North Africa There are several key points in the spread of the plague through North Africa.
• The plague spread from Alexandria along the North African coast, reaching Tripoli (Libya) and Tunis (Tunisia). At around the same time, Tunis was infected through trade with Sicily, with an outbreak reported in April 1348. • The plague spread east into Libya, from both the east and west. • In 1348 the Moroccan ruler’s attempted and failed conquest of Tunis led to the plague spreading back to Morocco, infecting Algeria. • The plague reached Marrakesh (central Morocco) in 1349 (although it is possible that Morocco was first infected by traders from Spain via Majorca). • The plague spread south along the Nile valley but did not reach other parts of Africa. • The areas most affected were settled areas with towns and agriculture, which supported black rats. • In contrast, nomadic tribes south of Egypt and in the Sahara did not support rat populations, which prevented spread. The plague lasted much longer in Egypt and Syria, with outbreaks over nearly 170 years.
Did you know? The spread of the plague to Scandinavia is believed to have occurred through a trading ship carrying wool from England. The ship was seen floating off the Norwegian coast and the locals rowed out to examine it. They found the crew dead and decided to take the cargo of bales of wool. Little did they know the bales were full of the deadly plague-carrying fleas.
3.14 SkillBuilder activity USING HISTORICAL SOURCES Some areas of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa were hit harder than others. Use the Worldmap template provided in the digital documents section of the Resources panel to chart the impact of the plague on particular regions. First, plot each of these locations onto the map. You might like to use SOURCE1 to help you locate the original
sites of some of these cities. • London (62 000 deaths) • Paris (80 000 deaths) • Florence (70 000 deaths) • Constantinople (no reliable data) • Cairo (200 000 deaths) • Alexandria (no reliable data)
• Gaza (no reliable data) • Tunis (no reliable data)
• Baghdad (no reliable data) • Damascus (no reliable data) • Tabriz (300 000 deaths) 1. Construct a timeline of when these cities were infected by the Black Death. Some have been mentioned in this lesson, but you might need to do some additional research. 2. Construct a colour gradient to show their chronology (for instance, the far left of the timeline might be red and each following event moves through the spectrum of the rainbow). 3. Add these colours to your map to demonstrate the movement of the plague across the region. 4. Use the mortality count next to each city in the list and make the point on your map bigger to demonstrate the size of the impact.
TOPIC3 Medieval Europe 97
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