VIDEO: "The Black Death Never Made Sense - Until Now"

This past December saw the release of research showing that a "a volcanic eruption – or cluster of eruptions – around 1345 caused annual temperatures to drop for consecutive years due to the haze from volcanic ash and gases, which in turn caused crops to fail across the Mediterranean region." This in turn caused a shift in trade with Europe turning to grain imports from the Black Sea region; and, unfortunately, paving the way for the rapid spread of bubonic plague (the "Black Plague" or "Great Dying") into Europe. 

• See also: "A Volcanic Eruption in 1345 May Have Triggered a Chain of Events That Brought the Black Death to Europe"--Smithsonian Magazine. 

The data relied upon in the research comes from tree ring records. But the video below notes that when you know what to look for, you see independent confirmation of the cooler weather and poor crops in other places. (Although I would note that scientists that study the Black Plague have been well aware that cooler weather and poor crops had preceded the plague outbreak in Europe, arguing that this made Europeans--sickened and weakened by weather and poor diet--more susceptible to the plague). 

     The more interesting issue is why there was a major plague outbreak in Central Asia on the western edge of China that spread a devastating plague across half the world to Europe.

    This was not a one-off. A large volcanic eruption in 536 AD (probably in Iceland) also resulted in a significant and disastrous decline in temperatures in Europe with resultant famines. As an article from the University of Melbourne describes it:

    This triggered the coldest decade on record going back two thousand years, causing crop failures from Ireland all the way to China.

    It also provided perfect conditions for the spread of a devastating outbreak of bubonic plague 

    Believed to have originated in China and passed through India, the so-called ‘Plague of Justinian’ arrived in Constantinople in 542 through grain ships from Egypt before engulfing the rest of the Mediterranean, Europe and the Persian Empire.

    By 549, this killer pandemic had destroyed at least a quarter of the population of the Byzantine Empire – perhaps as many as 10 million people. 

Two plagues, nearly 800 years apart, caused by sudden volcanic cooling, originating in western China, and spreading across the known world causing unprecedented numbers of death. 

VIDEO: "The Black Death Never Made Sense - Until Now"
Paul Whitewick (9 min.)