has been common on all ships for the entirety of human history, the Genoese vessels had rats. Unknown to the Genoese, those rats were carrying bubonic plague. The Genoese’s first stop was Constantinople, the Singapore of the day. Within five years, nearly all of the European, Russian, and North African world was battling the worst epidemic in regional history. Ultimately, one-third of the region’s population was wiped out, with population densities not restored for 150 years.*
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