Disaster of the Middle Ages (04:47)

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Imagine if the Black Death never occurred. Three landmark events occurred: the Siege of Caffa, the plague reaching Marseilles, and four years of pestilence in Europe. Justinian I succumbs to fever. (Credits)

Memory of Humanity (04:05)

Citizens of the Renaissance perceived the Middle Ages as mediocre. Cleanliness was the responsibility of the individual; in the thirteen century, the Papal legate founded a faculty of medicine in Montpellier. In the Middle Ages, citizens think a disease is transmitted through miasmas.

Bacteria (05:13)

The Black Rat transferred the plague to humans 20,000 years ago. During the Siege of Caffa, the Mongol chief orders plague-infected corpses to be catapulted over the walls. Ships carry the disease along ports of call creating a pandemic.

Turning Point in History (05:13)

Without the Siege of Caffa, towns in Western Europe could prepare for the disease. Black Death decimates a third of the population in four years. Citizens quarantine themselves and throw infected corpses into the streets.

The Western World Changes (05:53)

Imagine if a new worldwide pandemic occurred in today's society. Villages disappear in subsequent epidemics; the plague helps end feudalism. In the late 19th Century researchers discover Versinia Pestis as the bacteria responsible for The Black Death.

Credits: The Black Death (00:47)

Credits: The Black Death