this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2025
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No one can claim having more superior jeans. Even the feared Mongols fell out of fashion. (infosec.pub)
submitted 1 week ago by TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world to c/historymemes@lemmy.world
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[–] frog@feddit.uk 39 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I read a theory somewhere that the Mongols use of dead bodies as weapons is major factor creating the black plague.

This theory is on Wikipedia:

Some studies indicate the Black Death, which devastated Europe in the 1340s, may have traveled from China along the trade routes of the Mongol Empire. In 1347, the Genoese possessor of Caffa, a great trade emporium on the Crimean Peninsula, came under siege by an army of Mongol warriors under the command of Janibeg. After a protracted siege during which the Mongol army was reportedly withering from disease, they decided to use the infected corpses as a biological weapon. The corpses were catapulted over the city walls, infecting the inhabitants.[142][143] The Genoese traders fled, transferring the plague via their ships into the south of Europe, from where it rapidly spread. The total number of deaths worldwide from the pandemic is estimated at 75–200 million with up to 50 million deaths in Europe alone.[103]

Source: Wikipedia: Mongol Empire

[–] Akasazh@feddit.nl 1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Plaque isn't spread by corpses, but by fleas

[–] yeather@lemmy.ca 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

https://historycollection.com/mongols-used-plague-biological-weapon/

It also is spread by the buboes on the bodies that rupture and spread infected pus and bloos. Throw a bunch of bodies over a wall and one will eventually infect someone inside, who will infect everyone else.

[–] Akasazh@feddit.nl 2 points 6 days ago

I mean... theorethically it could have helped spread it to the particular city, but I don't think that would've influenced the epidemic spread of the disease much. Locked-in besieged cities would -in themselves- been prime locations for the disease to teke hold.

In fact, your own article basicly states as much:

However, there’s no reason to tie the biological attack at Caffa with the introduction of the disease.