Born Then1346–1353
Life during the Black Death
Be born in a place it hit, a few years before it began, and see what it did to five ordinary lives.
What it meant for ordinary people
Plague came out of Central Asia, reached the Black Sea in 1346 and spread through the Mediterranean, Europe and the Middle East by 1353. It killed between a third and a half of the people in many places, rich and poor. Labour became scarce, so survivors who worked the land often earned more than their parents had.
Deaths: about 25 to 50 million in Europe, 30 to 60 percent of its people; Egypt and the Middle East also lost about a third.
How hard it hits each person in the game (risk of death, of being conscripted, of leaving) comes from scholarly estimates.
Around the same time
- Indian Ocean slave trade 700–1799
- Rise of Great Zimbabwe 1200–1450
- Hundred Years' War 1337–1453
- Black Death 1346–1353
- Return of the plague 1360–1400