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The Black Death was one of the deadliest disease outbreaks in European history. It reached Europe in 1347 and, within about five years, killed an estimated 25 to 50 million people. This article explains the plague and Black Death story in plain terms: when the Black Death started, what caused it, how it spread, how many people died, and how the disaster changed the way Europeans lived and worked.

When and where did the Black Death start?

The Black Death most likely began in Central Asia. In 2022, researchers announced that plague DNA from graves near Lake Issyk Kul in Kyrgyzstan, where tombstones recorded an unknown epidemic in 1338 and 1339, matched the ancestor of the strain behind the 14th-century pandemic. Historians still debate exactly where it began, and some evidence has pointed to other parts of Asia, so this is the best-supported answer rather than a settled one.

From there the disease traveled along trade routes toward the Black Sea. It reached Europe in October 1347, when Genoese ships arrived at Messina in Sicily. From Sicily it spread through Italy and then on to France and England.

What caused the Black Death?

The cause was a bacterium called Yersinia pestis. The traditional explanation is that it passed from black rats to their fleas and then to people. In 2018, a modeling study argued that human fleas and body lice may have done much of the spreading instead of rats, because that model fit the death records in most of the regions it tested. Scientists continue to discuss the question, and the answer may be a mix of several routes.

One famous story says the plague reached Europe when a Mongol army besieging the port of Caffa in 1346 hurled infected bodies over the walls. The tale comes from a later and secondhand account, and many historians now doubt it. What is clear is that Genoese ships left the Black Sea region and carried the plague with them.

Black Death symptoms

The best-known symptom of bubonic plague is the bubo, a painful, swollen lymph node, usually in the groin, armpit or neck. Without treatment, plague can be deadly: depending on the form of the disease, the World Health Organization puts the death rate at roughly 30 to 100 percent.

How did the Black Death spread?

The plague followed sea and land trade routes. Here is the path it took:

• October 1347: Genoese ships reach Messina, Sicily.
• 1348: The plague spreads across Italy and reaches Paris in the summer.
• June 1348: It lands at Melcombe Regis, now part of Weymouth, on the south coast of England, and reaches London in the autumn.
• 1349 and after: Outbreaks follow in Germany and Scandinavia.

Nobody at the time understood what was happening, because germs were still unknown.

How many people did the Black Death kill?

Historians estimate that the Black Death killed 25 to 50 million people in Europe between 1347 and 1352. In terms of the share of the population, estimates range widely, from roughly a third to a half or more, and the toll varied from place to place. That is why the video asks whether half of Europe died: for many regions the honest answer is that somewhere between a third and a half, and in the hardest-hit places even more, did not survive. Historians still argue over the exact numbers.

The tragedy of the persecutions

Fear searched for someone to blame. Across Europe, Jewish communities were falsely accused of poisoning wells and causing the disease. In February 1349, about 2,000 Jews were killed in Strasbourg, and by 1351 roughly 210 Jewish communities had been destroyed. These killings were one of the darkest chapters of the whole catastrophe, and they had nothing to do with the real cause of the plague.

How the plague gave us the word quarantine

In 1377, the port of Ragusa, today’s Dubrovnik in Croatia, passed a law requiring travelers from plague-stricken areas to isolate before entering the city. The period began at 30 days and, in the years that followed, came to be set at 40 days. The Italian word for forty, quaranta, gave us the word quarantine.

How the Black Death changed Europe

The biggest change came after the dying stopped. With so many workers dead, the survivors could demand higher pay. In England, the Crown responded with the Ordinance of Labourers in 1349 and the Statute of Labourers in 1351, which tried to freeze wages at their pre-plague levels. The laws largely failed, and wages kept rising. The resentment they caused helped fuel the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, and serfdom, the system that bound peasants to their lords, gradually faded away.

The recovery took a very long time. Europe’s population did not return to its pre-plague level until the 16th century.

Frequently asked questions

When did the Black Death start in Europe?

October 1347, when Genoese ships arrived at Messina in Sicily. It reached England in June 1348 and Scandinavia within the next few years.

Where did the Black Death start?

Most likely Central Asia. A 2022 study traced the plague strain to graves near Lake Issyk Kul in Kyrgyzstan from the late 1330s, though historians still debate the exact origin.

What caused the Black Death?

The bacterium Yersinia pestis, spread by fleas, and possibly by human parasites such as lice as well as by rats.

How many people died in the Black Death?

An estimated 25 to 50 million people in Europe, roughly a third to a half of the population or more depending on the region and the historian.

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