signed a treaty with Panama instead of Colombia. Panama declared independence, and the U.S. and France encouraged the Panamanians to revolt. Colombia opposed the deal, but the Panamanians did not, so the U.S. Unable to complete the Panama Canal after about 22,000 workers died, mainly from yellow fever, the French sold everything to the United States. On the second occasion, France again was victimized by the virus. Because an invasion of the continent was contingent on an established presence in Haiti, Napoleon gave up and sold Louisiana to the United States.
On the first, it scuttled Napoleon Bonaparte’s plan for a North American empire after the virus felled perhaps 50,000 French troops in Haiti who were deployed to put down a slave rebellion. This horrifying disease greatly influenced the geopolitics of the Western Hemisphere on at least two occasions. Sherman masterfully interweaves explanations of the biology and epidemiology of the diseases with accounts, taken from historians or eyewitnesses, that are nauseatingly descriptive.įor instance, a passage describes yellow fever, a viral infection transmitted by mosquitoes, thus: “Slowly, the patient’s skin turned yellow and patches of the inside of his mouth began to ooze blood.” A pan was kept by the bedside to “catch the black vomit, a mixture of blood and digestive juices.” Fevers could spike as high as 105 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the focus of a book written by emeritus biology professor Irwin Sherman called Twelve Diseases That Changed Our World, which was originally published in 2007 but has taken on renewed relevance during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Well into the 20th century, infectious diseases cut lives tragically short, often in gruesome ways, radically transforming the course of human history in ways that are underappreciated in textbooks. That was not the case for the vast majority of human history, when parents would produce multiple offspring in the hope that a few might survive to adulthood.
Modern society is far removed from the reality of death. This book review was originally published at Geopolitical Futures.
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