Mongol invasions brought devastation beyond that of their armies. They also introduced the bubonic plague. Following Mongol armies and trade routes, the disease spread throughout Eurasia, resulting in tremendous destruction. Trading hubs, now filled with the dead and dying, suffered as interaction and population declined. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Eurasians rebounded with new polities and dynasties to replace those destroyed by the Mongols and the Black Death.

Collapse and Integration

Many people assumed the Black Death to be God’s punishment. Falling populations greatly weakened political structures that then had to be rebuilt.

The Black Death

The disease involved a number of strains that commonly killed 25 to 50 percent of local populations. While climate changes may have contributed to the disease’s spread, it was the Mongol invasions that dispersed it to various points around Eurasia before it began following trade routes to Italy. Reaching European soil, the disease infected rats before killing people. In China an estimated 40 million people perished. Food supplies dropped since the dead and sick could not farm. Cities, with dense populations, lost as much as two-thirds of their population.

Rebuilding States

In the late fourteenth century, Eurasians began to rebuild devastated polities and disrupted trade networks. Most of these new polities were based on hereditary ruling families that claimed divine support, established clear rules of succession, built armies, and formed alliances with other states through marriage. Building powerful states, based on taxes, armies, laws, and so forth, became the focus of these elites. Many states, successful in their state-building efforts, enjoyed considerable longevity and impact on the people they ruled.

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