Historical World Pandemics

1855

In Cuba there are no people of Amerindian descent. Could the Columbine Exchange be responsible for this? A pandemic is the worst case scenario for an infectious disease. A disease officially becomes a pandemic when it has spread beyond a country’s borders. The image shown here is of from the 1855 pandemic and is of interest as for the first time ever images of a pandemic were photographed.

Presented here is a journey along the path the major outbreaks of diseases in the world traversed from antiquity. History only became an academic discipline in mid 19^th century Germany. Also the Gregorian calendar we currently use was introduced in 1582. However, major plagues have shaped the course of humanity in numerous ways. The focus here is not on statistics and gruesome details: 

430 B.C.: The Plague at Athens, mainly in the area of Greece, the Mediterranean, Africa, Egypt, and Persia. It started during the Peloponnesian war. DNA collected from teeth in an ancient burial pit points to typhoid fever as being the cause and the disease was transmitted via contaminated food and water.

165 A.D.: The Antonine Plague, or the Plague of Galen. There were two outbreaks in about 100 years. Affected was the Mediterranean area and most likely the disease came through the Silk Road. This plague could have caused the fall of the Roman Empire.

250-270 A.D.: The Cyprian Plague which affected Ethiopia, Syria, Northern Africa, and Europe. One of the significant events of this time was that fields were abandoned, farmers died and agricultural production collapsed.

541-542 A.D.: Justinian Plague. Outbreaks continued for 225 years. Affected were Constantinople, Egypt, Palestine, and the Mediterranean. It was transmitted by the black rat. Also affected were India, China, and Africa. DNA analysis shows it was a bubonic plague – yersinia pestis. One of the effects of this plague was to weaken the Byzantine Empire, and this allowed the Arabs to encroach.

11th Century: Leprosy, Europe. This outbreak was such that in 1200 A.D. an estimated 19,000 leprosy hospitals existed all over Europe. The most ancient evidence of leprosy came from a 4,000 year old human skeleton in India. Genetical analysis shows the disease evolved over 100,000 years ago in Eastern Africa or Southwestern Asia.

1350 A.D.: The Black Death:  Eurasia, Europe and Africa. This is the most devastating pandemic recorded in human history. It is estimated to have killed 30 t0 60% of Europe’s population and created religious, social and economic upheavals.

1492 A.D.: The Columbian Exchange: Brought by Columbus to Caribbean and Americas. The natives carried none of the acute infectious diseases that that affected Eurasia and Africa. Among these diseases, malaria and yellow fever destroyed almost all the population of the Caribbean and the Americas. In return syphilis most likely spread from the Americas to the Europe.

1665 A.D.: The Great Plague of London: In January, an outbreak erupted in St Giles-in-the-Field, then a small impoverished village west of London. Unsanitary conditions were attributed to this plague.

1817 A.D.: First Cholera Pandemic: This is the first of seven cholera pandemics over the next 150 years. Affected were Russia, India, Britain, Spain, Africa, Indonesia, China, Japan, Italy, Germany and America. British soldiers in India were among the dead. The rapidity and virulence with which the disease struck, took everyone by surprise.

1855 A.D.: The Third Plague Pandemic. This plague ravaged the globe. It reached all continents. Hong Kong was able to isolate the bacillus that caused it. This pandemic was the first to be photographed and left an extraordinary legacy of visual material.

1875 A.D.: The Fiji Measles Pandemic was spread by the British. Fiji, in the South Pacific is comprised of 850 islands but only about 100 are inhabited. At this time, Europeans were expanding trade throughout the pacific islands, including Fiji. King Cakobau and some other Fijian chiefs signed the Deed of Cession which handed the Fiji islands to Great Britain. The king sailed to Sydney, Australia in December of 1874 and returned January of 1875. Some of the men on his ship still had contagious cases of measles which started the epidemic. 

1889 A.D.: The Russian Flu: Affected were Siberia, Kazakhstan, Moscow, Finland, the rest of Europe, North America and Africa. At that time, trains and ships alone sped the transmission of the flu so that it reached the U.S. 70 days after the virus' first peak in St. Petersburg and circled the globe in just a few months.

1918 A.D.: The Spanish Flu, now called the 1918 Flu pandemic: It decimated Europe, the United States and parts of Asia. Also called La Pesadilla, it was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic. Lasting from January 1918 to December 1920, it infected about a quarter of the world's population at the time. The virus that caused the swine flu and H1N1 are sub types of this virus.

1957 A.D.: The Asian flu: Affected Hong Kong, Singapore, India, UK, US, China, United States and England The strain of virus that caused the pandemic, was a recombination of avian influenza (probably from geese) and human influenza viruses. As it was a novel strain of the virus, there was minimal immunity in the population. A vaccine was available from October in the UK, although it was only available initially in limited quantities, its rapid deployment helped contain the pandemic. The flu continued to circulate until 1968, when it transformed into a sub type and caused the 1968 influenza pandemic.

1981 A.D.: HIV/AIDS: Initially Africa, Haiti, United States. It is widely believed that HIV originated in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo around 1920 when HIV crossed species from chimpanzees to humans. Available data suggests that the current epidemic started in the mid- to late 1970s. By 1980, HIV may have already spread to North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Australia. By 2017 for the first time ever, more than half of the global population living with HIV are receiving an antiretroviral treatment. There is robust scientific evidence that people who have adhered to treatment and achieved an undetectable viral load cannot pass the virus on.

2003 A.D.: SARS: Global. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was first discovered in Asia in February 2003. The outbreak lasted approximately six months as the disease spread to more than two dozen countries in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia before it was stopped in July 2003. A SARS-like virus has been isolated from civets (captured in areas of China where the SARS outbreak originated). CDC banned the importation of civets. The ban is currently still in effect.

They Were Ready When the Earthquakes Came

In this age of modernity, given the vast almost unsolvable environmental problems on the planet, the search continues for eco-friendly houses made from eco-friendly material. Well, look no further than the Hakka people in the Fujian province of China for answers that even the Chinese themselves consider a rarity. Some people in ancient times had the knowledge that we don't practice anymore! Tulou are rammed earth structures that for hundreds of years have survived material aging, natural weathering and very importantly strong earthquakes, bearing in mind the Fujian Province of China is an earthquake prone area, this is a smart thing. The structures are reinforced by wooden and bamboo strips. Since the 11^th century, Hakka Tulou have gotten cracks from earthquakes but resulted in no structural damage. It has even been reported that some of the cracks self healed. I imagine this self healing is similar to that which happens to small cracks in concrete due to the presence of lime.

The Hakka people lived in aclass-free, egalitarian community based on mutual respect, in a harmonious relationship with the environment and their homes are an outstanding example of human settlement. These dwellings have such outstanding universal value; many are listed as UNESCO heritagesites. Their buildings are mainly circular with some square shapes. The design may be a reflection of their wish for family unity based in the I Ching, the Chinese system of divination. The Tulou are called China’s forgotten coliseums. A Tulou structure may be up to 5 stories high and capable of housing up to 800 people.

Nowadays, the Tulou lifestyle is under threat as young people move to the cities. Remaining people rely on tourism rather thanfarming. What a loss! Imagine falling asleep in a room of thick  earthen walls while listening to the sounds of a trickling stream nearby in a safe and secure environment. That’s a few lifetimes of serenity rolled into one. Those walls were a good source of defense from animals, invaders and earthquakes, but hmm, would they survive a drone attack today.....humanity is forever at a crossroads!

Video from You Tube, reflects sadness at the changes taking place. 

What does Tartar Sauce Have to do with the Shape Shifting Human Psyche?

Some subjects stir up more questions than answers. For example, who truly were the Tatars or Tartars and where was the great global empire of Tartary? It is recorded that there were Great Tartary, Little Tartary, Chinese Tartary and Independent Tartary. History as an academic discipline is a fairly new and had its origins in 19th century Germany. To figure what went on before academically is sometimes accomplished by putting pieces together from here and there in a biased fashion, depending on the point of view of the authors.  When relying on historical accounts, are we just being served up fractions of the truth? In the case of Tartary, was there  conquests and cover ups for political reasons? Was Tartary mainly an Islamic world? How advanced scientifically was it?  It seems that Tartarian related matters have disappeared from many lexicons and to a large extent from the face of the planet. 

Eastern Hemisphere showing Tartary in gray. It was huge. 

Reference to The Tartars were made as recently as the 19th century. We can find hard historical evidence including maps. Considering that the magnetic north pole is now moving from Canada into the direction of Russia, speculation is fueled that the land mass could have actually been different at that time. This is very interesting to conceive of. There has been speculation about the Bering Land Ridge as a point of connectivity. Also the Chinese would have had a different method of recording events than that of Europe. What is the real history behind the Great Wall of China? The curious land Tibet? Then there is the romantic aspect of this subject in novels like Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, legends of Genghis Khan and the Mongol invasions. Words travel, morph and their meanings, sometimes by misnomer, find new life in the human mind in exotic faraway locales. Who would think to associate the Scottish tartan with Tartary (see image below)? And tartar sauce is a word that found its way to North America via Europe - tartare. The conquest driven Tartars (hated but influential) wound their way into western Europe and brought their habit of eating raw ground meat - steak tartare. The sauce for steak tartare became known as tartar sauce. We use 'tartar' sauce in today's particular English food lingo, unmindful of the travel path of the word through the minds of countless peoples of different languages and cultures, from the far reaches of one end of the globe to the other, transforming the word's etymology through the centuries. The Tartars sadly are no more, disappeared from our consciousness, but given the almost cyclical nature of life on this earth, maybe they could arise again in a new way, under a new name as long as the psychic pull of language is deposited in the human psyche with everyday use. This post contains some empirical evidence that would hopefully pique people’s interest to explore more. There is no doubt that Tartary and the Tartarians existed. Shall Tartary live on as romantic figments of our imagination or not at all? Uncovering layers of the past could be quite intriguing even though we have to view things through the lens of countless wars and change. 

Tartarin reference: from book by Ian Mortimer

Was Tartary in North America?

The graphics below include: 

• Declassified CIA information with mention of the Tartars.
• Another intriguing eastern hemisphere map. 
• Another world map showing a close connection to North America and the Bering strait.
• Map and description of the countries of the eastern hemisphere, 1820.
• List of countries of the 'known world.'
• Encyclopedic reference to Tartary.
• Flags of the countries of the east, including Tartary.
• The Tartarians. 

Who were these flesh and blood people and what were the stories of their joys and sorrows, triumphs and defeats? The stories of husbands, wives and children? Are they a lost people or were they just absorbed by shifting national boundaries? Maybe, sadly, we will never really know. But the power to rewrite history as some see fit perseveres. For it is has been said that history is written by the victors.                                                   

Declassified CIA information

Another Eastern Hemisphere map

               

Another world map showing a different configuration of the planet's land mass and possible Tartar influence in North America

1820 Then known countries of the eastern hemisphere

List of countries

Encyclopedia reference

Tartary flag listed in flag of countries

The Tartars

Fascinating Historical Event that Never Repeated Itself: the Dancing Plague of Medieval Europe

Also called St. John’s dance, St. Vitus’ dance, dancing mania, dancing plague - this was a social phenomenon that gripped medieval Europe between the 14^th and 17^th century. The earliest known outbreak was in the 7^th century. People would dance in the street for hours, days and months. Dancing outbreaks would attract thousands of men, women and children.  Was it caused by a fungus or did the dancers belong to a deviant cult? Was it a mental disorder or people just trying to fit in? Or was this just plain mass hysteria or maybe communal stress relief? Were they on drugs? There were no videos or photos in those days. In fact history as an academic discipline was not invented yet.  People relied on artists to paint and engrave events that happened. The drawing below called ‘Dancing Mania on a pilgrimage to the Church at Sint-Jans-Molenbeek,’ is a 1642 engraving by Hendrick Hondius. 

Dancing mania was not an isolated event. It happened all over Europe. The treatment was to have musicians accompany the dancers. This of course, attracted more dancers. One helluva of a party one must say! Where did the dancers get time for anything else? No one has agreed on the cause for this.

                This mania may have led to the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin and the southern European tradition of tarantism. Some dancers would travel from place to place, some wore colorful attire and some carried wooden sticks. Some wore garlands in their hair. Some were naked, some had intercourse, some acted like animals, and some screamed, laughed and cried. Some became violent on seeing the color red. Of course the dancers suffered resulting illnesses. Some became ecstatic and maybe the dancing could have been contagious. Prayers were made and pilgrimages undertaken to fix the problem. Exorcisms were performed. The participants were said to be mentally disturbed, some called it a festival and others thought the dances were staged. But the strange thing is this all stopped abruptly and the world has not seen the likes of this again.

                A few strange things have happened in the world since this time, but the only thing that closely matches this is the Tanganyika laughter epidemic in 1962. 

                                                  Enjoy this animated You Tube video.

A Secret City within a City

On November 9, 2019, the Corporation of the City of London will celebrate its 804^th Lord Mayor’s Show. This Corporation is also called the Square Mile. It is the richest financial center in the world (with a few conspiracy theories thrown in). So it is an extremely wealthy and powerful place. It is home to some 7,000 people.

Keep in mind, there are two Londons, the one discussed here is the ‘secret city.’ It is unique with its own complicated history: a city within a city and a country within a country. (The other London is Westminister). Before the Romans came, the city was Caer Lud, said to be founded around 130 BC. Lud was a Celtic king. Then came the Romans!  At one time the city, then called Londinium, was the capital of the Roman province of Britannia........then followed the Saxons, the Jutes, period of abandonment, resettlement, and so on to the present day!

The city within the city

The Corporation has its own government.  The mayor of the city of London has no jurisdiction over the Corporation of the city of London, neither does the monarchy. The Corporation, however, has a representative, the remembrancer, in parliament to watch for the Corporation's interests. Laws passed in parliament do not necessarily apply to them. The Corporation has its own flag and coat of arms.The Corporation also owns property outside its border.

Coat of Arms

Even way back when the British crown was replaced with Parliament, the Corporation of the City of London retained its own laws and practices, its assets and its ancient privileges persisted. The corporation itself is 950 years old. There is some clamor for change today. However, zeitgeist lives on. Imagine you can handle something 2,000 years old for real right there in the Square Mile. If you are ever in London, you can step into the ruins of London's Roman Amphitheatre and discover the hidden history. And who knows what else is there to be discovered if any of those layers underground were to ever be revealed. 

Flag

Petticoats, Tails and Teachers

Tuxedo tails is the height of elegance in men’s wear today. And boys wear dresses to get christened. And the doctored images we see of macho pirates in the movies, history may have fooled us. Some of those pirates may have worn dresses. The pirates of that time lived before cameras. And Cristobal Colon (aka Christopher Columbus) who knows what he wore!

Franklin D R

The petticoat has a long and interesting history in Europe and later North America.  Some men wore them as part of their dress (yes like dresses) ensemble all the way into adulthood. A sword at the side was one way of distinguishing men from women as they both wore dresses. Both boys and girls, in Europe and America wore dresses until the boy generally was breeched as his signal into male hood. It was easier to potty train that way, one would assume. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Smithsonian - 1884), wore a dress until the age of 6 or 7 when he was breeched. Who knows what poor people wore, since their story is not in recorded history?  Ragged hand me downs possibly.The throwaway society did not exist then. The petticoats demise happened shortly after WW1, but the fashion industry has been known to tinker with petticoats occasionally. 

Several vintage images circling around on the internet showing a teacher’s contract have been claimed by many. This was common for school districts of North America in the 19^th and early 20^th century. The one in this picture is from 1923. At that time women’s suffrage was a huge issue between liberals and conservatives. (No politics intended).  Among other things our dear teacher was never to be married and had to stay away from the company of men. And she needed permission to leave town. That list is indeed laughable today. I don’t think the rule about ice cream will fly with today’s teacher. That she had to wear two petticoats, not one, well, if worn by today’s teachers, might be quite a radical fashion statement. Why not? The sisters of old survived wearing them,  winter and all.

Modern epigenetic theories may yet come to the rescue of those men who are more comfortable packaged in dresses. They may, however, have to forego the sword at the side. How could they drive the SUV with a sword? If history was rewritten, Johnny Depp in a dress prancing around in Pirates of the Caribbean would probably not have been resulted in those films raking in the billions of dollars. Those tails that are the summum bonum of the tuxedo fashionistas are after all the remnants a dress that was left open to reveal the petticoat underneath. One is left to wonder what the world would have been like had selfies been around in those bygone days.

1507 - A Bygone World, on the Doorstep of Discovery

Geographical Exploration: Waldseemuller'sUniversalis Cosmographia (1507)

Imagine the challenge of having to carve a wood stamp (for printing) so large; it needed to be done in 12 separate blocks. It had to be large because they were preparing to print a map of the world!! This ancient art form of woodcutting goes back thousands of years. The method uses a relief technique in which the images are carved on the surface of a block of wood. Woodblock printing as it is also called exists today as a unique hobby. When this map was being made, it was shortly after Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ the new world. Since this map was created in Europe, it reflected the latest discoveries that were known at the time (early sixteenth century) by the Europeans. It shows that they knew a lot about Africa and China but very little of the western hemisphere. This is the first time that both the Pacific Ocean and America were recognized on a map. America was named after Amerigo Vespucci. Can you imagine having a whole continent named after you? There is only one copy of this map left and is the most expensive map in the world. It is housed at the U.S. Library of Congress. And it was bought for $10,000,000. The map is supposed to be created using ‘Ptolemy’s projection’. How did the mapmakers figure out where north was? I think they almost had the shape of America right, if not the size. I wonder how many flat earthers were around at that time and what they thought happened when a person arrived at the end of the Pacific Ocean. Did people fall off? This is an enticing peek into a bygone world. There is no North or South Pole. Cape of Good Hope seems almost to be an afterthought. How did the wood cutters match up the different pieces? Where did they get the ideas of the shape and size of countries from? What was the daily life of the woodcutters like? How many months did they spend on making this map? Did the project outlive them? Did they have families? What were their work spaces like? If only one could travel back to this time of discovery in Europe just for a day!

Compare this to the map of the world today!

Anyway here's the formal scoop:

Martin Waldseemüller’s 1507 world map grew out of an ambitious project in St. Dié, near Strasbourg, France, during the first decade of the sixteenth century, to document and update new geographic knowledge derived from the discoveries of the late fifteenth and the first years of the sixteenth centuries. Waldseemüller’s large world map was the most exciting product of that research effort, and included data gathered during Amerigo Vespucci’s voyages of 1501–1502 to the New World. Waldseemüller christened the new lands "America" in recognition of Vespucci ’s understanding that a new continent had been uncovered as a result of the voyages of Columbus and other explorers in the late fifteenth century. This is the only known surviving copy of the first printed edition of the map, which, it is believed, consisted of 1,000 copies. Waldseemüller’s map supported Vespucci’s revolutionary concept by portraying the New World as a separate continent, which until then was unknown to the Europeans. It was the first map, printed or manuscript, to depict clearly a separate Western Hemisphere, with the Pacific as a separate ocean. The map represented a huge leap forward in knowledge, recognizing the newly found American landmass and forever changing the European understanding of a world divided into only three parts—Europe, Asia, and Africa.