Origins of the Black Death
The plague known as the Black Death devastated most of the European continent during its peak, impacting Europe for centuries and bringing about many economic, social and cultural changes. The Black Death was not localized in the European continent however. It traveled from outside of Europe, starting in Asia and making its way across the entire continent of Europe, leaving very few areas untouched by its devastation, carried by the people, rats, and fleas that traveled out of the plague reservoirs in Asia.
The Black Death is often referred to by many names in Europe: the Black Plague, the Great Mortality, the Great Pestilence, the Great Plague, and the pestilence tyme. In the Middle East it would be referred to the Great Destruction and the Year of Annihilation (1). The term Black Death is the preferred method of referring to the plague by scholars but was not used until the 16th century and reached widespread use in the 19th century. The actual term ‘Black Death’ is thought to be a possible mistranslation of the Latin term atra mors or pestis atra; atra can be translated into terrible, dreadful or black (2).
The Black Death is considered the second pandemic in history; the first pandemic, known as the Plague of Justinian, originated in East Africa during the 6th century. The Plague of Justinian traveled throughout Egypt into Palestine and Syria, spreading across the Byzantine Empire and even reaching into Europe, where it was referred to as the Plague of Cadwallader’s Time (3). The 800 years between the first and second pandemic were not plague free – there would be various small outbreaks in Rome, France and Spain, confined to small areas and lasting only a few months (4). However, none of the outbreaks even approached the level that would be reached in the 14th century.
After years of research, the origin of the Black Death has been narrowed down to the area east of the Caspian Sea, in the steppes and grasslands of Central Asia, an area that includes what is now Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan (5). The archaeological evidence pinpointing the Black Death to the area consists of some ancient gravestones near the Issyk Kul Lake in what is now Kyrgyzstan (6). Another possible early victim of the plague was the Great Mongol Khan Jijaghatu Toq-Temur; he died in 1332, along with his two sons (7).
During the 1330s, China would suffer a continuous series of natural disasters that would devastate the area: famines, followed by drought; droughts followed by deluges. Earthquakes followed, causing Tsincheou Mountain to partially collapse, causing more flooding. During this time there was also a plague of locusts that destroyed the crops (8). The series of disasters caused the humans living in the area to seek refuge in other parts of the world. However, not only humans felt the urge to escape the horrible conditions – the black rats living in the area also sought refuge and with them they carried Oriental rat fleas bearing the plague bacillus, Y. pestis (9). This bacillus occurred naturally among the rodent population and as they traveled with the refugees and the merchants along the established trading routes, they spread the bacteria.
The cause and the exact nature of the Black Death was under much debate but has now been identified with DNA from plague victims. The Black Death is believed to consist of the bubonic plague, as well pneumonic and septicemic plague. Y. pestis is the bacillus that causes all three types of plague (10). Although there has been some debate over Y. pestis as the cause of the Black Death, DNA analysis of the bodies buried in the mass graves located in northern, central, and southern Europe has revealed that these people were infected by one of two different types of Y. pestis. Because of this research and its conclusions, Y. pestis is considered the major cause of the Black Death (11). The Oriental rat flea carries this and transmits it to the rats and humans through its bite. By stowing away with merchants in wagons and ships, the rats carried the fleas vast distances, enabling the widespread destruction that followed (12).
The plague appears to have traveled eastward initially, spreading farther into China. It did not begin moving westward until the mid-1340s. The merchants traveling the Silk Road and other trade routes contributed to the ease that the infected fleas and rats were able to cross the vast distances away from Asia (13). By 1346, the plague had crossed the Caspian Sea, affecting some of the towns and cities that bordered it; most importantly, it infected the citizens of Sarai, the capital city of the Golden Horde (14). The Golden Horde was a group of Mongols that controlled Russia at the time. The Mongols carried the disease with them when they attacked the city of Kaffa and began dying of the plague while they besieged the city (15).
Instead of fleeing, the Mongol invaders catapulted the infected corpses and hurled them into the city. Hundreds of bodies were hurled into the city and the corpses contaminated the water supply and fouled the air with the stench of rotting. There is some debate as to whether the bodies themselves transmitted the disease into Kaffa – possibly infected those given the job of cleaning up the bodies – or was carried there by rats and fleas that slipped in though the city walls (16). Either way, the plague infected the city and in the late summer of 1347, the Genoese in Kaffa fled, headed towards their homes in Italy. They would not make it. In October 1347, the 12 Genoese galleys drifted into Messina, Sicily. When the port authorities arrived and inspected the galleys, they discovered that the few surviving passengers were very sick – lethargic, covered in black boils, and leaking foul-smelling fluid. The galleys were driven from Messina’s ports, but it was too late; the plague had already been carried into Messina. The Messinese fled to Catania, where they were quarantined in the hospital; when they died, their bodies were buried outside of the city (17).
The plague reached the mainland of Italy, such as the ports of Genoa, Sicily, and Venice within months of infecting Sicily and by early 1348 it had reached Florence (18). Through the Mediterranean Sea ports, the plague reached France and by the summer of 1348, it had reached the city of Paris. Once it was on the mainland, the spread of the plague was expeditious; according to Boccaccio, writer of The Decameron, it traveled “with the speed of a fire racing through dry or oil substances that happened to be placed within its reach” (19). The plague overwhelmed central and western Europe and by the end of 1349, the Black Death had spread into Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Belgium, and the Netherlands. It also crossed the English Channel, attacking Britain, Scotland, and Ireland (20). The path it followed continued north into Scandanavia, even as far away as Greenland (21). In 1350, the plague swept back into Eastern Europe, reaching Moscow in 1352 (22).
The mortality rates of the Black Death are estimated to be between 33 percent and 60 percent of the European population. This translates into approximately 25 million to 45 million people in Europe alone that died from the plague (23). The plague would last from the 1340s into the 1350s, causing havoc wherever it reached, sparing only a few areas, like Poland and Czech Republic. Because of its ability to travel fast, hosted by a small animal that could sneak into anything and had close contact with humans, it was almost unstoppable, only ending as it died out on its own.
Notes
1. Martin, Sean, Black Death (Pocket Essentials, Harpenden, 2001), 19.
2. Ibid., 19.
3. Ibid., 10.
4. Ibid., 7-8.
5. Slavicek, Loiuse Chipley, Black Death (Chelsea House, New York, 2008), 37.
6. Ibid., 38.
7. Martin, Black Death, 14.
8. Ibid., 15.
9. Ibid., 16.
10. Slavicek, Black Death, 37.
11. Haensch, Stephanie, Rafaella Bianucci, Michel Signoli, Minoarisoa Rajerison, Michael Schultz, Sacha Kacki, Marco Vermunt, Darlene Weston, Derek Hurst, Mark Achtman, Elizabeth Carniel, and Barbara Bramanti. "Distinct Clones of Yersinia pestis Caused the Black Death," Public Library of Science Pathogens, (2010).
12. Slavicek, Black Death, 40.
13. Ibid., 40.
14. Ibid., 40.
15. Ibid., 42.
16. Ibid., 43.
17. Martin, Black Death, 17.
18. Slavicek, Black Death, 44-45.
19. Ibid., 47.
20. Ibid., 48.
21. Ibid., 48.
22. Ibid., 48.
23. Ibid., 49.
Bibliography
Haensch, Stephanie, Rafaella Bianucci, Michel Signoli, Minoarisoa Rajerison, Michael Schultz, Sacha Kacki, Marco Vermunt, Darlene Weston, Derek Hurst, Mark Achtman, Elizabeth Carniel, and Barbara Bramanti. "Distinct Clones of Yersinia pestis Caused the Black Death." Public Library of Science Pathogens. (2010). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2951374/?tool=pmcentrez (accessed August 1, 2012).
Martin, Sean. 2009. Black Death. Pocket Essentials, 2001. eBook Collection. (accessed August 1, 2012).
Slavicek, Loiuse Chipley. 2008. Black Death. Chelsea House, 2008. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost (accessed August 1, 2012).
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