Genoese colony of Caffa

Timeline

1. c. 1266–1320Caffa · CaffaAfter obtaining residence rights in Caffa from the Golden Horde, Genoa built a harbor and established a consulate. In the first two decades of the 14th century, walls and docks were expanded, and the colonial authorities resumed operations—once expelled by Khan Tokhta—with the tacit consent of the khanate, making Caffa Genoa's most secure stronghold in the Black Sea.
2. 1320–1343Caffa · CaffaUnder Uzbek Khan and his successors, Caffa transshipped grain, salt, furs, slaves, and Eastern goods arriving via the steppe and Caucasus, connecting with routes to Tana, Trebizond, and Constantinople. The city's population and multi-ethnic communities peaked in the 1340s.
3. 1343–1346Caffa · CaffaGolden Horde khan Jani Beg attacked the Genoese colony over trade and judicial disputes, besieging Caffa in 1345–1346. Plague broke out among the besieging army; the Piacenza notary Gabriele de' Mussis and others recorded that the besiegers threw the dead into the city. Whether the details of corpse-throwing are true or not, Caffa had become a key port through which the epidemic entered Latin trade routes.
4. 1346–1347Caffa–Messina route · MediterraneanFrom late 1346 to 1347, Genoese and other merchant ships fleeing Caffa carried the plague to Constantinople and Messina in Sicily, from where it spread along Mediterranean ports. Caffa thus shifted from a trade hub to the point of departure for the Black Death's entry into Latin Europe.
5. 1347–1350Caffa · CaffaThe siege and epidemic did not end Genoese rule. After 1347, Caffa quickly resumed consular administration and Black Sea transshipment, continuing as the core of Genoa's overseas colonial system until Ottoman expansion in the 15th century changed the situation.