<P> The 14th - century eruption of the Black Death had a drastic effect on Europe's population, irrevocably changing the social structure, and resulted in widespread persecution of minorities such as Jews, foreigners, beggars, and lepers (see Persecutions). The uncertainty of daily survival has been seen as creating a general mood of morbidity, influencing people to "live for the moment," as illustrated by Giovanni Boccaccio in The Decameron (1353). </P> <P> There were large epidemics in China in 1331 and 1351 - 54 in Hopei, Shansi and other provinces which are considered to have killed between 50% and 90% of the local populations, running into tens of millions . However, there is no proof currently that these were caused by plague though there are indications for the second set of epidemics . </P> <P> The plague repeatedly returned to haunt Europe and the Mediterranean throughout the 14th to 17th centuries . According to Biraben, plague was present somewhere in Europe in every year between 1346 and 1671 . Subsequent outbreaks, though severe, marked the retreat from most of Europe (18th century) and northern Africa (19th century). According to Geoffrey Parker, "France alone lost almost a million people to plague in the epidemic of 1628--31 ." </P> <P> In 1466, perhaps 40,000 people died of plague in Paris . During the 16th and 17th centuries, plague visited Paris for almost one year out of three . The Black Death ravaged Europe for three years before it continued on into Russia, where the disease hit somewhere once every five or six years from 1350 to 1490 . Plague epidemics ravaged London in 1563, 1593, 1603, 1625, 1636, and 1665, reducing its population by 10 to 30% during those years . Over 10% of Amsterdam's population died in 1623--1625, and again in 1635--1636, 1655, and 1664 . There were 22 outbreaks of plague in Venice between 1361 and 1528 . The plague of 1576--1577 killed 50,000 in Venice, almost a third of the population . Late outbreaks in central Europe included the Italian Plague of 1629--1631, which is associated with troop movements during the Thirty Years' War, and the Great Plague of Vienna in 1679 . Over 60% of Norway's population died from 1348 to 1350 . The last plague outbreak ravaged Oslo in 1654 . </P>

Sporadic outbreaks of the black death occurred in poland and russia