WI: Massive exodus during Black Plague

What if during the Black Plague, or another epidemic, the Europeans either:

1. Fled en masse to the Crusader States or other fringes of Medieval Europe? Mass resettlement there?

2. A refugee fleet sails westwards and lands in Iceland or the New World?
 

katchen

Banned
The problem with attempting to flee en masse from the Black Death is that the people who see you coming will shut themselves up in their walled cities and shoot arrows at you and kill you.
And if you try to flee across the ocean in a ship, a) you can easily overload the ship with too many people for the food and especially the water and/or b) once the Pestilence spreads on board a ship with nothing between you and the ship's rats, everyone can easily perish. Nothing left but a ghost ship washed back ashore on a Norwegian fjord with the seagulls eating the corpses.:eek:
 
Who in mediaeval Europe has the money, supplies or energy to flee en masse?

It's not like you can go to Wal-Mart and stock up on trail mix for the journey.
 
Flocc has a point here, but this does prompt me to wonder why mass migration in Europe seemingly stopped after the Ostsiedlung. Why, population swaps and exoduses (exodii?) seemed to be in fashion at the very beginning of the Dark Ages, so why did it go out of style so promptly? Ethnic boundaries in Europe were fairly stable from the 12th or 13th century on, and really only got changed up to a significant extent after World War 2.
 

Krall

Banned
Flocc has a point here, but this does prompt me to wonder why mass migration in Europe seemingly stopped after the Ostsiedlung. Why, population swaps and exoduses (exodii?) seemed to be in fashion at the very beginning of the Dark Ages, so why did it go out of style so promptly? Ethnic boundaries in Europe were fairly stable from the 12th or 13th century on, and really only got changed up to a significant extent after World War 2.

Possibly a mix of feudalism (the nobility has an interest in keeping people on their land, and literally control where they can live) and a switch to a more sedentary, non-nomadic society (it's harder to just get up and move if that's not something your society is based around)?
 
What if during the Black Plague, or another epidemic, the Europeans either:

1. Fled en masse to the Crusader States or other fringes of Medieval Europe? Mass resettlement there?

There were no Crusader States left at the time of the Black Death. Not in the Levant at least. And what would be the point of that? The plague hit the Middle East before it hit Europe. A mass of filthy, underfed, flea-infested Medieval peasants on the move is the best way to cultivate a plague. Not to mention nobody wants an incoming army of beggars that might as well bring the plague with them anyway.

2. A refugee fleet sails westwards and lands in Iceland or the New World?
So in order to flee a 1/3 chance of getting killed by the Black Death, people book on a trip to nowhere, that could as well mean a 3/3 chance of drowning? I'm sorry but this often brought up massive movings of people because of the Black Death of the Mongols invading or whatever only make sense in hindsight, when you know for sure that there is a land those people would be bumping on, but they wouldn't. It's plain nonsensical. And that's without even bringing logistics to the table.
 
What if during the Black Plague, or another epidemic, the Europeans either:

1. Fled en masse to the Crusader States or other fringes of Medieval Europe? Mass resettlement there?

2. A refugee fleet sails westwards and lands in Iceland or the New World?
The black death did the opposite thing, it brought a less populated land to the inhabitants, so there is no need to move abroad for that reason.

The colder climate on the other hand, might create this need to migrate.
 
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