Black death

The origins of the Black Death can be tracked back to the Gobi Desert of Mongolia in the 1320s. The cause of this sudden explosion of the plague is not exactly known. From the desert, it spread out in all directions. Of most importance was the spread eastward to China. China suffered an emergence of bubonic plague during the early 1330s. European traders, particularly those from the Italian city states, traveled the Black Sea region regularly. Surviving documents show that one group of traders from Genoa arrived in Sicily In October of 1347, fresh from a voyage to China. This was most likely the introduction of the plague to European lands. Along with the Chinese goods on board, the traders carried the bacterium yersinia pestis in the rats on board as well as in some of the sailors themselves. The Black Death had arrived in Europe.

When the Black Death had finally passed out of Western Europe in 1350, the populations of different regions had been reduced heavily. Some villages of Germany were completely wiped out, while other areas of Germany remained virtually untouched. Italy had been hit the hardest by the plague because of the dense population of merchants and active lifestyle within the city states. The city state of Florence was reduced by 33% in population within the first six months of infection. By the end, as much as 75% of the population had perished, which left the economy in shambles. Widespread death was not limited to the lower classes. In Avignon, 1/3 of the cardinals were dead. Overall, 25 million people died in just under five years between 1347 and 1352. It is important to realize that the plague had not entirely vanished, only the primary epidemic. Recurrences of bubonic plague occurred every so often and had a traumatic effect on population even then. The plague did not entire go away as we know it until the late fifteenth century.