It is interesting to consider that the Mongol conquests in Asia, much like the Spanish conquests in America, were facilitated by a weapon they did not know they had.
It’s also interesting in that is the opposite of the book “Guns, germs and steel” likes to tell. Apparently China is the place where the disease come from due to being more urbanized early with more interactions with domesticated animals. Europe just had enough interactions with Asia to have all the disease exported to them and were the first to do real exploration.
If I remember correctly, the thesis of that booked talked about the Old World more broadly. This would include Europe, China, and the North coast of Africa as the disease producing centers.