What was the Black Death?

Scientists believe they have finally uncovered what triggered the deadly plague that wiped out over half the medieval population of Europe.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe in Leipzig said that “clues contained in tree rings” have “identified mid-14th-century volcanic activity as the first domino to fall in a sequence that led to the devastation of the Black Death in Europe”.

Their research suggests an eruption, or series of eruptions, around 1345 caused extreme drops in temperature and led to poor harvests. To avert famine, Italian city states were forced to import grain across the Black Sea, bringing with it the plague-carrying fleas that brought the disease to Europe.

What was the Black Death?

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