How Mongols Accidentally Started the Black Death That Killed 1/3 of Europe

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]Did you know that one military tactic accidentally killed a third of Europe?

[00:00:04]The year was 1346.

[00:00:06]Mongol forces had been besieging the port city of Caffa for months. The defenders were holding strong behind their massive walls, but then plague struck the Mongol camp. Soldiers were dying by the hundreds. Most commanders would retreat, but the Mongols saw an opportunity. They loaded their catapults with the plague-ridden corpses and hurled them over the city walls. It was psychological warfare at its most brutal. The tactic worked. Caffa's defenders, terrified and infected, eventually fled the city. But some escaped by ship, carrying the plague with them. Those ships docked [music] at ports across the Mediterranean, Genoa, Venice, Constantinople. Within months, the Black Death was racing across Europe like wildfire. Entire villages vanished.

[00:00:48]Cities lost half their population. Trade routes collapsed. [music] The Mongols had won a single battle, but unleashed history's deadliest pandemic.

[00:00:55]Their brilliant tactical innovation became civilization's greatest catastrophe. One catapult, one decision, 75 million deaths. Sometimes winning the battle means losing everything else.