Trade between countries in the early eastern hemisphere played a primary role in the spread
People of the era rarely bathed, as they thought it was unhealthy, which caused an increase in fleas and the spread of the plague
The plague took almost all of Europe, killing just between a third and two thirds of the population
“In October 1347, the Black Death reached southern Europe when a ship full of infected soldiers returned from Asia to the island of Sicily, just off the coast of Italy” (Marshall Cavensish).