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Pandemics in history - summary
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Complete summary of pandemics in history (VUB)
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Sofie Vandermarliere 20241. Introduction: overview, concepts and explanatory
frameworks
1.1 Purpose of Course
Historical overview of the most important pandemics in global human history
How did other scholars study these pandemics? Not only historians, very interdisciplinary
Covid 19: ball became bigger and bigger, now it does not get bigger anymore (see ppt)
= not been the most lethal one in the past, not even in the 21st century
HIV: debate if this is a pandemic, associated with specific groups of people
Spanish flu immedeatly after the first world war
1.2 Definition: What is a Pandemic?
'Pandemic is an epidemic that affects people on a worldwide scale, crosses international
boundaries: epidemic that is global' - Porta
pan = global in Greek
What is an epidemic? 'rapidly spreading and infectious disease'
Not the nature of the disease that determines whether something is a pandemic!
Anachronistic label: applied by historians <=> naming conventions in the past
Not because you have corona that it is a pandemic: the pandemic has ended but the virus is
still around right now
Qualifying something as a pandemic is always a decision! Human decision that is made by
society based on criteria
= Societal decision; not that objective!
1666: several disasters in the same year: pandemic mentioned for the first time
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,Sofie Vandermarliere 2024
subject of debate: maximalist - minimalist
evidence problem: further back in time = more fragmentary
march 2020 considered as the start of the pandemic: WHO decided that the criteria were met
1.3 Importance as Historical Events
importance for a pandemic as a historical event: pandemics are mass killers, very high mortality
peaks
comparison between WW1 and Spanish flu
-> WW1 caused circa 21 million deadly casualties
-> Spanish flu 25-50 million casualties (Great Influenza Pandemic)
Crosby: life expectancy decreased a lot in the US: 51 (1917) -> 39 (1918)
Still much more historical interest in warfare than in pandemics
Called the Spanish flu the America's forgotten pandemic: people did not talk about this flu in
the twentieth century anymore
Constant presence of pandemics in pre-20th century history: Europeans did not know a lot of
times without pandemics
1.3.1 20th Century
Strong increase in global life expectance (<=> life span)
Beginning 19th century: 29 years, now it’s 73
What had a fundamental impact on life expectancy being so low in the past? up until the end
of the nineteenth century, infant mortality was really high
WHY DID LIFE EXPECTANCY GET HIGHER?
− hygiene: better sanitation
− food more nutritious & diverse
− medical developments & vaccination
Epidemiological Revolution (not only that, health in general improved) = fewer pandemics
!! false feeling of security! still diseases, eg aids pandemic
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how many casualties a pandemic has, has to do with society
Favourable context: increased human traffic: more contact in different parts of the world
1.3.2 Agents of Other Change
Cause of economic, political, cultural change
Black Death (1348-1352 is the first wave): very high mortality, up to 50% of the population
dies
some of the consequences were not experienced in the same way
depletion of the work force -> high mortality!
-> working conditions improved, higher wages because not a lot of people left to work
very significant economic effect, changed economic situation drastically
Delay in England: after a hard struggle (Peasants’ Revolt, 1381)
More economic equality; gap between landowners and working population narrows
Poland: same thing as in England, but position of the military elite is stronger here! people
obliged to work + cannot leave the land
=> worse than it was before
Both cases: black death has a massive economic impact
1.4 Pandemics as Mirrors of Society
Interactions with society: impact of pandemic depends on how a society is organised
sometimes talked about in social and economic books, but not a lot. Pandemics are not really
studied historically
= not studied in own right until middle of the twentieth century
Sometimes also studied in military history (impact on outcome of wars)
Crosby: the columbian exchange: biological & cultural consequences of 1492 (europeans in
america) - academic journals did not want to review this book! it was ignored
after a while his book did start to have more of an impact, people started using his approach
for other pandemics
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, Sofie Vandermarliere 2024
Environment determines what happens to society and people, society is completely passive =
environmental determinism!
not a lot of interaction between the two: how does society react to a pandemic? No one really
talked about it, he did, but it was a very one-sided approach
1.4.1 Disaster Studies: environmental history
= studied during the cold war! (‘60) american military context: prepare for russian attack,
minimise the impact
whole goal is to prepare your society to those big shocks -> do research on the link between
society and disasters: what is the interaction?
First focus on disasters as isolated events, then exploration of wider links between disasters and
societies
similar shocks can have very different outcomes
bv poland vs england, has nothing to do with the disease itself
Differences in societies they effect: power relations, economic inequality (local people want to
improve their living environment -> minimise the impact of pandemic (local initiative is
important), level of preparedness or coping mechanisms (second time hit = easier to minimise
the impact because you know what to do)
Importance of vulnerability vs resilience of a society
=> whole range of factors that impacts society
In each stage of disaster: damage/mortality, response, longer-term impact
Applied to past societies/pandemics (van Bevel: Introduction: disasters and history)
Now: poorest areas of England and Wales hit hardest by covid-19
1.4.2 Impact of Black Death
Scheidel: war & pandemics have mortality in common
Differences in mortality: England vs. Low Countries
Differences in long term effects: dependent on the local context
Pandemics cause of declining inequality: mortality -> shortage of labour -> higher wages
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