In the 14th century, Caffa was a bustling trading city. By virtue of its location on the Crimean Peninsula, the city was a major center for commerce between the Mediterranean and Asia. Inside her walls lived and worked a worldly population of merchants, traders, and sailors. In 1343 and again in 1346, the Mongol leader Janibeg besieged Caffa, the first siege was ended by a timely intervention of an Italian army, the second by an epidemic of plague that swept through the Mongol ranks. In the latter stages of the second siege, a widely read and cited account by Genoese Gabriele de’ Mussi claims the Mongols catapulted diseased corpses over the city walls, classic biological warfare. As the attack spread plague through the port city, de’ Mussi observes that:
“…among those who escaped from Caffa by boat were a few sailors who had been infected with the poisonous disease. Some boats were bound for Genoa, others went to Venice and to other Christian areas. When the sailors reached these places and mixed with the people there, it was as if they had brought evil spirits with them: every city, every settlement, every place was poisoned by the contagious pestilence, and their inhabitants, both men and women, died suddenly” (Translation from Horrox 1996, cited in Wheelis 2002).
Based on this account, many have credited the 1946 siege of Caffa for introducing the black plague to Europe. In this theory, the use of biological warfare in the siege indirectly spread the plague by infecting refugees. The theory’s implications for modern society is easy enough to grasp: the tactical use of biological warfare by a desperate commander triggered the greatest epidemic in European history. Undoubtably, the implied warning increases the theory’s appeal in certain circles, especially during the Cold War when the world’s superpowers actively researched biological weapons and trained to use them. However, in a 2002 article Mark Wheelis counters the accuracy of the theory. He argues “it is unlikely that the attack had a decisive role in the spread of plague to Europe. Much maritime commerce probably continued throughout this period, from other Crimean ports. … Thus, refugees from Caffa would most likely have constituted only one of several streams of infected ships and caravans leaving the region”. To Wheelis, the theory that Caffa played any special role in spreading the disease requires an assumption that trade in other forms and from other ports was nonexistent. Of course, this was not true. Trade occurred all along the frontier between Europe and Asia, and the bubonic plague had a multitude of avenues to reach Europe both overland and oversea. Still, whether fact or fiction, the original theory has a core insight: the impacts of tactical WMD use, whether by foe or friend, will extend beyond the battle and the battlefield, to incorporate the whole state, region, or globe.
Sources:
Horrox R, editor. The Black Death. Manchester: Manchester University Press; 1994. p. 14–26.
Wheelis, Mark. 2002. “Biological Warfare at the 1346 Siege of Caffa.” 8(9): 971-975.
Christopher Albon is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in armed conflict, public health, human security, and health diplomacy.
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{ 3 comments }
Pretty sure you meant 1346, not 1946.
Ah. Yes. Indeed I did T. Greer, Feodosiya was not sieges right after WWII. Good catch. I’ve written “1946″ so many times it apparently has become instinct.
I’d like to throw something out on this. While not an expert on plague specifically, I would call into question the viability of Yersinia pestis (plague) in a corpse undergoing decomposition. I think I’d be more willing to buy into a theory that rats infested with infected fleas, clothing, etc., were carried into the city and/or transfer of people already infected with disease. Again, it’s impossible to tell if the corpses were fresh, and I’m not sure of the viability of plague posthumously, but I think examination of other diseases and/or transmission mechanisms would be interesting.
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