greater world and environment. This severe consequence should have been assumed by humans, and teach humanity the essential lesson to survival/to avoid any more pandemic such as this, that overpopulation and too big of steps forward will result in an enormous step back; it was a foreshadowing of the future/modern era of human history. Yet, with the massive proportions humans have grown to, we are beginning to be able to cure some effects which the environment throws at us, but are also on the edge of a great failure. Perhaps as humanity is progressing ever so much, history is being written. Or rewritten.