the year ran 1346 when Tatar-Mongolsin full siege of the Genoese city of Kaffahit by a deadly epidemic Black Death. to get rid of corpses to prevent the spread of the disease became as urgent as to fight the enemy, so they decided to kill two birds with one stone and load their bodies into catapults to launch them towards Kaffa. Thus, this will be one of the first cases of the use of biological weapons documented in history.
This military operation was told by an Italian notary Gabriel de Mussiswho also assured that all this was the reason for the introduction black plague epidemic in other areas of Europe.
Over time, some analyzes of its history were carried out, as a result of which it was concluded that Disease as a biological weapon. This coincides with the records about her that were made later. However, they do not agree that this contributed to the spread of the Black Death beyond the city of Kaffa. Be that as it may, it seems that biological weapons are much older than we might think. Like the evil of man.
History of biological weapons
The Romans were already launching boats loaded with poisonous snakes or the remains of dead animals towards the cities they attacked.
Although the use of disease as a biological weapon is perhaps even older, the first historical records in this regard date back to about the year 90 after Christ. It was then that the Roman senator Sixth Julius Frontin he published several writings describing the throwing of containers filled with poisonous snakes or decaying animal meat towards enemy cities. He also talked about placing swarms of bees in the tunnels so that they would surprise the soldiers.
These are the first reported cases, and several more have been reported before. Siege of Kaffa. This city, now known as Feodosia and then belonged to the Genoese, it is located on the Black Sea, in the place where it is now Crimean peninsula.
Records from the 14th century report that indeed in 1346 an epidemic Black Death. And what did it coincide with Siege of the Tatar-Mongols. What is not so clear is that the pathogen actually entered its walls through the corpses launched in the catapults. But the truth is, it makes a lot of sense. Let’s see how it all happened.
The most sudden arrival of the black plague
The black plague is known as the great plague pandemic that occurred in Europe and Asia. between 1347 and 1353.
It is not clear what kind of disease the black plague was, it is suspected that it could have been bubonic plague or anthrax.
It is not clear what was the real disease that caused the pandemic. The most common hypothesis is that it was bubonic plague, although there are those who believe it could be related to anthrax. Both pathologies are caused by bacteria, the first – Yersinia plague and the second for anthrax bacillus. Curiously, the latter was used as a biological weapon much later than Kaffa. This was in 2001, when letters were sent to the United States, the envelopes of which contained disputes specified bacterium.
Whatever the bacteria that caused the black plague, it seems clear that after several days of siege of Kaffa, the Tatar-Mongolian army began get sick at breakneck speed. Soon, thousands of dead accumulated in their ranks. If they didn’t dispose of the corpses, the disease would continue to progress until they were all killed. For this reason, as Mussis describes in his account of what happened, they decided to launch them towards Kaffa with catapults.
His goal was they get sick of the smell. But it wasn’t the worst. Both bubonic plague and anthrax are transmitted, among other things, through contact with the secretions of patients. If the dead had accumulated on its streets, it would have been impossible not to succumb to the epidemic. In addition, anthrax is transmitted through the air, through spores. D Yersinia plague can be transmitted through flea bites. At that time and during the complete siege, it is more than possible that the streets were infected, so the epidemic was filed.
Moussis said that “an infected person can transmit the poison to others and infect people and places with the disease just by looking at it.” Logically, this was not the case, but before it became known, there were still many years How do these diseases actually spread?. The only obvious thing was that the inhabitants of Kaffa were dying and that the black plague had hit them in the form of a biological weapon.
Does it all make sense?
In 2002 microbiologist Mark Willisfrom the University of California, published an article analyzing the situation black plague epidemic in Kaffa.
In it, he considered two possible forms of penetration of the disease. On the one hand, it is possible that rats they would carry the germs from the attacking army. And, on the other hand, what Mussis described could be true. But the truth is that under the siege, when the city was tightly closed, it would be difficult for the rats to get out of their holes and overcome all the necessary obstacles to reach the city. This catapult thing, while much more outlandish, makes more sense to Wheelis, who describes it as one of the earliest recorded uses of a bioweapon in history.
It may also be that the disease entered Kaffa through the rats, but it is more likely that the catapult.
What he doesn’t quite agree with is that this attack was responsible for the spread of the black plague next to the cafe. We will never know for sure. We can only imagine what a tragedy it must have been for those who survived this attack. The sad thing is that a mixture of pandemics and wars continues to be the order of the day after nearly 700 years of time in which people should have had time to think about the consequences of violent action. Perhaps there will never be enough years for this reflection.
Source: Hiper Textual
