The 1346 siege of Caffa and the spread of the Black Death

In the mid-14th century, Europe was hit by one of the most destructive pandemics in its history—the Black Death (plague). Its spread is often traced to a chain of events that unfolded in 1346 in the Crimean port of Caffa, now Feodosia.

At the time, Caffa was a major trading city. It was controlled by merchants from Italy who maintained ties with many lands, and its markets moved silk, spices, and furs. That wealth and its prime location on the Black Sea drew the attention of the Golden Horde. Khan Janibek decided to take the city.

In 1346, the khan’s army surrounded Caffa and began a long siege. Then the besiegers themselves were struck by an epidemic. People died one after another—it was the plague. Janibek resorted to a desperate tactic: the bodies of the dead were catapulted into the city in the hope the disease would spread inside. It was one of the earliest known attempts to use illness as a weapon.

As the plague reached Caffa’s inhabitants, many chose to flee. Merchants boarded ships bound for Italy and other European ports, and the disease traveled with them. It first appeared in Sicily, then spread rapidly. Within a few years, about a third of the continent’s population had died.

Some historians doubt that bodies were actually hurled into the city; with siege engines then still fairly crude, they consider it unlikely. What is not in dispute is that Caffa became one of the epidemic’s first hot spots. People sailed away without realizing they were already infected and, unintentionally, helped set in motion a catastrophe that swept across nearly the entire continent.