The
Great Plague of Marseille was one of the most significant European outbreaks of
bubonic plaguePlague is a deadly infectious disease caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis . Plague is a zoonotic, primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas. Plague is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death and devastation it brought...
in the early 18th century. Arriving in
MarseilleMarseille , formerly known as Massalia , is the 2nd most populous French city as well as the oldest city in France...
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
in 1720, the disease killed 100,000 people in the city and the surrounding provinces. However, Marseille recovered quickly from the plague outbreak. Economic activity took only a few years to recover, as trade expanded to the West Indies and Latin America.
The
Great Plague of Marseille was one of the most significant European outbreaks of
bubonic plaguePlague is a deadly infectious disease caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis . Plague is a zoonotic, primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas. Plague is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death and devastation it brought...
in the early 18th century. Arriving in
MarseilleMarseille , formerly known as Massalia , is the 2nd most populous French city as well as the oldest city in France...
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
in 1720, the disease killed 100,000 people in the city and the surrounding provinces. However, Marseille recovered quickly from the plague outbreak. Economic activity took only a few years to recover, as trade expanded to the West Indies and Latin America. By 1765, the growing population was back at its pre-1720 level.
Outbreak and fatalities
This Great Plague was the last recurrence of an epidemic of bubonic plague in Marseille, since the devastating episodes which began in the fourteenth century with the European
Black DeathThe Black Death was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. It is widely thought to have been an outbreak of bubonic plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, but this view has recently been challenged...
. In 1720, the plague bacillus
yersinia pestisYersinia pestis is a Gram-negative rod-shaped bacterium belonging to the family Enterobacteriaceae. It is a facultative anaerobe that can infect humans and other animals....
arrived at the port of Marseille from the
LevantThe Levant describes, traditionally, the Eastern Mediterranean at large, but can be used as a geographical term that denotes a large area in Western Asia formed by the lands bordering the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, roughly bounded on the north by the Taurus Mountains, on the south by...
. The merchant ship, the
Grand-Saint-Antoine, had departed from
SidonSidon,or Saïda, is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate of Lebanon, on the Mediterranean coast, about 40 km north of Tyre and 40 km south of the capital Beirut. Its name means a fishery...
in
LebanonLebanon , officially the Republic of Lebanon
[Republic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies...]
, having previously called at
SmyrnaSmyrna was the ancient city now in Turkey, represented by modern İzmir. Located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia and aided by its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prominence before the Classical Era....
,
TripoliTripoli is the largest and capital city of Libya.Tripoli has a population of 1.69 million...
, and plague-ridden
CyprusCyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country situated in the eastern Mediterranean, south of Turkey and west of Syria and Lebanon....
. Following the death on board of a Turkish passenger, several crew members fell victim to the plague, including the ship's surgeon. The ship was refused entry to the port of
LivornoLivorno or until recently in English Leghorn , is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno and the third-largest port on the western coast of Italy, having a population of approximately 170,000 residents as of the year...
and, on arrival at Marseille, was promptly placed under quarantine by the port authorities. Due largely to a trade monopoly with the Levant, this important port had a large stock of imported goods in warehouses and was actively expanding its trade with other areas of the Middle East and emerging markets in the New World. Powerful city merchants needed the
silkSilk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from cocoons made by the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
and
cottonCotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant, a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa. The fiber most often is spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft,...
cargo of the ship for the great medieval fair at Beaucaire and pressured authorities to lift the quarantine.
A few days later, the disease broke out in the city. Hospitals were quickly overwhelmed, and residents panicked, driving the sick from their homes and out of the city. Mass graves were dug but were quickly filled. Eventually the number of dead overcame city public health efforts, until thousands of corpses lay scattered and in piles around the city.
Attempts to stop the spread of plague included an Act of Parliament of Aix that levied the death penalty for any communication between Marseille and the rest of Provence. To enforce this separation, a plague wall, the Mur de la Peste, was erected across the countryside. The wall was built of dry stone, 2 m high and 70 cm thick, with guard posts set back from the wall. Remains of the wall can still be seen in different parts of the Plateau de Vaucluse.
During a two-year period, 50,000 of Marseille's total population of 90,000 died, and an additional 50,000 people succumbed as the plague spread north, eventually reaching
Aix-en-ProvenceAix , or Aix-en-Provence to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, is a city in southern France, some north of Marseille...
,
ArlesArles is a city in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the former province of Provence.-Geography:...
,
Apt- As an acronym :*Arbitrage Pricing Theory*Asia-Pacific Telecommunity*Automated Photometric Telescope- Places :* Apt, Vaucluse, a commune of the Vaucluse département of France* Arrondissement of Apt, an arrondissement in the Vaucluse département of France...
and
ToulonToulon is a city in southern France and a large military harbour on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base...
. Estimates indicate an overall death rate of between 25%-50% for the population in the larger area, with the city of Marseille at 40%, the area of Toulon at above 50%, and the area of Aix and Arles at 25%.
Recent research
In 1998, an excavation of a mass grave of victims of the bubonic plague outbreak was conducted by scholars from the Université de la Méditerranée. The excavation provided an opportunity to study more than 200 skeletons from an area in the second
arrondissementThe municipal arrondissement is a subdivision of the commune, used in the three largest cities: Paris, Lyon and Marseille. It functions as an even lower administrative division, with its own mayor...
in Marseille known as the Monastery of the Observance. In addition to modern laboratory testing, archival records were studied to determine the conditions and dates surrounding the use of this mass grave. This multidisciplinary approach revealed previously unknown facts and insights concerning the epidemic of 1722. The reconstruction of the skull of one body, a 15-year-old boy, revealed the first historical evidence of an
autopsyAn autopsy–also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction–is a medical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...
dated to the spring of 1722. The anatomic techniques used appear to be identical to those described in a surgical book dating from 1708.
See also
- List of Bubonic plague outbreaks
- Plague of Justinian
The Plague of Justinian was a pandemic that afflicted the Eastern Roman Empire , including its capital Constantinople, in the years 541–542 AD. The most commonly accepted cause of the pandemic is bubonic plague, which later became infamous for either causing or contributing to the Black Death of...
- Popular revolt in late medieval Europe
Popular revolts in late medieval Europe were uprisings and rebellions by peasants in the countryside, or the bourgeois in towns, against nobles, abbots and kings during the upheavals of the 14th through early 16th centuries, part of a larger "Crisis of the Late Middle Ages"...
- Plague Riot
Plague Riot was a riot in Moscow in 1771 between September 26 and September 28, caused by an outbreak of bubonic plague....
- Third Pandemic
Third Pandemic is the designation of a major plague pandemic that began in the Yunnan province in China in 1855. This episode of bubonic plague spread to all inhabited continents, and ultimately killed more than 12 million people in India and China alone...
- Peasants' Revolt
The Peasants' Revolt, Tyler’s Rebellion, or the Great Rising of AD 1381 was one of a number of popular revolts in late medieval Europe and is a major event in the history of England. Tyler's Rebellion was not only the most extreme and widespread insurrection in English history but also the best...