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It was reportedly first introduced to Europe when Mongols lobbed plague-infected corpses during the siege of Caffa in the Crimea in 1347. [9] The Genoese traders fled, bringing the plague by ship into Sicily and Southern Europe , whence it spread. [ 10 ]
The Mongols under Jani Beg besieged Caffa in 1343 and the Venetian territory of Tana, the cause of which was a brawl between Italians and Muslims in Tana. [7] The siege of Caffa lasted until February 1344, when it was lifted after an Italian relief force killed 15,000 Mongol troops and destroyed their siege machines.
Devastation of the populations, cultures, and political structures in most of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Europe. Eventual Mongol withdrawal from Central Europe (1242). Territorial changes: Volga Bulgaria, Cumania, Alania, and the Kievan Rus' principalities conquered and become vassals of the Mongol Empire. The Kingdom of Georgia ...
Jani Beg's army catapulted infected corpses into Kaffa in an attempt to use the plague to weaken the defenders. Infected Genoese sailors subsequently sailed from Kaffa to Genoa, Messina, and Constantinople, introducing the Black Death into Europe. [2] The story involving the catapult has been disputed.
Map showing the spread of the Black Death (bubonic plague) in Europe during the 1331–1351 pandemic which is believed to have started in China and spread west, reaching the Black Sea by 1347 Plague Riot in Moscow in 1771: During the course of the city's plague , between 50,000 and 100,000 died (1/6 to 1/3 of its population).
The plague also spread into areas of Western Europe and Africa that the Mongols never reached. The Mongols practiced biological warfare by catapulting diseased cadavers into the cities they besieged. It is believed that fleas remaining on the bodies of the cadavers may have acted as vectors to spread the Black Death. [18] [19] [20] [21]
The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic that occurred in Europe from 1346 to 1353. It was one of the most fatal pandemics in human history; as many as 50 million people [ 2 ] perished, perhaps 50% of Europe's 14th century population. [ 3 ]
However, the plague appears to have spread in a stepwise fashion, taking over a year to reach Europe from Crimea. Also, there were a number of Crimean ports under Mongol control, so it is unlikely that Kaffa was the only source of plague-infested ships heading to Europe. Additionally, there were overland caravan routes from the East that would ...