A series of events took place hundreds of years ago which are remarkable in history, some of them seems to not be related but there is a certain connection between each of them; how the Mongol Empire began their conquest, unleashed a devastating plague in Europe and how it led to the Reformation? The Mongol Empire arose from 1206 to 1368 due to the unification of tribes composed by nomad individuals in Mongolia; these tribes constantly moved searching grazing lands and as the groups were expanding and getting larger, they became strictly organized and structured along military lines that later went under the leadership of Chinggis (Genghis) Khan, who was the first great Khan of the Mongols . The empire grew fast under his rules and began his conquests across the Great Wall of China against the northern kingdoms of the Western Xia Dynasty, the capital city of Jin Dynasty (nowadays known as Beijing), and then expanding all the way to Central Asia and Eastern Europe. After Chinggis passed away, his successors, Ogedei, Mongke, and Kublai continued with the conquests. The Empire connected the east with the west and forced trade, commodities, and ideologies to be dispersed and exchanged across Eurasia.
The ultimate goal of the Mongol Empire was to conquer and expand into different countries and build their kingdom. Being successful in every territory, Mongols encountered many obstacles but the most important one was that they suddenly started to get seriously ill. In 1347, Mongol armies arrived to Genoa and surrounded the trading on the Black Sea, they not only affected negatively links between East Asia and the Mediterranean but also released a catastrophic disease called the bubonic plague or also called Black Death. This disease outbreak in Yunnan around 1320 and spread to all over China and later on to Central Asia; it is infectious, caused by a bacteria and its symptoms are painfully enlarged lymph nodes in different parts of the body (armpits, groin, neck). After leaving Genoa, Mongols got into their ships and took the plague germs on board and by the time they arrived to Sicily half of the passengers were dead and the rest were very ill. “Despite the efforts of being isolated, Europeans could not keep the plague (Black Death) from reaching their shores. As it spread from port to port, it eventually contaminated all of Europe, killing more than half of the population.”
The Black Plague was also defined as “Nasty Killer”. It initially began by infecting rodents and the disease transmitted easily from rodents to humans due to poor people stuck in cities in tight quarters being in contact with those rats especially women because they spent more time at home. Besides the enlarged inflamed lymph nodes, the ill person presented high fevers and it spread to lungs causing pneumonia and by approximately 10 days, the person passed away. The plague was brought to Italy in 1947 due to traders that were returning from China. Later on, Germany, France, England were infected with the disease by 1948. Norway in 1349 and Eastern Europe and Russia in 1350. Although the Mongol armies’ invasions altered all political systems, the plague devastated society itself by killing millions of people (around 50 to 80 millions approximately between 1347-1351). After 1953, the epidemic diminished, but the plague would return every seven years for the rest of the century. On the other hand, besides the massive number of deaths caused by the plague, it was a tragedy in terms of the significant economic disruption that also threw communities into chaos. The economy went down abruptly and inflation increased; it was difficult to procure goods through trade and produce them because workers were ill or dying consequently the imported goods’ prices grow significantly.
Furthermore, there was social disappointment issue going on since famished peasants resented priests and monks for living luxury lives and because the clergy was absent when they were so critically needed. Those who were supposed to take care of the sick were also devastated by the plague and no one did anything about it; for this reason, the people started to criticize and to rebel against the Catholic Church and this discrepancy generated an important disconnection between church and population. Groups like the Beghards challenged the clergy’s religious doctrines and the Church fought back by forcing strict obedience to true faith. “Europeans looked to their own traditions for guidance as they rebuilt after the devastation of the plague, they found inspiration in ancient Greek and Roman institutions. Much later, they coined the word Renaissance to characterize the cultural flourishing of the Italian city” .
Afterward, certain priests began to oppose against the Church because they perceived that there were false doctrines and malpractice of the religion as well as the Church being corrupt and taking advantage of people by selling indulgence. This provoked the beginning of The Reformation which started as a way to reform the Roman Catholic Church.