Around 1339, in northwestern Europe, the population began to exceed food supplies and a severe economic crisis intensified. The winters were excessively cold and the summers arid and dry. Due to these extreme weather conditions, only a tiny number of crops could produce and those that did grow died. Following these seven painful years of climate and famine, the greatest scourge of all time occurred, the Black Death. In 1347 AD, the Black Death began to spread throughout Western Europe. In the space of three years, the widespread epidemic killed a third of the European population, leaving nearly twenty-five million dead. The Black Death killed many more Europeans than any other endemic or war until then, significantly impacting the Church, the population and the economy. These three social pillars have been changed forever. First, when the plague first reached Europe, people panicked. Thinking about survival, many began to abandon what they had and settle in villages and countryside in the hope of finding refuge from the disease. Families living during the Black Death were deprived of the right to call themselves a family. Where there had been no plague, people carried it; if it was already there, the fleeing infected allowed it to increase. The horror that Europeans felt was alarming to their state of mind. Since the cities were very populated, those who went to the countryside took the disease with them and infected those who previously lived in the countryside. As many continued to flee the plague, the people of Europe searched for someone responsible for the desecration. European Christians of the time were xenophobic towards Jews. Jews were boycotted from work in ...... middle of paper ...... and left the economy in a radically deserted state. People's hygiene in the Middle Ages was already appalling. Bathing was unheard of and eye infections were widespread due to an irrationally unbalanced diet. The animals simply added to the dirt. Around 1350 AD, the survivors began to realize that their nightmare was coming to an end. The decline in trade occurred because people were afraid to trade goods with a country once infested with plague. This was one of the long-term effects of the widespread epidemic. All of these factors contributed to Europe's period of weakened prosperity. A third of a country's population cannot be eliminated in a short three-year period without major shifts in its economy, church life, and family life. Through these losses, a small insect overturned the social structure of Europe and forever altered medieval society..