American Elephants

The Black Death was an amalgam of 3 diseases: bubonic plague, septicemic plague, pulmonary plague. The first two came from fleas carried by the black rat. The third was an airborne variant.

Cautious estimates suggest that 1/3 of the population of Europe perished. 1.4 million to 2 million in England, 8 million in France, 30 million in Europe as a whole. It was a decisive point in the decline of the European feudal system. By 1230 the English population was 6 million. Not until mid-18th century did the population reach this number again.as