List of historical plagues

List of historical plagues

In human history, the term "plague" refers to an epidemic disease causing a high rate of mortality, i.e. a pestilence. An epidemic—disease outbreaks that strike a large number of people in an area at the same time—may also become a pandemic when it spreads over a wide geographical area or throughout many countries. Bubonic plague, typhus, smallpox, cholera, yellow fever, influenza, scarlet fever, malaria, diphtheria, and poliomyelitis are some infectious diseases that have resulted in epidemic or pandemic outbreaks.

Plagues of disease are a major factor in the development of human civilization, impacting and altering the course of wars, migrations, population growth, urbanization, industry, and cultural development. The term carries such extreme connotations that it is often synonymous with a "calamity", projecting an image of a disastrous evil or affliction.

Plagues in history

Plagues retain an important place in human history. Humanity has always been vulnerable to and fearful of infectious disease, which has wrought misery, devastation, and havoc throughout the world since ancient times. Times of pestilence have interrupted human affairs and brought great suffering which, in historic times, has often been described and reported in detail. Outbreaks result in extreme loss of life and damage to institutions and economies.

In early cities, large populations were concentrated into crowded communities that often had limited access to fresh water and unregulated disposal of waste. In these communities, waves of disease, whatever the agent of infection, created terror and panic. Accounts of armies that were depleted or defeated by bouts of infection stretch back to the ancient world, and epidemics have frequently ruined the plans and ambitions of military leaders.

Two well-known examples of the impact of disease on history are the Black Death, which periodically visited various peoples throughout Asia and Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries, and the overwhelming pandemics of measles and smallpox, as well as other Eurasian diseases, which Europeans brought to peoples in the New World. Both of these devastating occurrences were made more severe by the fact that each population was "biologically naïve". When a population that has been relatively isolated is exposed to a new disease or a group of new diseases, it has no inborn resistance; the human body succumbs at a much higher rate, resulting in what is known as a "virgin soil" epidemic.

During the disease outbreak of the Middle Ages, the single word "plague" was associated with a disease which reached epidemic and even pandemic proportions in Asia and Europe. The disease has frequently been mistakenly identified as bubonic plague and its variants, a somewhat-contagious febrile disease caused by the bacillus "Yersinia pestis", which can be spread by fleas from rodents to humans. However, recent investigations have repudiated this theory, with current research suggesting that the ongoing outbreaks were caused by a viral hemorrhagic disease, perhaps similar to Ebola.cite book
last = Scott |first=Susan, and C. J. Duncan
title = Return of the Black Death: The World's Greatest Serial Killer
year=2004
publisher=John Wiley & Sons
location=England
isbn=0470090014
date = 2004-07-01
accessdate = 2008-07-17
]

The disease was known in isolated pockets in Asia but had rarely been seen west of the Byzantine empire. Sweeping outbreaks in Medieval Europe drastically decreased the population, disrupting several vital civilizations and are considered to have significantly altered the course of human affairs.

Before the European arrival, the Americas had been largely isolated from the Eurasian–African landmass. First large-scale contacts between Europeans and native people of the American continents brought overwhelming pandemics of measles and smallpox, as well as other Eurasian diseases. These diseases spread rapidly among native peoples, often ahead of actual contact with Europeans, and led to a drastic drop in population and the collapse of American cultures. Smallpox and other diseases invaded and crippled the Aztec and Inca civilizations in Central and South America in the 16th century. This disease, with loss of population and death of military and social leaders, contributed to the downfall of both American empires and the subjugation of American peoples to Europeans.

Diseases, however, passed in both directions; syphilis was carried back from the Americas and swept through the European population, decimating large numbers.

Ongoing danger

The danger posed by epidemic disease has not been eliminated by modern health and hygiene practices. The ever-enlarging human population, rapid international transportation, developing resistance to medication by known disease agents, insect resistance to insecticides, and medical complacency have all generated new strains of old diseases and increased the possibility of epidemics caused by emerging new diseases.

Major plague outbreaks

This list contains famous or well-documented outbreaks of plagues or disease. They are examined in individual entries:

*Great Plague of Athens (430–427 BC)
**causal agent: bubonic plague/smallpox/measles/typhus/anthrax/typhoid?
*Antonine Plague (165–180)
**causal agent: smallpox/measles?
*Plague of Cyprian (250)
**causal agent: smallpox/measles?
*Plague of Justinian (541–542)
**causal agent: viral hemorrhagic plague or possibly bubonic plague
*Plague of Emmaus (18 A.H. / 639 A.D.)
**causal agent: unknown
*Plague of Constantinople (747–748)
*The "Black Death" of 1347–1351:cite book |last=Scott |first=Susan, and C. J. Duncan |title=Biology of Plagues: Evidence from Historical Populations |year=2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK; New York, NY |isbn=0521801508 |oclc=44811929]
**Great Plague of England (1348–1350)
***causal agent: hemorrhagic plague
**Great Plague of Ireland (1348–1351)
***causal agent: hemorrhagic plague
**Great Plague of Scotland (1348–1350)
***causal agent: hemorrhagic plague
**Great Plague of Portugal, the so called "Peste Negra" (black plague) (1348–1348?), "the year of the Black Plague"
***causal agent: hemorrhagic plague
**Great Plague of Russia (1349–1353)
***causal agent: hemorrhagic plague
*Great Plague of Iceland (1402–1404)
**causal agent: hemorrhagic plague
*American Epidemics (Results of Columbian Exchange) (1492-1950s?)
**causal agent: cholera, influenza, malaria, measles, scarlet fever, smallpox, tuberculosis, typhoid, yellow fever
*Plague of 1575, Italy, Sicily and segments of Northern Europe (1571–1576)
**causal agent: hemorrhagic plague
*London Plague (1592–1594)
**causal agent: hemorrhagic plague
*Italian Plague of 1629–1631 or Great Plague of Milan (1629–1631)
**causal agent: hemorrhagic plague
*Plague causing the end of the Ming Dynasty in China (1641-1644)
**causal agent: unknown
*Great Plague of Seville (1649)
**causal agent: hemorrhagic plague
*Great Plague of London (1665–1666)
**causal agent: hemorrhagic plague
*Great Plague of Vienna (1679–1680s)
**causal agent: hemorrhagic plague
*Great Plague of Marseille (1720–1722)
**causal agent: possibly bubonic plague?
*Plague Riot in Moscow (1771)
**causal agent: possibly bubonic plague?
*The Third Pandemic, originated in China (1855–1950s)
**causal agent: bubonic plague.

Further reading

*cite book |last=Twigg |first=Graham |title=The Black Death: A Biological Appraisal |year=1984 |publisher=Batsford Academic |location=London |isbn=

*cite book |last=Biddle |first=Wayne |title=A Field Guide to Germs |year=2002 |edition= 2nd Anchor Books edition |publisher=Anchor Books |location=New York |isbn=140003051X |oclc=50154403

*cite book |last=Scott |first=Susan, and C. J. Duncan |title=Return of the Black Death: The World's Greatest Serial Killer |year=2004 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |location=England |isbn=0470090014

*cite book |last=Scott |first=Susan, and C. J. Duncan |title=Biology of Plagues: Evidence from Historical Populations |year=2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK; New York, NY |isbn=0521801508 |oclc=44811929

See also

* Bubonic plague
* Epidemic
* List of epidemics
* Pandemic
* Population history of American indigenous peoples
* Influenza Pandemic of 1918 or Spanish Flu

References


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • List of disasters — * List of accidents and disasters by death toll lists accidental man made disasters. * List of natural disasters by death toll lists disasters caused by other forces of nature. * List of wars and disasters by death toll lists large scale deaths… …   Wikipedia

  • HISTORICAL SURVEY: THE STATE AND ITS ANTECEDENTS (1880–2006) — Introduction It took the new Jewish nation about 70 years to emerge as the State of Israel. The immediate stimulus that initiated the modern return to Zion was the disappointment, in the last quarter of the 19th century, of the expectation that… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • List of famines — This is an incomplete list of major famines, ordered by date.A complete list will almost certainly never become available. 5th century BC * 440 BC famine in Ancient Rome. 2nd century BC * Between 108 BC and 1911 AD there were no fewer than 1828… …   Wikipedia

  • List of Old Falconians — This is a list of some of the more prominent Old Falconians who are the alumni of North Sydney Boys High School. The Old Falconians Union is the alumni body of the school. The name Old Falconians is derived from Falcon Street which is the address …   Wikipedia

  • List of characters in Fables — This is a list of characters in Fables , a fictional fantasy comic series for mature readers published by DC Comics. New York FablesBigby Wolfnow White The Cubs Snow and Bigby s seven children are a rowdy, unpredictable bunch of hybrids that seem …   Wikipedia

  • List of atheists (authors) — Authors * Douglas Adams (1952 ndash;2001): British radio and television writer and novelist, author of The Hitchhiker s Guide to the Galaxy . [ I am a radical Atheist... Adams in an interview by American Atheists… …   Wikipedia

  • Plague — may refer to:In medicine: * Plague (disease), a specific disease caused by Yersinia pestis . There are three major manifestations ** Bubonic plague ** Septicemic plague ** Pneumonic plague * Any bubo causing disease * A pandemic caused by such a… …   Wikipedia

  • Bubonic plague — DiseaseDisorder infobox Name = PAGENAME Caption = DiseasesDB = 14226 ICD10 = ICD9 = ICD9|020.0 ICDO = OMIM = MedlinePlus = eMedicineSubj = eMedicineTopic = MeshID = D010930 Bubonic plague is the best known manifestation of the bacterial disease… …   Wikipedia

  • Plague of Justinian — The Plague of Justinian was a pandemic that afflicted the Byzantine Empire, including its capital Constantinople, in the years 541–542 AD. The most commonly accepted cause of the pandemic is bubonic plague, which later became infamous for either… …   Wikipedia

  • Pestilence — A pestilence is any virulent and highly infectious disease that can cause an epidemic or even a pandemic. The word can also be used about parasites causing large scale sickness and death, such as Guinea worm. Originally the word referred to the… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”