EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
A History of the World since 1300
Jeremy Adelman, Princeton University
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 Notes taken on July 17, 2018 by Edward Tanguay |
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leaders of the world discussed world peace in Versailles
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one of the coldest winters in recorded history
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millions of people froze to death
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in 1918 and 1919 the real killer was disease
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pathogens shaped world history
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germs and viruses don't respect national, ethnic and class barriers
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left 100 million people dead
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this plague was more devastating than the war itself
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675,000 Americans died in the influenza epidemic
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10 times the war casualties
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people found themselves living in a global age
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helped to spread the disease more quickly
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one fifth of the world's population was infected
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followed trade and shipping lanes
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aggravated by the vast movements of armies
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the first epidemic in the United States was in army camps in Kansas
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around the world, the Armistice celebrations were the most cataclysmic day for the spread of the influenza
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in the festivities, the kissing and the hugging in the streets were perfect vectors for spreading the disease
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people would celebrate, go home, and die
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the health systems were already maxed out because of the war wounded
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some silver linings
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we learned a great deal about
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public health
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disease
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first world war had left 9 million soldiers and 7 million civilians dead, but far more casualties from the disease
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aggrevated tensions within goverments
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among the victors and defeated
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1919 was a year not just of disease, but of great upheaval and in surgency
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Berlin
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1919 - The Spartacist Uprising
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communists' efforts trying to take over the government
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Winnepeg
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first large strike
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Buenos Aires
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Semana Tragica
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India
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Mahatma Gandhi
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took over editing of the Young India Magazine
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preached open resistance
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began planning his own general strikes
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added to the urgencies of rebuilding societies
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this was common at the end of wars
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having to discuss how to effect a durable peace
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started the second great age of revolutions
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the first were e.g. those of France and America and Latin America
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here we have a different kind of search for Utopia