In many cases, war is fought in order to gain something. It could be territory, or wealth, or power, but in some cases it is fought simply to kill. A type of warfare that exemplifies this is chemical and biological warfare. These attacks are aimed simply at killing everybody. In addition, most people think of biological warfare as a very recent war tactic, dating back not much further than agent orange, deployed in Vietnam. In fact, one of the first and one of the most devastating instances of biological warfare occurred much earlier, in 1347. This was the attack that brought the black plague from it’s origins in western Asia to Europe through Caffa, a city on the modern Crimean peninsula.
Though originally the plan of the attack was to capture the city, it ended with massive death both in the city, and millions of deaths in the surrounding countries. So although biological warfare is considered a modern tactic, one of the most devastating attacks ever involved biological warfare at the siege of Caffa in 1347.
…show more content…
It occurred between 1347 and 1351, originating in China and inner Asia. It was transmitted to mainland Europe through the Siege of Caffa, in which the mongols came to the Crimean peninsula to wage war, bringing with them the disease. From Crimea the plague then continued to spread through Europe. It hit Sicily and Mainland Italy first, in 1347, then continued to North Africa, Spain, England and France in 1348. In 1349 it came to Germany, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland and the Low countries. Then, in 1350, it concluded its spread in
Plague started in the year of 1348 and it took about two years to spread all over Europe. Plague spread in many different ways. The plague spread by fleas on rodents and trade routes. Plague traveled east to west. Plague first began in (Europe) Italy which it states in document 1.
The Great Plague of Europe made its way all throughout the continent and its population. The plague started on the western side of Europe; off the coast of Italy. It arrived by sea between the fall of 1347 and through early spring 1348. Italy was affected so hard that only one out of seven victims would recover in those parts. The
These biological agents could be viruses, toxins, bacteria, etc. Agents could be used in war or terrorist attacks. Also, they could be modified to cause extreme diseases and disorders, according to The Center for Disease Control and Prevention. It makes bioterrorism even more tempting to use as it is easy and inexpensive to produce, disseminate and can cause a more widespread panic than other acts of terrorism (1).
The black death began in china, since china is one of the busiest world's trading nations, it took some time to spread to western Asia and Europe, and then to India, Persia, Syria, and Egypt. The Black Death arrived in Europe in 1347- 1348, by the sea from China trading ships that had black rats with fleas, the fleas carried a bacteria that caused the bubonic plague. The rats would get off the ships and enter the city. The fleas on the rats would then infect people, their food, and their dogs or cats. People, animals, or from people eating the food, the black plague spread very quickly. The plague was spread from person to person, sometimes by it being airborne or coming in contacted with other people that are infected. Although the way that this disease was spread maybe is true there have been new studies shown from one archaeologist, Dr.
The first World War has been reported to be one of the most brutal wars in the history of time for many reasons. One of those reasons was strategic usage of chemical warfare. Chemical gas was used on both sides of the line, which turned out to be fatal for many. World War I was mostly fought in the trenches, where soldiers lived in deep, v-shaped holes or underground bunkers. Both sides would occupy these trenches in order to escape from the constant stream of bullets. These battles often ended in a standoff, or tie, which helped the introduction of a different, brand new style of fighting that included the use of chemicals. These chemicals had a range of
The disease spread throughout Europe with astonishing speed and fatal consequences. By January 1348, the plague was in Marseilles. It reached Paris in the spring,
One threat that smallpox poses, is the use of it in biological warfare. According to Colette Flight, "in the 1990s the public discovered that Russia planned to turn smallpox into an effective weapon".
As soon as it hit the metropolitan city, Messina, the plague scattered to France and Tunis. Then soon hit Rome and Florence as well. Midway the year 1348, it already hit London, Lyon, Bordeaux and Paris.
“In any given period, the plague accomplished its work in three to six months and then faded from view. The plague came and went like a tornado -- its appearance and movement was totally unpredictable. In northern cities, the plague lay dormant in winter and then reappeared the following spring. In 1349, the plague reappeared at Paris and eventually spread to Holland , Scotland and Ireland . In Norway , a ghost shipped drifted offshore for months before it ran aground with its cargo of death. By the end of 1349, Sweden , Denmark , Prussia , Iceland and Greenland felt the full effects of the plague. The plague left nearly as quickly as it had appeared. By mid-1350, the plague had completed its deed across the continent of Europe ”. 3
Diseases have always been a threat to humans, all throughout history. One of the most destructive disease outbreaks in history was the plague outbreak which peaked in 1346 to 1353, in Europe, commonly known as the Black Death. This plague outbreak was extremely deadly and killed 30-60% of the European population at the time of the outbreak. The outbreak is commonly believed to have been caused by the bubonic plague, but modern evidence suggests that the Black Death was caused by pneumonic plague, a much more contagious and deadly infection.
The first outbreak of the plague was traced back to China, in the early 1330's, when suddenly a great pestilence spread out from the Gobi desert and started to reach the cities of the Monoglian empire. At that time the Mongolian empire was at its peak and it had set up trading routes to the different nations of Europe, which meant the bubonic plague could be spread very easily by merchants transporting their wares to Europe. The first merchant ships to bring the plague to Europe arrived on October 1347 when twelve ships that had just ended the journey sailing from the Black sea docked in the harbour town of Messina in Sicily. When people welcomed
Greece, Egypt, Persia, Rome, North Africa, Arabia, Asia and Europe all experienced the agony of the Black Death. Around the sixth century the plague went into hiding not showing its ugly face again until 1347 taking over more than one third of Europe's population within a four year period. The fourteenth century was already suffering heavily from natural disasters ranging from earthquakes to crop failures when the plague returned. At
The disease spread through eight districts in the Chinese and Mongol dynasties. The deaths were so severe that some areas didn’t even have time to bury all the bodies, so they just stacked them up against the city walls. Next, the plague spread to Europe, it arrived in Europe through trading ships. By the time the ships landed in Messina. Most of the crew members on the ships were either dead or infected. The abandon ships peaked a lot of interest and since the ships were infested with rodents, the locals that looted from the ships helped the disease spread even further. By 1348 the disease spread all the way to Genoa and Venice. Then the disease went from Italy and spread northwest France, Spain, Portugal, and England by June 1348. This is a rapid spread rate since six countries in less than a year. Although the disease was not yet done with Europe, it then spread east through Germany and Scandinavia through 1350. The last stop in Europe was Russia in 1351. The last stop for the Black Plague was the Middle East. The outbreak in the Middle East led to serious depopulation and economic structures just like the other countries. When the disease reached Mecca, the people of Mecca tried to blame it on non-believers. The plague continued to kill people all the way up to the Seventeenth century and there have even been isolated cases as recent as 1980 (Black Death).
We are all aware of the tragedy that took place in our nation from 1861 to 1865. The Civil War resulted in needless, devastating deaths of thousands of soldiers. What we might not be aware of, however, is the number one killer throughout those years. More soldiers died from this single calamity than battle wounds or blood loss. The catastrophe that tragically affected more soldiers than any other element of the war was disease.
The first time the plague came out openly in the world it carried and killed across England in 1348-49. It first travelled across the South part in the Bubonic way, during the summer in 1348.Unfortunately, it turned into the pneumonic plague. Then it hit the very popular London in September 1348 and spread into East England towards the coasts in the new year.By the time of Spring in 1349 it had invaded Wales and by the summer it had jumped over the Irish sea and started to trouble the northern