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The Black Death Pt. I The World around 1300 • Where we left of last time, Europe was not only growing in population, and securing its unity under the banner of the papacy, but also setting its sights on conquests outside of its borders – it was a time of confidence in Europe • Since at least 1000 AD there had been growing commercial connections between the civilizations of China, India, and Muslim world, that relied on overland trade and the development of new marine technology throughout the Indian Ocean • From the perspective of infectious disease, the separate disease pools of the main civilizations had now come be unified The Mongol Empire • The most significant shake-up in the thirteenth century was the rise and rapid spread of a vast empire stretching across Eurasia – the Mongols • Large portions of China, Northern India, Russia and the Eastern Islamic World were very quickly disrupted and subsumed into this new Empire • Within a century the Empire had expanded across Eurasia, but once it reached its peak under Kublai Khan it very quickly receded • Some see the Mongol Empire as a significant element in the process of globalization, and as such, the spread of global pandemics Who were the Mongols? • Nomadic tribes from the steppes– nomads because they needed pasture land for their horses • The steppe refers to an unbroken range of open grassland that stretches from Mongolia to Europe -- that can be quickly traverssed on horseback • The Mongols had emerged in the twelfth century as a powerful tribe, defeating competing nomads and forcing the Northern Chinese Jin Empire to pay tribute, but subsequently were shattered by neighboring Tartars Chingis (or Ghengis) Khan c. 1167-1227 • In the beginning of the thirteenth century one leader untied all of the Mongol tribes to begin a new empire • The basic idea of his empire was a military superstructure made up of warriors who would ensure cooperation of subjugated peoples and to bring stability to their government • His powerful armies would keep the peace and subjugated governments were forced to pay tribute to the Khan, which allowed him to pay his armies Conquests of Chingis Khan • His first conquests were in Northern China of the powerful Jin Dynasty of Northern China; this conquest was complete by 1215 • After that, he turned his attention west towards the Kwarazmian Dynasty who ruled over a large section of present-day Iran Conquests of Kublai Khan (ruled 1260-1294) • Chingis’s grandson, Kublai Khan, made great expansions to the empire, defeating the Southern Song in China and pushed to the gates of Vienna in Europe • The empire encouraged trade across its vast expanse, providing protection for traders An Empire on horseback • Horses were an integral part of Mongol life • They could provide food, and their milk could be fermented into an alcoholic spirit (airag) • Horses gave them an advantage in warfare, but also in administering a vast empire • From the perspective of infectious disease, it was the great expanses traveled on horseback that brought the disease of the steppes to the rest of the world Where did the plague originate? • Most scientists today say that the starting point of the plague – or the “plague focus” or “plague reservoir” –was in the the steppe region, stretching from the northwestern shores of the Caspian Sea across ssouthern Russia • It used to be believed that the plague originated in China, but most scientists today argue for the steppe region • Historians argue that plague, which had already spread to areas of China and India by 1345, was brought by Mongol soldiers beseiging the port town of Kaffa on the Black Sea • There they encountered Italian soldiers who beat a hasty retreat, taking the plague with them back to Sicily The Advance of the Black Plague Year By Year 1346-1353 What was the plague? • Although there are some deniers, the consensus today is that the Black Death was caused by the bacillus (a type of bacteria) known today as Yersinia pestis • It was discovered in 1894 by the Swiss/French physician Alexandre Yersin • It was originally named Pasturella pestis, but was renamed Yersinia pestis in 1944 to commemorate Yersin’s discovery Disease reservoir • Scientists believe that the marmot, a type of burrowing rodent that is common in central Asia, is the main reservoir • Other types of burrowing rodents are also a reservoir for Y. pestis, which has now spread to all parts of the world • The nests and burrows of rodents, squirrels, chipmunks and prairie dogs are places where the bacillus can survive Why the outbreak around 1346? • Recently scientists and scholars have been studying how climate may have played an important role in disrupting the bacillus that can help to explain why it appeared in 1346 and why it kept recurring for the next 400 years • Y. pestis is endemic to Asia, and when weather becomes hotter and wetter, the rodent population drops, so their fleas seek out new hosts – whether they are domestic animals or humans • A change in climate in Asia, so the theory goes, results in the bacillus being reimported into Europe in successive waves, rather than rats acting as a reservoir for the disease Disease vectors • The oriental rat flea bites an infected rodent • This causes a blockage in the flea’s throat where it stores the infected blood • Once the rodents die out, the fleas seek a new host • When the fleas try to feed of the new host, they inject the bacillus into them xenopsylla cheopis, oriental rat flea; the darkened area in the gut shows the infection of Y. pestis Three types of plague • Bubonic plague • This was the most common type in the second pandemic; there is no human to human contagion • Pneumonic plague • Once the bubonic plague was established in a population, it started to travel from the lymph nodes to the lungs; in this form there is human to human transmission through airborne droplets containing bacterial cells • Septicemic plague • This occurs when the plague bacteria enters the bloodstream; this form is almost always fatal, sometimes on the same day that symptoms appear Great famines of the fourteenth century • In the decades leading up to the Black Death Europe experienced several famines that were brought on by poor harvests that were themselves the result of unusually cold and rainy weather • This had resulted in food scarcities that led to famine • Northern Europe experienced a ‘great famine’ between 1315 and 1217 • Southern Europe experienced a great famine between 1339 and 1340 • No doubt, the famines put social and economic pressure on people that would be exacerbated by the arrival of the plague European Population on the eve of the Plague • The three centuries preceding the Black Plague saw unprecedented growth in European population • Some historians have argued that at this point the population had exceeded the available resources, and that ensuing famines in the first half of the fourteenth century were a natural balance to overpopulation • Other historians have argued that the drop in population was the result of a breakdown in the social order • Most historians today see the plague as the real factor behind the fall in population – in other words European population dropped not from internal factors, but from disease introduced from outside Looking ahead … • When we come back after the break we will get more deeply into iconography and iconology as we carry on with Boeckl’s book, chs. 4-7 • In the lecture on Thursday we will look more in more depth at the reactions of Europeans to the arrival of the Black Plague