The Bubonic Plague (Stage name: The Black Death) tore across Europe in the mid 14th century, depopulating parts of the continent. The focus of the epidemic is almost always on Europe but what about the rest of the world? How did the Black Death affect Africa and Asia (the Americas were fine)?

A special thanks to my Patrons below:

Jens Koch-Nommensen
Øystein Alsaker
Carl Österbrand
Sergio M. Vela
Dave Brondsema
Michael Kram
Hasmuffin 
Franco La Bruna
Ethan 
Bradley chaulk
Don Bonnigan
Ian Whitcomb
Southside Mitch
Justin Kubusch
Adam Barrett
John
Matthew Literovich
Heath Robertson
JakeBak0905
Ryan Schindeler
Person
Brooks Woolson
Sean D.
Joshua Rackstraw
Martha Grondin
Philip Yip
S. Marisol Asselta
Farquhar Ramshackle 
Joooooshhhhhh 
sharpie660
Christopher Godfrey
Alex Teplyakov
Jane Sumpter
Shauna K
Aaron Conaway
Mario Peshev
DocOzz13 .
Shion
Vance Christiaanse
Piotr Wojnowski
Nathan Mendelsohn
Steven Gibson
Joshua Schneider
Phoenix Fats
Adrian Marine
Travis Mount
Erik Hare
Nicholas Menghini
Dana Spurgeon
Ron Johnson
Jack Wicks
Dr. Schtnizel
Paul Munro
zockotron
Andy McGehee
BeninPrince51
Windischgraetz
Phillip Gathright
Barry
Peter Marino
Jack Nelson
Andrew F
Jamie van Brewen
Tony Belmonte
D. Mahlik
John Orr
Porkmeister
Andrea Dekrout
Arthur Hosey Jr.
Andreas Mosand
Konstantin Bredyuk
Roman Kynčl
Chris Winther
MGS2600
Thomas McGraw
Zhao Liu
Matthew Toles
Bernardo Cavalcanti
Shawn Morse
Allen Rines
Ivaer 
Michael Galloway
Katie Flinn
ConspiracyPizza 
Jake Faust
Tactical_Jackal 
William Swiacki
Nolan Peale
Contdoko12
Nick Macarius
Jacob Zachs
Ciege Engine
Carl Blanton
Angel Aguiñaga
Bradley Backoff
HelloAgain
Brian George
Clayton Schuman
Zach Rust
Sahni 
Bret Allan
Joe DeVito
John Garcia
Chase Labiste
Mickey Landen
GrokThis
Keith A. Layton
mgnesium.poetry
Andrew Patane
William Adderholdt
Chris Weisel
Liam Gilleece
KNSTRKTVST
Vilena5
Zachary Pascalar
Serius_Loyola
Bernice 
Dullis 
Tom Ebert
Matt Reed
blaZzinG_FurY
Tim Stone
Anthony McCann
Christopher S Nelson
Leena Al-Souki
Ben Drums 24
Perry Gagne
Wilhelm Screamer
ARandomPaperClip
Matthew O'Connor
george tyler
JAY ALAN EDELMAN
Joel Cromwell
Alex Slepak
No way
Matthew Hogan
Bodo Nuber
Justin Short
Dexter_McAaron
Ryan Marinelli
Ahmed Roshdi
David van Reyk
Aaron Larrow
Liquid Chief
Fabrizio Zagonel
Hexapuma
Random Insanity
Tyler Jenkins
Warren Rudkin
Bartosz Zasada
Colm Byrne
Joseph Hutchins
Chach
Joel Wasserman
Curt Helmerich
Ethan Harlow
Blue Cardinal
ThePalestRose
Thomas McGill
Joseph Reinsch
Benjamin Bowring
Tim Sweeney
Geoffrey Sparrow
BattleGoat Studios
Jason Gould
Abhijeeth 
Oliver Jenner
Burt Clothier
Matthew Ward
Magdalena Reinberg-Leibel
Logical Insanity
Juan Castillo
Ian Smith
Tim Stumbaugh
B Dryad
James 
Andrew Niedbala
bas mensink
Stefan Møller
Matt Busch
Bren Ehnebuske
Łukasz Burchard
Steve Bonds
Donald Weaver
Romney Manassa
Nathan Ngumi
Colonel Oneill
luvrhino
Joseph Kerckhoff
Ryan Lowe
Chris Wreker
Ned Burke
Alen
Steven Mastronardo
nullptr 
Azul Bravestrong
Mars Project
Jonny Minogue
Melissa Prober
Clay Carroll
Ali Sadighian
Ryan Haber
kevinh
Yared Cristiano
Joker 54
LambOfLeg 
Vegard Tønnessen
Scott Oppel
Joshua A Bishop
SketerK
Emily D
Rob Rollins
Richard Wolfe
Andrey Listochkin
SirAlpaka 
anon
Gordon Wilson
Eric Askins
Yuichiro Kakutani
Hiro P
Robin!
Brian Giordano
Thomas Wang
William Clark
Emily Glover-Wilson
Juan Benet
Daniel D.
Yosef Waysman
Michael Dierker
Igor Stavchanskiy
Gregory Priebe
Zach Weakland
Sethars
Charles Doolittle
Pat Stahl
Mik Scheper
pdswanfleet 
Jeffrey Schneider
Mirza Ahmed
Laurent Othacehe
Sophie Winter
mohd 
Kevin Phoenix
Tristan Kreller
Manny F
David Spellmeyer
Tranier Bocaj
Hunter Bayliss
JT96
Kirk Hoffman
Theodosius the Elder
Mark Ploegstra
Kinfe85
Dr. Howard Dr. Fine Dr. Howard
Sean Long
Anthony Uk
Phil and Lisa Toland
Alex G.
hefcluba
Ian M
Isabel Harrison
John Gross-Whitaker
Wolf 
Heytun 
אורי פרקש
George Caponera
0_DannyBoy
Lech Duraj
Sara Birnbaum
Allen
Roko Lisica
Dan Reiher
Jesse Plung
I'm Not In The Description
Doug MacLean
Chasen Le Hara
Dustin Koellhoffer
Dr. Sarno
James R DeVries
Austin Martin
Victor Gomez
Nathan Snyder
Colm Boyle
Danny Anstess
Will Sullivan
Miky Hidalgo Morriss
Robert Brockway
Zachary Oertel
Seth Reeves
Riley davidson
Peter Konieczny
Dutchball Animations
Rita Cragwall
AltHistoryConjectures
Shakira Graham
Andrew Sever
Tino
Harley Raptopoulos
Lindorien 
Paul McGee
João Santos
Abdallah Al-Ammari
Daniel O'Reilly
Typhoon2401
Gezza The Random Reviewer
Deadlock
Markus Lindström
Michael Corson
blei95
Robin_Col
Olaf
Jan Bart Verbist
Kasi
M Scho
Schwarzer Hai
biohazardgamer
Tarsirrus
James
Rhys Little
Ben L
Jackarice26
Justin McDaid
Twinny Hill
Harrison Tatem-Wyatt
Gina Service
zemnmez 
Phil Johnston
DarkLycan 
Roberticus1992
Tom Pollard
Rhys Jackson

The Black Death ravaged medieval Europe across the mid-14th century.

It's known that the disease made its way to Europe via the Black Sea and the surrounding trade routes.

We all know how terrible it was in Europe, but something not often discussed is how it affected the rest of the world.

How did the Black Death affect Africa and Asia?

As many of you will know, the plague arrived in Europe in 1346, and at the same time it was being carried down south to the Islamic world.

And here it also caused complete devastation.

The first major state to bear the brunt in the region was the Mamluk Sultanate.

Cairo and Alexandria saw vast mortalities and the plague soon spread across North Africa and into the Middle East.

So how did the Islamic world respond differently to Europe?

In Europe, the disease was known to be highly contagious, which is why in many places entered quarantines, people fled for the countryside or states closed their borders.

Outsiders were largely seen as responsible for the plague.

Whereas in the Middle East, the plague wasn't seen as infectious.

People refused to leave their hometowns and in many cases they were forbidden from doing so.

There was also a fundamental difference in how Muslims saw the plague.

Whilst Christians saw it as divine punishment, Muslims saw it as just another part of life and there wasn't much in the way of a mass panic.

And in the end, much like the Christian world, this led to widespread death and destruction and both recovered from the plague at roughly the same point.

As for Sub-Saharan Africa, well, there's no evidence to suggest that the plague ever got there.

So what about the world's 2 largest population centres, China and India?

China at this point was ruled by the Yuan dynasty which was keen on keeping records.

Its bureaucrats recorded any and all natural disasters and disease outbreaks, and so if the plague were there it would have been known, right?

There were numerous outbreaks of disease across the mid-14th century in China, but it's not known if any of them were the plague.

The reason being that these outbreaks weren't seen as anything special.

Unlike in Europe and the Middle East, there was no mention of buboes or necrotic fingers or anything of the like, which is why these outbreaks could be smallpox or flu, since those writing about it saw them as quite run-of-the-mill.

And in India, which at the time was mostly dominated by the Sultanate of Delhi, there's no evidence to suggest that the plague ever reached it.

Delhi was a major trading partner of both the Ilkhanate and the Mamluk Sultanate and yet, it didn't see the plague spread there.

There were epidemics during the time, but like China, these weren't seen as special enough to warrant any further description.

Which leaves everybody completely in the dark about whether or not the plague reached the area.

And there is some supporting evidence that these 2 regions didn't suffer the Black Death at the same time as Europe and the Middle East.

And this is because in later centuries when the bubonic plague did infect the regions, it was absolutely devastating in a way that it wasn't for Europe or the Middle East contemporarily.

The people who lived in Europe and the Middle East had built up immunities over the centuries, in a way that those in India or China simply never could.

Again though, none of this is known for certain.

No 1 can say with 100% surety where the Black Death didn't go, only that where it did go, it caused complete devastation.

I hope you enjoyed this episode and a special thanks to my Patrons...

James Bizonette, Kelly Moneymaker, Sky Chappell, Korsha Wolfe, Jerry Lambdin, Jordan Longley, Adam Stalter, Marcus Arsner, YN Hockey, Spencer Lightfoot, Rod D.

Martin, Words About Books Podcast, Captain Psydog, Gustav Swan, Marvin Casal, Camoon Yoon, Winston K.

Wood, Boogily Woogily, Daniel Tobian, Miss Iset, Aaron the White, Corey Turner, the McWhopper, Alex Schwin, Anthony Beckett, Copper Tone, Maggie Paskowski, Shuenin, Spinning 3 Plates, and Charles I.


Speaker 0: The Black Death ravaged medieval Europe across the mid-14th century. It's known that the disease made its way to Europe via the Black Sea and the surrounding trade routes. We all know how terrible it was in Europe, but something not often discussed is how it affected the rest of the world. So how exactly did it? How did the Black Death affect Africa and Asia?

As many of you will know, the plague arrived in Europe in 1346, and at the same time it was being carried down south to the Islamic world. And here it also caused complete devastation. The first major state to bear the brunt in the region was the Mamluk Sultanate. Cairo and Alexandria saw vast mortalities and the plague soon spread across North Africa and into the Middle East. So how did the Islamic world respond differently to Europe?

In Europe, the disease was known to be highly contagious, which is why in many places entered quarantines, people fled for the countryside or states closed their borders. Outsiders were largely seen as responsible for the plague. Whereas in the Middle East, the plague wasn't seen as infectious. People refused to leave their hometowns and in many cases they were forbidden from doing so. There was also a fundamental difference in how Muslims saw the plague.

Whilst Christians saw it as divine punishment, Muslims saw it as just another part of life and there wasn't much in the way of a mass panic. And in the end, much like the Christian world, this led to widespread death and destruction and both recovered from the plague at roughly the same point. As for Sub-Saharan Africa, well, there's no evidence to suggest that the plague ever got there. Which must have been nice. So what about the world's 2 largest population centres, China and India?

China at this point was ruled by the Yuan dynasty which was keen on keeping records. Its bureaucrats recorded any and all natural disasters and disease outbreaks, and so if the plague were there it would have been known, right? Well, sort of. There were numerous outbreaks of disease across the mid-14th century in China, but it's not known if any of them were the plague. The reason being that these outbreaks weren't seen as anything special.

Unlike in Europe and the Middle East, there was no mention of buboes or necrotic fingers or anything of the like, which is why these outbreaks could be smallpox or flu, since those writing about it saw them as quite run-of-the-mill. And in India, which at the time was mostly dominated by the Sultanate of Delhi, there's no evidence to suggest that the plague ever reached it. Delhi was a major trading partner of both the Ilkhanate and the Mamluk Sultanate and yet, it didn't see the plague spread there. There were epidemics during the time, but like China, these weren't seen as special enough to warrant any further description. Which leaves everybody completely in the dark about whether or not the plague reached the area.

And there is some supporting evidence that these 2 regions didn't suffer the Black Death at the same time as Europe and the Middle East. And this is because in later centuries when the bubonic plague did infect the regions, it was absolutely devastating in a way that it wasn't for Europe or the Middle East contemporarily. The people who lived in Europe and the Middle East had built up immunities over the centuries, in a way that those in India or China simply never could. Again though, none of this is known for certain. No 1 can say with 100% surety where the Black Death didn't go, only that where it did go, it caused complete devastation.

I hope you enjoyed this episode and a special thanks to my Patrons... James Bizonette, Kelly Moneymaker, Sky Chappell, Korsha Wolfe, Jerry Lambdin, Jordan Longley, Adam Stalter, Marcus Arsner, YN Hockey, Spencer Lightfoot, Rod D. Martin, Words About Books Podcast, Captain Psydog, Gustav Swan, Marvin Casal, Camoon Yoon, Winston K. Wood, Boogily Woogily, Daniel Tobian, Miss Iset, Aaron the White, Corey Turner, the McWhopper, Alex Schwin, Anthony Beckett, Copper Tone, Maggie Paskowski, Shuenin, Spinning 3 Plates, and Charles I.

See all History Matters transcripts on Youtube

How did the Black Death affect Africa and Asia? (Short Animated Documentary)