The Black Death: Invasion from the East

Many people are taught that the Black Death of the late 1340s was brought in by mice, which had been allowed to expand their population into a swarm. This was due to the Inquisition during which cats were killed because they were seen allies and servants of the devil. What many people are not aware of is where exactly the Black Death came from.

During the 14th century, there was the Mongolian Empire. It was a vast empire stretching from the Chinese Pacific coast all the way up to Constantinople on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The Mongols had a massive trade network that opened up the European continent to goods from China. One of the big things they traded was furs.

Although the exact starting location of the Black Death is unknown even to this day, it is now known that it started in China. It spread quickly, especially along the trade routes of the Mongol Empire.

Sometimes it would kill entire villages. Investigating Mongols could not simply leave behind the valuable furs and other tradable goods. So, they collected the furs and goods to take them with them. Then they burned the village and everything remaining within it in a vain attempt to destroy the evil. And so, the Black Death continued to spread.

In 1347, the Mongols had besieged a city named Caffa. Caffa was a major trade center and entry point for the European countries. The Mongols unleashed a seemingly limitless wave of forces upon the walls of the city. As the city was about to fall, the Black Death caught up to the Mongol forces and began to deplete their forces right away. The Mongols knew they could no longer take the city, and sought to send as much suffering to their enemies as possible. Thus, they loaded the bodies of the infected dead onto catapults and launched them into the city.

The disease spread through the inhabitants of Caffa, eventually spreading onto merchant boats and caravans that left from Caffa to the Mediterranean and on to Europe. Because of how quickly the Black Death killed and spread, entire boat crews would be killed off. Their ships would sail onward, stopping only when they collided with the shores of Europe or elsewhere.

Curious townsfolk and investigators would go aboard the ghost ships to find nothing but bodies, maybe an occasional barely living person. Though they were quick to burn or otherwise destroy the boats, the Black Death had already spread to these curious people.

And so, the Black Death came to Europe by means of trade routes and war. Its rapid spreading was due to a massive explosion of the rodent population along with poor quarantine measures and a general lack of knowledge in dealing with such diseases.