The Siege of Caffa: When Biological Warfare Changed World History

In 1346, the Mongol army besieging the Genoese trading city of Caffa in Crimea faced a serious problem - plague was ravaging their camp, killing soldiers by the hundreds. Their solution? Use giant catapults to hurl the infected corpses over the city walls. This act of medieval biological warfare may have accidentally triggered the Black Death pandemic that killed half of Europe.

The defenders watched in horror as diseased bodies rained down into their city. They threw the corpses into the sea as fast as they could, but it was too late - plague broke out inside Caffa's walls. When Genoese merchants fled the city by ship, they carried the disease to Mediterranean ports. Within months, the Black Death was spreading across Europe like wildfire.

Contemporary witness Gabriele de' Mussi described the scene: mountains of dead bodies, the stench unbearable, plague spreading faster than people could flee. The Mongols eventually abandoned the siege as their own army collapsed from disease, but the damage was done. What started as a military tactic at one siege became the deadliest pandemic in human history, killing an estimated 75-200 million people.

This episode explores the siege that may have changed the course of world history, debates about whether this was really the origin point of the Black Death, and how medieval armies weaponized disease centuries before germ theory existed.

Keywords: weird history, Siege of Caffa, Black Death, bubonic plague, medieval warfare, biological warfare, Mongol Empire, plague history, 14th century, pandemic history, Genoese history

Perfect for listeners who love: medieval history, plague stories, military history, pandemic origins, and decisions with catastrophic unintended consequences.