Before the Black Death claimed millions of lives across medieval Europe, its appearance on the continent may have been caused by volcanic eruptions. These eruptions likely brought with them a string of unusually cold and wet years, causing widespread famine in the Mediterranean region and setting the stage for one of the darkest eras in European history.
New research published in Connection Earth and environment concluded that one or more of the 1345 eruptions started the chain of events that spread the bubonic plague to Europe. This domino effect highlights the connection between climate change and emerging pandemics, which remain common to this day.
Read more: An Ethiopian volcano erupts with an explosion of ash, awakening after 12,000 years of silence.
Volcanic start of the Black Death
This atlas was created by Abraham Cresques in the 14th century as a gift to King Charles V of France in 1380. This section highlights the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea, highlighting the main grain trading ports – Genoa, Venice, Messina, Caffa and Tana. By using Wikimedia Commons.
(Image credit: National Library of France)
The disease that gave rise to the Black Death was caused by a bacterium Yersinia pestiskilled between 30 and 60 percent of Europe's population between 1347 and 1353. Scientists now know that Y. pestis originated in rodents somewhere in Central Asia, but they were never sure how it managed to spread across Europe.
The researchers behind the new study appear to have found the answer by studying tree rings in eight different regions of Europe and gaining insight into a specific climate trend in the mid-14th century. Blue rings on the wood of trees in the Spanish Pyrenees indicated that Europe experienced cold and wet summers in 1345, 1346 and 1347.
At the same time, observations in Europe noted decreased sunlight, increased cloud cover and dark lunar eclipses—all signs of volcanic activity confirmed by analysis of ice cores from Antarctica and Greenland.
“From the ice cores we can say that this must have been one (or several) volcanic eruptions in the tropics. The aerosols apparently spread relatively evenly in both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres,” says Martin Bauch, a historian at the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe.
The Plague's Journey by Sea
As crops began to fail during the growing season in the Mediterranean, some Italian city-states had to make changes to avoid unrest caused by famine. Port cities such as Venice, Genoa and Pisa had to rely on Asian grain imports from the Mongols of the Golden Horde.
But as luck would have it, the ships carrying grain also carried fleas that harbored Y. pestiswhich then passed on to mammalian hosts and soon to humans.
plague began to push through these port cities, while other cities such as Rome and Milan, which were more self-sufficient and did not need to import grain, were largely spared.
The plague eventually spread across Europe, reaching the British Isles and southern Scandinavia. But even though millions of people were dying, the economy did not collapse completely, as one might think.
“Maritime trade was neither stopped nor regulated – why would that be? Nobody could see any connection,” says Bauch. “One of the most astonishing consequences of the Black Death is that it did not lead to economic collapse, but rather to massive redistribution: labor became scarce, wages skyrocketed, and wealth was redistributed across all social strata.”
How to survive a medieval pandemic
Researchers say the chain of events triggered by volcanic activity in 1345 can be considered an early example of globalization. This is especially true today as the emergence of new zoonotic diseases as a result of climate change becomes increasingly likely.
And just as world governments are adapting to modern pandemics like COVID-19, medieval states in Europe found ways to adapt through quarantines and improved public waste disposal. While Black Death left lasting scars in Europe, it also proved that Europe's cities could withstand such a costly crisis.
“The pandemic experience has not led to political instability; just the opposite. In most cases, we find striking continuity in political systems,” says Bauch. “Even cities that lost a very high percentage of their residents remained remarkably stable. If the Black Death was one of the greatest external shocks to European societies – and it can be argued that it was, albeit with very different local intensities – then these societies proved remarkably resilient.
Read more: How autoimmune diseases relate to protection from the black plague
Article sources
Our authors in discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed research and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
