The Black Death killed over 20 million Europeans and 60 million Chinese.

Evidence

Ostensibly, it was the revolt in the eastern end of the Mongol Empire, a revolt that would culminate in the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, which provided the chaotic conditions for the vermin to multiply. The account of the plague left by Ibn al-Ward (who died of plague at Aleppo in 1349) has been generally accepted: it began somewhere in what al-Ward termed “The Land of Darkness” (Yunnan-Burma) before 1331; it then spread to China and northern Asia, and then to central Asia and eastern Europe—all the time following the Mongol trade route between the Mediterranean and China; by the end of 1347, it crossed from Caffa on the Black Sea to the Sicilian port of Messina; within three years, it is estimated, more than 20 million Europeans (one-third to one-half the population of Europe) had joined the more than 60 million Chinese dead. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 472

Ostensibly, it was the revolt in the eastern end of the Mongol Empire, a revolt that would culminate in the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, which provided the chaotic conditions for the vermin to multiply. The account of the plague left by Ibn al-Ward (who died of plague at Aleppo in 1349) has been generally accepted: it began somewhere in what al-Ward termed “The Land of Darkness” (Yunnan-Burma) before 1331; it then spread to China and northern Asia, and then to central Asia and eastern Europe—all the time following the Mongol trade route between the Mediterranean and China; by the end of 1347, it crossed from Caffa on the Black Sea to the Sicilian port of Messina; within three years, it is estimated, more than 20 million Europeans (one-third to one-half the population of Europe) had joined the more than 60 million Chinese dead.” — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 472

Categorization

• XREF: The figures and trade-route itinerary for the plague extend the world-systems picture in the chapter; note Ibn al-Ward’s authenticity has since been questioned. — connects to: The Black Death restored Europe’s degraded ecosystems as population collapsed — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 269
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 472