How the Black Death Killed Half of Europe

In 1347, twelve ships reached Sicily. Within seven years, the Black Death had killed somewhere between a third and half of Europe's people. Here is how it happened, step by step. Follow the trade, and you follow the death. This video explains how the plague travelled from Central Asia along the Silk Road to the Black Sea, then by ship across Europe, the Islamic world and North Africa, between 1346 and 1353. You will see what caused it, why people were so wrong about the cure, who was blamed, and how the world changed afterwards, from rising wages in England to the word "quarantine". CHAPTERS 00:00 Twelve Ships at Messina 00:49 What Does "Deadliest" Mean? 01:59 The Silk Road and the Flea 03:32 The Siege of Caffa 04:53 The Plague Reaches Europe 06:28 The Islamic World and the East 07:57 The Search for a Cure 09:32 The Dark Side: Fear and Blame 10:38 Life of a Farmer 11:23 The Turning Point: Stay or Flee? 12:35 What Remained: Wages, Quarantine and Legacy 14:45 Myth vs Fact SOURCES AND FURTHER READING Ole J. Benedictow, The Black Death 1346-1353: The Complete History (2004) Philip Ziegler, The Black Death (1969) Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah Bos et al., 2011, Nature: a draft genome of Yersinia pestis from victims of the Black Death Spyrou et al., 2022, Nature: the source of the Black Death in fourteenth-century central Eurasia Dean et al., 2018, PNAS: human ectoparasites and the spread of plague in Europe during the Second Pandemic ABOUT PREVIOUSLY Previously tells the big stories of history as clear, chronological, cause-and-effect stories. If you like history explained clearly, subscribe and join us for the next one. #BlackDeath #History #Pandemic #MedievalHistory #HistoryExplained