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HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Brief History of the World. Part 2. Major Epidemics

that Changed History.
Balaji Viswanathan

In the spring of 1519, a renegade Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés arrived at the
shores of Mexico. He was not supposed to be there and openly defied the orders of his
superiors such as the Spanish Governor of Cuba. Three decades after the discovery of
Americas, the Spanish limited themselves to the Caribbean islands fearing the mighty
powers of Aztec, Maya and Inca empires of the mainland.

Cortes was probably too headstrong to listen to the existing practices. He entered into the
Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in Mexico in November 1519. A month before that he had
ravaged another Aztec city and murdered all the aristocrats to send the Aztec emperor a
message. However, the Aztec emperor Moctezuma II let Cortes enter his city as the
emperor was curious to understand the methods of this new culture. He also lavished
Cortes with an enormous number of gold and other jewelry that produced a raging thirst
within Cortes. If the gifts were more modest, it is possible that Cortes might not have
bothered so much. Now, he knew of the amazing wealth.

Cortes was then allowed to be a guest in the emperor's palace. The renegade Conquistador
then used that opportunity to capture the emperor himself as a hostage. While keeping
him as a hostage, the Spaniards also were involved in massacres like the Massacre in the
Great Temple . For unknown reasons Moctezuma was eventually killed and this enraged
the already angry Aztec people. They quickly threw out Cortes and his men.

If it were in another place, another time, they would have been very alert next time the
Spanish arrived and would have also learned the ways of these new people. Spain might
have never conquered the mainland even with their tech superiority. Aztec kings were
very curious to learn new things and given a few decades they might also have adopted to
guns, swords and horses.

However, when Cortes arrived next year, he found the Aztec civilization completely
changed. Most of its people were dead. A whole civilization was chillingly dystopian.
Cortes praised the divine luck and quickly take over Mexico and central America.

What happened in that one year timeframe?

As misfortune would have it, one of the people left behind by Cortes was infected with
Smallpox contracted while fighting another group of Spaniards. The native Americans
were hardly used to epidemics, leave alone something as brutal as Smallpox. The Aztecs
died in droves and these undisposed dead bodies kept spreading the epidemic.

The epidemic kept spreading around the Americas far faster than Spanish could sail.
Central American cultures were wiped and it reached South America. In South America,
the Incas had setup a very efficient road system that unfortunately helped speed up the
epidemic. Inca emperors caught the disease and died list most of the population. The later
rulers were infighting and with an obliterated population could not match the Spaniards.
Spain conquered the Americas through a stroke of luck wildly beyond their imaginations.

The lucky few native Americans who survived the Smallpox were quickly attacked by a
bout of Measles that ravaged Cuba, Honduras and various parts of South America with a
vengeance.

History of the new world was changed with a microscopic germ.

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Epidemics
According to the research published here - ORIGINS OF MAJOR HUMAN INFECTIOUS
DISEASES - most of the major human diseases came after the invention of agriculture
and the domestication of animals. Smallpox and measles came from the cow, bubonic
plague from rats, for instance. Almost all the major diseases are from the AfroEurasia with
very little of major epidemics that we know of originated from the Americas.

Given that epidemics often require close contact with the animals and a dense
population, it is not surprising why Americas and Africa didn't originate many epidemics.
They didn't have much animal contact due to the lack of domestication of animals and
didn't have as many urban centers.

The 12 history changing diseases that killed the most were the Bubonic Plague, Smallpox,
Measles, Influenza, Typhoid, Malaria, Cholera, HIV/AIDS, Syphilis, Tuberculosis, Polio
and Yellow Fever.

 Other than Smallpox we discussed at the start, here are some of the history changing
epidemic spreads:

The Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918

In 1918 came a threat to the world that was even greater than the First World War that was
being waged that time. In fact, in one year that epidemic killed far more than the entire
war did. Hundred years later the origin of the flu still remains a mystery with sources
hypothesized range from meteor fall to more mundane starts in Kansas or China. The
movement of soldiers across the world led to this very quick spread.

It remains the grandest of all epidemics affecting nearly a third of the world population
and killing as many as 100 million people. No other epidemic killed as many people in
such short a time. India was the one to have the most victims with the epidemic killing
millions and leaving even Mahatma Gandhi ill. The illnesses across India along with the
world war dampened the freedom movement for a while.

The flu is often termed the Spanish Flu as the war time meant that most countries
censored their press and didn't reveal the epidemic. Spain stayed out of the war and thus
report the full gory. Despite it not being the worst affected people thought it was the
affected the most and termed it after Spain.

The Bubonic Plagues and World History

While the Influenza takes the cake in most victims taken, it is the Bubonic Plague that
takes the lead in its impact on history, especially European history. The first major plague
attack in 541 - termed the Plague of the Justinian - shook the Byzantine empire and
prevented it from a reunification with the Western Roman empire - forever changing the
history of Europe. It also weakened the Byzantines enough that their response to the
Arabs from a century then was relatively feeble leading to further domination of Islam.
Some even believe that the plague might have made it easier for the Germanic tribes
(Angles and Saxons) to invade Britain and bring their Anglo-Saxon culture there.

The second Bubonic plague of 1348 went even one further up. By this time, the Mongols
had built elaborate trade routes connecting Asia, Europe and North Africa. More trade
meant greater epidemic spread. Starting from China spread this second plague that
ravaged countries like Italy. Some nations lost as many as 90% of their populace. The
plague that ravaged most of the known world possibly caused dynastic shifts across the
world. Within a few decades, new empires would crop up in India and China and the
Europeans would reach new heights in exploration. It is argued that the plague's
decimation of the population - especially the peasant population helped Europe focus
more on mechanization [to account for lost workers] and also treat them well [leading to
enlightenment] ending the feudalistic period.

A different plague termed the Antonine Plague of 165 CE [possibly a Smallpox epidemic]
also ravaged the Roman empire and might have led to the weakening and the eventual
end of the Roman empire.

Cholera Epidemics of the 19th century

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Starting from the early 19th century India a number of Cholera epidemics shook India,
Russia and other parts of the world. It is not clear from Indian history whether the disease
was present earlier or it came mainly as a result of the poor management of the British
East India Company.

Regardless of its origins, there were six major Cholera epidemics in the 19th century and a
seventh in the 1960s. Tens of millions died over these 7 episodes. These weakened India
and many other parts of the world and also possibly dampened the opposition against the
British rule. After the end of the sixth Cholera epidemic, coincidentally India's freedom
movement also picked steam.

HIV/AIDS Epidemic
In 1981 five gay men in Los Angeles were diagnosed with a rare respiratory illness. By the
end of the year, hundreds of gay men were dead. Scientists didn't know what this virus
had to do with homosexuality. Later they trade the origins to the HIV virus and found that
it might have moved from the Chimpanzees to the humans due to some blood contact -
either while hunting for bushmeat or other contacts. The earlies of this attack occurred in
Congo and probably lied low for a couple of decades. Then one of the patients [some say it
was a Canadian steward guy] who contracted had intimate relationships and led to the
start of the epidemic.

In just a decade since its discovery it became the biggest killer disease in the world. The
disease pushed many of the African nations that were just climbing out of poverty back in
despair.

Like many other environmental factors, diseases shaped our human civilization and
history. Without these epidemics the histories of Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa might
have turned out very different.

To be continued...
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