The Siege of Kafa
It was the Mongols under Genghis Khan who brought to Europe, along with conquest and terror, the slew of disease-infested rats and other rodents which unleashed the Black Death – bubonic plague – throughout the continent. The expanding Mongol Empire established an unbroken link between the lands Khan overran in Europe and the birthplace of the plague in Central Asia.
Europeans had no knowledge of or defense against the disease, which would ravage the continent until it had killed what is now estimated as 30-60% of Europe’s population. The Mongol’s too had little defense, but it wasn’t long before the virulence with which the disease spread was observed, and bodies of the deceased quickly removed for disposal.
Believing the dead to still be capable of infecting others (the disease is actually transmitted most commonly by the bite of fleas and lice) it soon became apparent to the Golden Horde that those who had died from the plague retained a measure of military value. Bodies were then kept rather than burned in funeral pyres and converted to delivery devices for spreading the plague.
In 1347 the Mongol’s besieging the city of Kaffa (in what is now Crimea) were finding their army ravaged by the disease to the point that their fighting strength was making the capture of the city unlikely. Saddled with rising numbers of dead victims of the plague, the Mongol’s began catapulting those who had died over the walls of the city, where infestation soon spread to the inhabitants.
Many scholars attribute the rise of the Black Death in Europe to this event, as refugees from the endangered city fled to other points in Europe. Reaching ports in Crimea, many of these refugees fled to Italy, taking with them bodily pestilence which was soon spreading across all of Western Europe. Northern Europe gained its exposure through yet another military action.