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When Mongol armies besieged the Genoese trading outpost of Caffa on the Black Sea in 1346, they not only damaged old trading links between the Far East and the Mediterranean, they also unleashed an even more devastating, invisible force. Mongol troops entered the city and brought with them a disease picked up in the Gobi Desert: the bubonic plague. Defeated Genoese merchants and soldiers withdrew, inadvertently taking the germs with them aboard their ships. By the time they arrived in Messina, Sicily, half the passengers were dead. The rest were dying. Those who waited eagerly on shore were horrified at the sight and turned the ship away. Desperately, the ship’s captain went to the next port, only to face the same fate. The Europeans were unable to keep the plague (referred to as the Black Death) from reaching their shores. As it spread from port to port, it eventually contaminated all of Europe, killing about one-third of its population.
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