Excerpt:
Between 1339 and 1351 AD, a pandemic of plague traveled from China to Europe, known in Western history as The Black Death. Carried by rats and fleas along the Silk Road Caravan routes and Spice trading sea routes, the Black Death reached the Mediterranean Basin in 1347, and was rapidly carried throughout Europe from what was then the center of European trade. Eventually, even areas of European settlement as isolated as Viking settlements in Greenland would be ravaged by the plague. By the time these plagues had run their course in 1351, between 25 and 50% of the population of Europe was dead. An equally high toll was exacted from the populations of Arabia, North Africa, South Asia, and East Asia. This paper will examine the role of trade in the spread of the plague.