The Black Death reaches Europe

Plague reached Europe through ships arriving at Sicily and spread across the continent in a few years. Estimates suggest it killed a large share of the population.

Death toll estimates vary widely.

Context

The plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, reached Europe in 1347 via trading ships coming from the Black Sea region; Sicily was one of the first places struck. Over the next few years it spread to almost every part of Europe, along trade routes, rivers and coasts, carried by fleas and also from person to person.

Estimates of the death toll vary widely, from roughly a third to a half of Europe's population, which is why we call the figure an estimate, not a count. Recovery took generations. Labor became scarce, which changed wages and the power of landlords, and cities experimented with isolating ships and travelers, giving us the word quarantine, from the Italian for forty days.

The pandemic is called the Black Death, and later outbreaks of plague kept returning for centuries.

Historians still debate the exact numbers because many records were lost, but ancient DNA from plague victims buried in Europe has confirmed the bacterium that caused it. The outbreak also led to the persecution of minority communities, who were wrongly blamed for the disease.