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Comment by tomohawk | Hacker News Reader

It was devastating enough to end the Mongol empire. This empire included pretty much all of Asia. With the demise of the empire, the silk road trade pretty much closed down, cutting China off from the Middle East and Europe.

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I didn't know it went that far east. So it pretty much completely changed the course of events instead of just delaying progress for a few decades...interesting.

Keep in mind that the mongols didn't really have the institutions to survive anyway and that the empire was breaking apart anyway.

The plague was a stressor that sped some things along.

The plague didn't hit until after the Mongol empire fracture. I don't know what institutions you think the Mongols were missing, but an empire that size is just waiting to fragment.

Per Wikipedia: "The Black Death is thought to have originated in the arid plains of Central Asia, where it then travelled along the Silk Road, reaching Crimea by 1343.[6] From there, it was most likely carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships."

So (if they're right), it actually started there, and came west.

The rat flea vector is also the origin of the term "Flea Market".

You have it backwards. The plague starts in east Asia, then spreads West along the Silk Road, it arrives at the Black Sea, and then is carried to Venice. Most likely it was in rats that were on the ships which the merchants of Venice operated in the Black Sea. It arrives in Venice in 1347, and the next 36 months are the event that in the West is called The Black Death.

This was the 1346-53 epidemic. The earlier black death epidemic starting at 541 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_of_Justinian) was a bit more influental, and killed about 40% of the population. This came from Egypt to Europe. But recent genetic studies also suggest it came from China instead, same as the later plagues.

Actually, there are arguments that it enabled progress by disrupting the established order. The beginnings of the Renaissance in Europe date to the decades immediately after the Plague first swept through.

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