Hello, welcome to today's history lesson.

My name is Mr. Merrett, and I'll be guiding you through today's lesson.

So let's get started.

Today's lesson is looking at the arrival of the Black Death, and by the end of today's lesson we'll be able to explain the relationship between the Silk Road and the Black Death.

In order to do that, we need to use some key terms, and our key terms for today are plague and Black Death.

(mouse clicking) A plague is a serious contagious disease that can kill many people, and the Black Death was the name given to a plague pandemic which occurred between 1348 and 1353.

(mouse clicking) Today's lesson will consist of three separate learning cycles, and our first learning cycle is looking at where did the Black Death come from.

So let's get started.

(mouse clicking) The Black Death was a name given to one or more forms of plague that swept through Eurasia during the mediaeval period.

The plague bacteria, Yersinia Pestis, had journeyed through Europe at least once before.

The plague of Justinian in the sixth century CE had killed an estimated quarter of the population on the Eastern Mediterranean.

By the 14th century, Yersinia Pestis had mutated into a variety of different deadly forms. So on the screen in front of you, there you can see a flea and all of that black stuff inside the flea, that is the bacteria that causes the Black Death, that causes the plague.

That's Yersinia Pestis, and it's frequently transmitted through flea bites.

You can also see there a photo of a person exhibiting symptoms of the plague, and the reason why we got photos of that is because the plague still exists.

On average between six and nine people in North America contract the plague every single year.

Happily, though, antibiotics can cure it now so it is no longer a death sentence.

It still exists, it's nowhere near as deadly as what it once was.

(mouse clicking) Going back to history though, the plague of Justinian was mostly forgotten by the 14th century.

So to many people in Eurasia, this disease was new and it was terrifying.

In Europe, many people believed that some terrible natural disaster, such as an earthquake, had released poisonous fumes from deep underground, which the wind was then blowing in their direction.

Other beliefs laid the blame closer to home.

Some thought that the foul air created by poor sanitary conditions was what caused the disease to take hold.

Medical knowledge back then is nowhere near as good as it was today, but people were still making links between the fact that areas or locations that smelt bad because there were rotten carcasses or there was waste, human waste and animal waste lying around.

People frequently got sick around them, and those places generally smelt as well, they smelt of the faeces or they smelt of decay of the rotting flesh, so people made the assumption that it was the smell that was causing people to get ill.

They're not quite there but they're certainly making links, and as a result of that they understand that there is some sort of link between bad smells and disease.

So not quite there, but they're getting there at this point in time.

Other people look to existing medical knowledge to provide another natural cause for the disease.

Doctors have identified four liquids or humours in the body, and if these four humours were out of balance then sickness was the natural consequence.

The theory of the four humours dated back to the ancient Greeks, it was updated to some extent by the Romans and it was still the prevailing medical theory into the mediaeval period.

So medical knowledge hadn't really progressed to a great extent from the time of the ancient Greeks up into the mediaeval period.

Now each of these theories, although they were wrong, of course, they looked to the natural world to provide an explanation for the Black Death, but there were also supernatural theories as to its cause.

And what I mean by that is theories which didn't originate from the world around us, from the things that we can see and touch and hear.

So some people believed that an evil alignment of the planets was the reason for the Black Death and the reason why it was sweeping through their lands but, by far and away, the most popular supernatural cause for the Black Death was that God was punishing people for their sins.

Now let's have a quick check for understanding.

So it's a true or false statement here.

So the plague had afflicted Europe before the Black Death struck in the 14th century.

Is that true or is that false? Okay, if you chose true then, very well done, that is indeed a true statement.

But let's justify it now, why is it a true statement? Is it true because outbreaks of plague had occurred regularly in Europe for 1,000s of years, or is it true because the plague had struck once before in the sixth century and had been named the plague of Justinian? So choose your justification now.

Okay, if you chose B, then, congratulations.

That is the correct answer.

Now modern research has pinpointed the origin of the Black Death to the region around Lake Issyk Kul in Northern Kyrgyzstan, and that's just on the screen in front of you there so it's a very, very rough idea exactly where we think we were fairly sure the Black Death first originated from.

So Northern Kyrgyzstan is in Central Asia, it's in the foothills of Tian Shan Mountains and it's close to the Silk Road.

And the reason why we think this, the reason we historians are fairly sure that this is where the Black Death originated from is that archaeologists have uncovered 100s of graves from 1138, 1139 with the cause of death on the gravestones recorded as pestilence, and pestilence is another name for disease.

And when scientists then examined those bodies, Yersinia Pestis DNA was then discovered so this was the disease that they died from, and these are the earliest known victims of the plague for this period.

Scientists actually then went and looked at some of the rodents that lived in the region as well, the region around Lake Issyk Kul and the Tian Shan Mountains, plague is generally found in rodents and if there's large rodent populations that are carrying the plague it won't necessarily kill them, unless it mutates.

And these are what's known as plague reservoirs, so large populations of rodents can hold onto the plague and then it can, if it mutates, it can spring up and affect humans as well.

And the rodents that they examined around Lake Issyk-Kul and the Tian Shan Mountains, they were also carrying the plague which is fine for those rodents.

They won't necessarily dying of it but the plague that they were carrying was very similar, the DNA was very, very similar to the plague bacteria that we have found in those graves and also the plague that swept through Europe and was known as the Black Death.

So that's why historians are fairly sure that this is the place where the Black Death sprung from.

So it would seem that Yersinia Pestis bacteria mutated into at least four deadly variants in Central Asia before spreading out via the Silk Road.

Let's have a quick check for understanding now.

So where have modern studies pinpointed the origin of the Black Death? Was it in Eastern China, in Northern Kyrgyzstan, or in Northern India? Okay, if you chose B, Northern Kyrgyzstan, then very well done.

That is indeed the correct answer.

Let's go for our first task of the day now then.

So I'd like you to color-code contemporary beliefs regarding the origin of the Black Death into natural and supernatural beliefs.

So contemporary beliefs means, what did people at the time think caused the Black Death? There's a variety of different causes on the screen in front of you there, all I need you to do is to color-code them into natural causes or supernatural causes.

So pause the video while you do that, and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully, you got on fine with that task.

So on the screen here in front of you are those color-coded causes, and hopefully you've got those as well.

So we can see the natural beliefs, we've got foul smells caused by waste, poisonous winds, and an imbalance in the four Humours.

And in terms of supernatural beliefs we've got punishments from God and an evil alignment of the planets.

So hopefully you've got those correct as well.

Right, let's go for our second learning cycle of the day, which is where did the Black Death go? Now the Black Death bacteria had 1,000s of miles to cross before making its way to Europe, and when it hit Europe the death toll was approaching 50% in many places.

Historians have detailed record of its passage through the Middle East and North Africa.

Muslim doctors from this region were some of the finest in the world at that point in time, but they were powerless to stop roughly one third of the population of these regions from dying.

We know that the disease then entered Europe, but historians are unsure as to where else in the world was also affected by the Black Death.

We know the Black Death also struck North Africa, and it had a relatively similar sort of death tolls in the Middle East as well.

Now although the Black Death originated in Central Asia, we don't actually know the impact it had here, as written records from the time are limited.

Historians know that it did have some impact, so it's not the case that it just didn't affect anybody.

We know that Mongol armies were weakened at this point in time, we also have records telling us of members of the Mongol elite dying from the plague so we know that some people from Central Asia died from the Black Death but, quite simply, it's impossible to put a figure on the death toll.

Even a rough percentage is very, very hard to come across.

We also know that the Black Death did not affect India, which seems quite surprising considering that India was a major stop along the Silk Road there.

Contemporary records from the time are very thorough, and there is no record of the disease striking India at that point in time.

We are even more certain that it didn't strike at that point in time because we have later records of an outbreak of the disease, and it's very well documented.

The symptoms are very well recorded, and the death toll is very well recorded as well so there's no reason to believe they would've recorded that later attack of the Black Death, or the plague, and not recorded that earlier one.

So the plague just didn't affect India, which was very fortunate for them at the time.

Now, quite unusually, historians are actually divided as to whether the Black Death made its way east along the Silk Road to China.

Lake Issyk Kul is only around about 100 miles from the Chinese border so it would seem logical, it would seemed pretty inevitable that the disease would be transmitted along the Silk Road into China.

And to back that up, there are records of a terrible disease, or potentially diseases, afflicting various Northern Chinese regions from around this period.

For instance, in 1351 and 1352, an unnamed disease killed about two-thirds of the population of the provinces of Jiangsu and Hubei, and there are also mentions of great pestilences sweeping through Northern and central China in 1356 and 1362.

However, the symptoms of these diseases are not described, which is quite unusual.

We also know that China suffered from some terrible diseases at this point in time, but we don't necessarily know that they were plague, we know that they suffered from other diseases.

It's entirely possible that these great pestilences that they're discussing is just one of the many diseases that were sweeping through China at this point in time anyway.

We don't know for certain that these are actually documented cases of the plague.

Having said that, there are historians who do believe that these are cases of the plague, and if they are some estimates put the death toll in China from the Black Death as high as 50% of the population.

So we do know that some horrible diseases were afflicting China at this point in time, it's possible that they were plague but, regardless of the fact, significant numbers of Chinese people were dying from a disease or diseases at the same time as other people around the world were dying from the Black Death.

Okay, let's have a quick check for understanding now.

So which of these was unaffected by the Black Death? Was it Europe, India, or the Middle East? Okay, if you chose India, then very well done.

That is the correct answer.

Right, another quick check for understanding, these are true or false statement.

We know that China and Central Asia were unaffected by the Black Death.

Is that statement true or false? Okay, if you chose false, then very well done.

That's the correct answer.

But let's justify that statement now, why is it false? Is it false because limited records make it difficult to judge the impact of the Black Death in these areas, or is it false because there are reports of diseases with the same symptoms as the Black Death but which caused few deaths? Okay, if you chose A, then very well done.

That's the correct answer.

Let's go for our next task for today then, so I'd like you to look at the statements on the screen in front of you, and I'd like you to identify the true statements just by placing a tick in the box next to them.

Any false statements, I'd like you to rewrite so that they are true statements.

So the statements are: Muslim doctors were powerless to stop the Black Death, Mongol armies and the elite were affected by the Black Death, the plague killed 90% of the population in Northern India, Lake Issyk Kul is 1,000 miles away from the Chinese border, and great pestilence is swept through China in 1322 and 1486.

So pause a video while you work with that task, and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Welcome back.

Hopefully, you got along fine with that task.

Let's go through these statements now and see which are correct.

So we can see that the first two statements are indeed correct, so Muslim doctors were powerless to stop the Black Death, and Mongol armies and the elite were affected by the Black Death as well.

Unfortunately, the final three statements are incorrect so let's think about how we can rewrite them to make them correct.

So rather than the plague killed 90% of the population in Northern India, we can say instead that the plague never reached India.

Rather than Lake Issyk Kul is 1,000 miles away from the Chinese border, we can say that Lake Issyk Kul is 100 miles away from the Chinese border.

And rather than great pestilences swept through China in 1322 and 1486, instead we can say great pestilences swept through China in 1356 and 1362.

So hopefully, you've been able to identify the incorrect statements and successfully rewrite them so that they are correct.

Let's move on now then to our third and final learning cycle for today, which is how did the Black Death reach Europe? So in 1346 a Mongol army besieged the Genoese colony of Caffa in Crimea.

And if you have a look at the map on the screen in front of you there, we can see that Caffa is identified.

It's just north of the Black Sea in modern-day Crimea.

After 1,000 of Mongol soldiers began dying of a strange new disease, they catapulted the bodies over the walls and into the city, which infected the population.

And so this is obviously what's called biological warfare, and it was the first recorded case of Europeans encountering the Black Death.

Naturally, residents of Caffa fled the city.

They were able to do so by boats, the Mongols were able to besiege by land but they weren't besieged in the city by sea.

So a lot of the residents of Caffa fled the city after many of their own residents became sick as well, and many of them arrived in Constantinople.

Again, if you can see on the map on the screen in front of you there, it's the first major city if you're going to Europe from Caffa.

Some, though, passed through Constantinople and they actually made their way to Venice and Marseilles as well.

And again, they're also identified on the screen in front of you.

In October 1347, 12 ships from the Black Sea, from Caffa, arrived in Messina in Sicily.

And, again, that's identified on the screen in front of you there.

A grisly sight awaited Messina's dock workers.

Almost all of the crew on each of the ships was dead, and those that were still alive were covered in black boils that oozed blood and pus.

Authorities quickly ordered the ships back out to sea but it was too late, the cases of the Black Death soon spread.

So Messina is the first city in Western Europe that has recorded cases of the Black Death.

Although the siege of Caffa and the flights of its infected inhabitants is a well-documented reason for how the Black Death entered Europe, it's likely that the disease would've made its way there anyway.

There is a suggestion that the Black Death also made its way to Constantinople via overland trade routes along the Silk Road, and we also have reports of an outbreak of the disease in Laishevo in Russia in 1346, which is far to the north of Crimea.

So it would appear that there were multiple routes of the Black Death into Europe, even if the siege of Caffa hadn't taken place in the way that it did, it's likely that Europe would've been afflicted by the Black Death anyway.

Trade along the Silk Road and the movement of Mongol armies worked together to bring the Black Death to Europe, where it went on to kill between one third and one half of the population over the next decade.

We'll have a quick check for understanding.

So in which two of these ways do historians believe the Black Death came to Europe? Was it brought by traders along the Silk Road? Did it drift on air currents from infected areas? Did it travel during spring in migrating birds? Or was it used by a Mongol army as a biological weapon? So choose two of those options now.

Okay, if you chose A and D, then very well done.

Those are the correct answers.

Let's have another check for understanding now.

What fraction of the population of Europe was killed by the Black Death? Was it up to one half? Was it up to two thirds, or was it up to nine tenths? Okay, if you chose A, up to one half, then very well done.

That is the correct answer.

All right, let's go for our next task for today then.

So I'd like you to complete the estimated mortality rates of the Black Death in different regions.

Mortality rates are the percentage of people that die.

So what percentage of people do historians estimate died from the Black Death? So the regions we are looking at are Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, India, and China.

So pause the video whilst you do that, and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully, you've got on okay with that task.

Let's go through some of the correct answers now.

So in Europe, it was somewhere between 33% and in many places up to 50% of the population died of the Black Death.

In the Middle East it was up to 33%, about a third of people died.

We don't know what the mortality rate was in Central Asia, records just aren't clear enough on that.

We do know that India was unaffected, so it was very fortunate for them.

And in China, we are unsure.

We do know that many, many people were dying of a disease or diseases at this time, and if it was the Black Death, then it's possible that up to 50% of the population were killed by it.

Let's go for our final task of the day today then.

So I'd like you now to explain the link between the Silk Road and the Black Death.

So pause the video while you work on this task, and I'll see you in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully, you got on okay with that task.

Let's think about what you could have said, though.

So my answer reads this: "The Silk Road helped to spread the Black Death from Central Asia, where it originated, to different regions such as Europe and possibly China.

Without the Silk Road, there would not be traders moving from one region to another, so it is less likely that the Black Death would have spread as far and as fast as it did." If you've got a different answer to me, that's absolutely fine, as long as you've explained that link thoroughly.

That's what we're looking for here.

Right, let's summarise today's lesson then.

So at the time, people had no idea where the Black Death came from, so they came up with lots of different explanations.

It is only very recently that scientists have located the origin of the plague in Central Asia.

As well as Europe, the Black Death affected the Middle East, Central Asia, and probably China.

It is likely that the Silk Road played a significant part in the distribution of the Black Death.

In Europe, the Black Death killed up to 50% of the population.

Thank you very much for joining me today.

Hope you've enjoyed yourself, I hope you've learned something, and hopefully I'll see you again next time.

Bye-bye.