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Between 1204–1261 and again in
1296–1307, the city of Caffa was ruled by Genoa's chief rival, the
Republic of Venice. In the late 13th century, traders from the Republic
of Genoa arrived and purchased the town from the ruling Golden Horde.
They established a flourishing trading settlement called Caffa (or
Kaffa), which virtually monopolised trade in the Black Sea area and
served as the chief port and administrative centre for the Genoese
settlements around the Sea. It came to house one of Europe's biggest
slave markets. Under Genoa since 1266, Caffa was governed by a Genoese
consul, who since 1316 was in charge of all Genoese Black Sea colonies.
It is believed that the devastating pandemic the Black Death entered
Europe for the first time via Caffa in 1347, through the movements of
the Golden Horde. After a protracted siege during which the Mongol army
under Janibeg was reportedly withering from the disease, they catapulted
the infected corpses over the city walls, infecting the inhabitants, in
one of the first cases of biological warfare. Fleeing inhabitants may
have carried the disease back to Italy, causing its spread across
Europe. However, the plague appears to have spread in a stepwise
fashion, taking over a year to reach Europe from Crimea. Also, there
were a number of Crimean ports under Mongol control, so it is unlikely
that Caffa was the only source of plague-infested ships heading to
Europe. In addition, there were overland caravan routes from the East
that would have been carrying the disease into Europe as well.[2] Caffa
recovered. The thriving, culturally diverse city and its thronged slave
market were described by the Spanish traveller Pedro Tafur, who was
there in the 1430s. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffa#Caffa
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