The Black Death
The deadliest pandemic in recorded history, the Black Death reshaped Europe and the Middle East.
Last updated
Jakub Hałun · CC BY-SA 4.0
Between 1346 and 1353, a plague pandemic known as the Black Death ravaged Europe.[1] The bacterium Yersinia pestis, typically transmitted via flea bites but also through contact with infected tissues or fluids and, in pneumonic cases, via respiratory droplets, caused the disease.[1]
Key facts and history
From Crimea, it was most likely carried by fleas living on the black rats that travelled on Genoese ships.[2] There is evidence that once it came ashore, the Black Death mainly spread from person-to-person as pneumonic plague.[2] The specific term "black death" for this pandemic was not employed in English until the 1750s, with its first known use in 1755 as a translation.[3] According to reports, the pandemic initially entered Europe in 1347 during the Golden Horde army's siege, led by Jani Beg, of the Genoese trading port of Caffa in Crimea.[4]
In 2022, researchers identified the earliest known plague victims at two cemeteries in the Chüy Valley, near Lake Issyk-Kul in what is now Kyrgyzstan.[5]
What the cited sources add
The World Health Organization notes that plague has a case-fatality ratio of 30% to 60% for the bubonic type when left untreated.[6] The World Health Organization states that plague was known as the "Black Death" during the fourteenth century, causing more than 50 million deaths in Europe.[6]
References
- Wikipedia, "Black Death" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sources for deaths: ; ;; Mukherjee, "Economic life after Covid-19: Lessons from the Black Death", The Economic Times, 29 March 2020; Aberth 2010, p. 9–13; Alchon 2003, p. 21; "Plague was one of history's deadliest diseases then we found a cure", National Geographic, 6 July 2020; Haensch Bianucci Signoli Rajerison 2010; "Plague", World Health Organization, October 2017 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Black Death" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Black Death | Causes, Facts, and Consequences", Encyclopædia Britannica; Snowden 2019, p. 49–53; "Plague", www.who.int; McCoy, "Everything you know about the Black Death is wrong", Washington Post, 2021-10-26 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Black Death" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Black Death, n.", Oxford University Press, 2011; "Black Death, n.", Oxford University Press, 2011; Pontoppidan, "The Natural History of Norway", A. Linde, 1755, p. 24 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Black Death" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Black Death Causes, Facts, and Consequences", Encyclopædia Britannica, 24 November 2019; Susat, "A 5,000-year-old hunter-gatherer already plagued by Yersinia pestis", Cell Reports, 29 June 2021; Spyrou, "Analysis of 3800-year-old Yersinia pestis genomes suggests Bronze Age origin for bubonic plague", Nature Communications, 2018, p. 2234; Wade, "Europe's Plagues Came from China, Study Finds", The New York Times, 31 October 2010; Sussman 2011, p. 354 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Black Death" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: The Black Death: Patient Zero TV Documentary, Apple TV, 2025; Spyrou, "The source of the Black Death in fourteenth-century central Eurasia", Nature, 2022-06-15, p. 718–724; "Origins of the Black Death identified", Mpg.de (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "Plague", World Health Organization, October 2017. facts only, no text reused. who.int
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Black Death (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Black Death (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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