Cultivating a Collective Past

The Black Death (Medieval Pandemic)

It started in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia in the 1320s and eventually because of the expansion of trade during the Early and High Middle Ages, it spread to merchants of Italy because of  Italy's close approximation with China and the trade routes. Italy is where the plague was introduced to Europe where it continued to spread around the continent.

 It was one of the most life changing events in the 12th century. Twenty-five million Europeans died. The population in Europe before the plague had gone from thirty-eight million to seventy-four million between 1000-1300. It was a period of urbanization and stabilization but had no sewer systems.  Which probably had helped the plague spread. Now the only indicator of the plague resides on the mark it left on the human genome.