gm got an interesting 🧵 in february 1347, by throwing plague-ridden corpses over the walls of caffa (a genoese fort in crimea), the mongols engaged in one of the first acts of ‘biological warfare’. - ThreadSky

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shanelemagne.bsky.social • 22 days ago

gm got an interesting 🧵 in february 1347, by throwing plague-ridden corpses over the walls of caffa (a genoese fort in crimea), the mongols engaged in one of the first acts of ‘biological warfare’.

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shanelemagne.bsky.social•22 days ago

genoese merchants fled the city by sea, unknowingly carrying in their hatches rats infested with fleas carrying yersinia pestis. within months, the black death erupted in mediterranean ports and spread inland to france and spain. within two years, it would engulf england and the holy roman empire.

viv-p-5.bsky.social•22 days ago

But hey it did cause feudalism in England to kinda collapse so as horrific as it was, I fear the alternate plague-less timeline is worse 😭

shanelemagne.bsky.social•22 days ago

this is kinda sensational, as we don’t don’t know how effective this method of corpse-tossing was. the mongol army was already suffering from the plague, so their camps would have been full of infected rats and fleas.

shanelemagne.bsky.social•22 days ago

as we know, rats don’t obey siege lines, and siege conditions are perfect for an outbreak bc you’ve got this filthy, overcrowded fort filled with malnourished people.

shanelemagne.bsky.social•22 days ago

so did the corpse-flinging ignite the plague? probably not; but it’s crazy to think this one incident is symbolic of the plague’s acceleration into western europe

tvtokingnerd.bsky.social•22 days ago

NGL, I learned more from this than I did in my history classes 🤣

shanelemagne.bsky.social•22 days ago

i try to be a fun and understatedly sexy teacher

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