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The Far East has given Europeans through trade routes silk, paper, gunpowder and other techniques and innovations that will initiate the great technological leap into the modern era. But through the routes, an unseen killer will infiltrate and decimate Europe's population. [69]
Western writings of the time support the bringing of the "black plague" by the Mongols in 1340 , which halved the population of Central Europe. The Jani Beg Inn commanded Tatar forces that attacked the Crimean port of Kaffa in 1343 . After his siege was repulsed by Italian forces, he returned in 1345. But the Mongols were plagued by plague, a disease caused by lack of hygiene and spread by rats, ticks, fleas, etc., realizing that they could no longer continue the siege. plague inside the fortress. Infected Genoese sailors who sailed from Kaffa to Genoa, introduced the "Black Death" in Europe, reaching Paris and London in 1348 , Scandinavia and Russia in 1349.. People believed that the plague was a divine punishment, that it came from air or water, having no idea that it came from rats. The epidemic was spread by fleas on rats that multiplied in favorable conditions due to crowded cities, streets full of garbage and excrement and lack of hygiene. Gradually, the bacterium that was initially transmitted from animal to human developed genetic mutations that were transmitted from human to human by air, spreading rapidly and killing in a short time. The disease is manifested by the appearance of blood spots that formed under the skin and blackened bubonic swellings to the inside of the thigh joints and underarms. The victims ended up horribly a few hours or days after the onset of symptoms. The medical treatments of that time were ineffective and primitive. The Black Plague devastated entire regions: villages, households and cities were abandoned, churches and monasteries were deserted (as many plague victims went to seek help), craftsmen were destroyed, panicked merchants avoided many regions, leading Europe to total economic stagnation. The bodies were left in the fields because all the doctors, priests and gravediggers were dead or buried in mass graves. toAvignon , Pope Clement VI himself ordered the bodies to be dumped in the Ron River. Despair and lack of reasoning led many people to commit insane deeds, blaming Jewish communities, persecuting and massacring thousands of Jews who did not want to convert. The feudal system had collapsed. 25 million Europeans were killed by the plague a quarter of Europe's population since then. The big cities were deserted. During this time, France and England were crushed by wars. The end of the world seemed to have arrived.
