the bubonic plague, spread by rats bitten bye infected fleas
Black Death or The Black Plague was spread by fleas that were on rats. The Industrial Revolution could be the cause of its rapid spreading, but the cause is actually disputed by many scientists and historians. Many think it spread just because of how contagious it was.
plague
It spread from Asia to Europe and was found in all towns and cities. It killed around 40-50% of all people living at that time.
It depends on which plague, but yes. Many viruses can be spread without touching a person due to the virus mutating and becoming airborne, or if the inflicted person touchs something that somebody else then touches.
epidemic
This was a very vague question, but I belive the word you are looking for is "Plague"
rats
The rats and fleas carried the black death ** Correction... Rat fleas carried the Bubonic Plague. There is still speculation as to whether the black death was actually bubonic plague as there are very many differences between the pandemics. One theory is that the black death was actually Ebola.
i won't pretend I'm an expert at this, but i believe the silk road spread over many miles and the plague spread through those in trade to those in villages and so on. therefore making it somewhat like a wildfire
Rats, lack of sanitation and lack of understanding of how sanitation keeps germs from spreading.
It traveled by ship, because they used ships to go many places that we use airplanes for now. It also traveled by human beings going from one place to another on foot or horses. It spread quickly due to the fact that the people did not understand how to prevent it and did not have any effective medicines for it. When a person died of the plague, their corpse often spread the plague, because many times the dead were not buried quickly due to so many people being sick. The priests would visit the sick and they spread the plague themselves that way, unknowingly. The people who were sick were not always quarantined so they had contact with people that they then gave the plague to. There were traveling bands of people who thought the way to stop the plague was to beat themselves with whips, and they spread the plague from place to place, because they went from town to town preaching that the people needed to repent and punish themselves in order for God to deliver them of this plague.