User:Twas Now/Siege of Caffa

The Siege of Caffa (also Siege of Kaffa) was a siege upon the Genoese trading city of Caffa by the Golden Horde Mongols, that took place between 1343 and 1346. The siege is significant as one of the earliest recorded instances of biological warfare, and is considered a contributor to the spread of Black Plague into Europe.

Background
Caffa was initially established as Theodosia, a colony of the Greek city Miletus. By the 13th century it was just a minor village within the territory of the Golden Horde Mongols. In 1266, Mengu-Timur, the Khan of the Golden Horde granted permission to Genoese traders to purchase and establish a colony here. Caffa linked via Tana to the trade routes of the far east. It also opened up a trade route to Constantinople. The Genoese were allowed to operate in Caffa because it gave the Mongols a trade route to Europe. The Mongols besieged Caffa in 1308 due ti income tax evasion resulting in the Genoese burning the city and fleeing back to Italy. They were allowed to return after the Mongol leader Toqtai died in 1312. By 1340 Caffa was a fortified, thriving, and multi ethnic city. Toqtai's successor (Uzbeg) died in the same year. Janibeg took over.

After a religious confrontation in Tana that left one Muslim dead the Mongols besieged Tana. The Genoese rulers fled to Caffa. Tana and its neighboring city Sarai were sacked.

Siege
The Mongols were surprised when the officials in Caffa refused to turn over the Genoese and laid siege to the city. The plague had followed Golden Horde / Tatars from Sarai to the Genoese merchants attacked in Tana, who fled to Caffa and by 1346 most of the Golden Horde settlements were affected by plague. The Mongol siege was largely ineffective as Caffa could easily be supplied by boat from Constantinople. (The Mongols had no navy) These same ships would bring the plague to Constantinople in 1347. During the course of the siege the Mongol army suffered severe casualties due to plague. An Italian relief force killed fifteen thousand of the Mongol troops in February 1344. However the siege resumed in 1345. The siege was halted again in 1345 due to plague but was resumed within the year. A different Italian relief force blockaded the Mongol ports and sent Genoese ambassadors to Sarai around this time. The Mongols launched plague infected corpses into the city in an effort to spread the plague into the city. People at the time believed foul stenches spread the plague. The terrified merchants fled the city by boat soon after. A quote from Gabriele de' Mussi supports this: Whereupon the Tartars (Mongols), worn out by this pestilential disease, and falling on all sides as if thunderstruck, and seeing that they were perishing hopelessly, ordered the corpses to be placed upon their engines and thrown into the city of Kaffa. Accordingly were the bodies of the dead hurled over the walls, so that the Christians were not able to hide or protect themselves from this danger, although they carried away as many as possible and threw them into the sea- end quote. Some argue the disease wouldn't spread from corpses, so rats must have gotten into city. The Golden Horde (Mongols) finally broke the siege in 1346 due to the plague. Many people do not believe that it was the origin point of the plague in Europe however certainly did leapfrog its progress into the continent.

Reference
File:Repubblica_di_Genova.png File:GoldenHorde1300.png


 * Plague_(disease)
 * Feodosiya
 * 1345
 * 1346
 * http://www.historyinanhour.com/2011/08/05/the-siege-of-kaffa-and-the-black-death/
 * http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/8/9/01-0536_article.htm
 * http://books.google.ca/books?id=1RW8ieYILjMC&pg=PT236#v=onepage&q&f=false (City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas by Roger Crowley; Random House LLC, Jan 24, 2012 pp236-43)