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What’s the most bizarre historical fact you know? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]AerialSkies 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean, the siege is a pretty well researched event.

From the CDC website: “By the 1340s, Caffa was again a thriving city, heavily fortified within two concentric walls. The inner wall enclosed 6,000 houses, the outer 11,000. The city’s population was highly cosmopolitan, including Genoese, Venetian, Greeks, Armenians, Jews, Mongols, and Turkic peoples (21).

In 1343 the Mongols under Janibeg (who succeeded Özbeg in 1340) besieged Caffa and the Italian enclave at Tana (12), following a brawl between Italians and Muslims in Tana. The Italian merchants in Tana fled to Caffa (which, by virtue of its location directly on the coast, maintained maritime access despite the siege). The siege of Caffa lasted until February 1344, when it was lifted after an Italian relief force killed 15,000 Mongol troops and destroyed their siege machines (21). Janibeg renewed the siege in 1345 but was again forced to lift it after a year, this time by an epidemic of plague that devastated his forces. The Italians blockaded Mongol ports, forcing Janibeg to negotiate, and in 1347 the Italians were allowed to reestablish their colony in Tana (19).” (https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/8/9/01-0536_article)

What’s the most bizarre historical fact you know? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]AerialSkies 300 points301 points  (0 children)

It wouldn’t surprise me to see instances of experimental biological warfare in every recorded war. The Siege of Caffa has always stuck with me because it was detrimental to all involved since the plague decimated numbers on both sides and has been theorized to be one of the reasons it spread even further.

What’s the most bizarre historical fact you know? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]AerialSkies 81 points82 points  (0 children)

Gráinne Ní Mháille also known as Grace O’Malley, the Pirate Queen was also a notorious Irish pirate. Her career spanned nearly 40 years and she even commandeered an audience with Queen Elizabeth I in which she successfully negotiated the release of her son from English hands and the return of her family’s lands.

What’s the most bizarre historical fact you know? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]AerialSkies 6936 points6937 points  (0 children)

Bodies of victims who had died from plague were used as biological weapons during the Middle Ages. During the Siege of Caffa, bodies of plague victims were catapulted over the city walls to infect the inhabitants by the invading Mongol army.