The Black Death

East meets West‣Genoa was on of the most powerful “City-States” in what we now call Italy(“God was born in Genoa”)‣1266 Genoese arrived in Caffa (now Feodosiya) on the east coast of theCrimea and established an elaborate city and trading center (they paid off theMongols to do so)‣Silks from Asia, sturgeons from Russia, slaves from the Ukraine, timbers, andfurs.‣Caffa well situated – the steppes to the north from which one could reachChina in as little as 8-months‣To the west, Constantinople, and the trading regions of the Levant (Ukraine)‣-three rivers… Volga, Don the the east, Drileper to the west‣First to hear rumors of “environmental upheaval” in China in the 1330’s-bigearthquake, droughts, then monsoons