Throughout history, whether it is a large-scale infectious disease or a regional outbreak. Will bring great impact to human society.
This small pathogen can force thousands of people on a migratory journey. It will determine the outcome of a war, and even determine the rise of a dynasty.
In the past, plague was seen as a punishment, or witchcraft, and indirectly contributed to the emergence and development of politics and religion in human society.
Some friends may ask, can an inconspicuous pathogen have such a great ability? some. The American historian William McNeill took a different perspective, combining history and pathology to focus on infectious diseases.
To explore the development of human civilization, by comparing the records of epidemics in Western and Chinese history. William McNeil sketched out the network of large-scale infectious diseases in ancient times.
Then the major historical events that occurred in the same era are placed on this network, so that we can clearly see the infectious diseases in the historical changes of mankind and the development of civilization.
The key role it plays and the enormous power that drives social change and changes the course of history.
Every step in the human way of life brings new infectious diseases. As we all know, hundreds of thousands of years ago, human beings originated in Africa.
But long before that, the pathogens that caused the disease had already appeared, and at the beginning of the time, our old ancestors had just come down from the tree.
Just began to walk upright, one can not farm, the second can not graze, can only follow this lion and tiger. Pick them up and eat the rest of the carrion to eat.
The parasites in the body are not much different from lions and tigers. But later, humans gradually gathered into tribes, learned to cooperate, hunted, and slowly climbed to the top of the African food chain.
But as time went on, there were fewer and fewer prey, and food sources became more and more limited. There is not enough food to eat, and you can't starve to death.
Therefore, they must think of individual solutions. In this process, the development of infectious diseases has been promoted, and one way is to migrate to more distant places.
There is a very important premise here, that is, human beings have the means to heat. Specifically, it is the learning to live and dress in order to get them from warm Africa to the relatively colder Eurasian regions.
Thus, in a sense, clothing and fire have become key factors that indirectly contribute to the diversity of human diseases. As humans migrate, the pathogenic microbes they carry with them endure enormous challenges.
You know, most of these pathogens have long adapted to the hot climate of Africa, and suddenly in the face of cold climates, they may barely survive in the human body, but it is much more difficult to spread outside the body.
So, early humans living in temperate zones were probably the healthiest group on Earth at the time, but don't underestimate these microbes.
Their adaptability is quite strong, and they quickly adapt to new natural conditions. In order to coexist with human hosts for a long time, many of them have reduced their attack power, such as prototype pathogens that can easily kill people.
It's only going to make people uncomfortable now, but it's not going to kill you. As a result, they have a longer time and more opportunities to spread.
In this way, these pathogens from Africa have spread farther afield on the human body. Malaria is best known, and there is evidence that early humans on all continents had malaria.
However, with the continuous growth of the population, it is not a good idea to drag the family every day and run around. Since there are not enough wild animals and plants to eat, then grow your own and raise your own.
As a result, agriculture and animal husbandry have emerged, and the rise of planting and animal husbandry can be said to solve the problem of primitive human eating. At the same time, the development of agriculture has also changed the way of life.
You think, in the previous hunting life, wherever you went, there was no place to live, but the tribes that made a living from farming could not be so free.
The crops that are planted must be cared for a long time, which requires people to settle in one place for a long time.
As a result, many problems arise, such as how to deal with this excrement of humans and animals. Primitive societies didn't have any sewer septic tanks or anything.
In general, people directly pile this feces around the place of residence, and the results can be imagined.
Settled societies, they all use the same water source. Eating, drinking and washing are the same, and once the water source is polluted, the chance of people getting infected will be greatly increased.
Microorganisms that parasitize the intestine, whether fungal spores or parasitic eggs. Can find the next host through polluted water bodies.
A typical example is schistosomiasis, a parasite that relies on water sources to spread, and in a corpse unearthed in our country from the second century BC, it contains schistosomiasis eggs.
Schistosomiasis in Egypt in the same era was already a common cause of death. That means that schistosomiasis began to infect humans on a large scale at least 2,000 years ago.
Even today, hundreds of millions of people around the world suffer from this infectious disease. So, with the early human living environment and way of living changed.
Pathogens have also adapted to the new environment and found new ways of transmission. So, what impact did these infectious diseases finally have on early human society?
First, the epidemic gave birth to primitive governments
Just said, from hunting to farming, our old ancestors ended the days of non-stop moving. Settle in one place for a long time and be self-sufficient.
In this way, there is no migration population consumption. Coupled with advances in production methods, food sources became more stable, and the population began to rise gradually.
But this raises the problem that the population density is getting denser, and the spread of pathogens is easier. The lethality of infectious diseases is rising, and what should be done if everyone is sick and dies?
Two ways, one is to unite and establish a more orderly organizational system, so that those in the group who have better brains can make up their minds.
The result was primitive governments, and another way was to blame the mysterious and deadly disease on The Punishment of Heaven and ask for God's grace, which gave rise to faith and religion.
Looking first at the original government, it is clear that government is more important in dealing with the plague and post-disaster reconstruction than the religious prayers that one can do.
Of course, the government of the early civilization was not as efficient as the modern one, organizing people to wear masks and spray disinfectant water, so what could they do?
Mainly at a higher level, eliminate the consequences of disease. Know that the plague does more than just the dead.
In an era when population and productivity were limited, the pandemic was followed by a great famine. The people who cultivate the land are gone, so who will feed the others?
Problems like these would have to rely on the original government to solve. The solution is actually quite simple, have more children, haha, with the further development of early society.
After the gradual separation of the countryside and the city, the burden of childbearing fell on the peasants. After all, they have to produce enough labor to ensure food production.
When there is a plague epidemic, due to differences in population density. Epidemics in cities are often more severe, so under the premise of ensuring food supply. Excess rural population can flow into the cities and restore economic prosperity.
Because of this, in the early civilized society, having many children often represented many blessings, and procreation was a requirement and a morality.
But another problem arises, in times of calamity, the need for excess labor to recover and rebuild. What about in this era of calm and calm, is it not a burden to raise so many people?
Don't worry, the government has another way to solve it. What's the solution? If there are other countries around us, we will concentrate on the outside world.
Fight down, expand the territory, if there is no other country, we will have a civil war, the king and the second king to fight. It can also consume some of the population.
No, there's a peasant uprising, right? The prince will have a kind of breath, who does not want to turn over and be the master? This point of view you bring, and then looking through the history books, you can understand why the ancient people seemed to be particularly enthusiastic about war.
The wind and rain are smooth, generally do not last for several years, and fighting around is the mainstream of history. The time when humanity first entered civilized society. All over the world are fighting and killing, and China has also seen the emergence of Xia Shang Zhou.
In Europe, between the Greek city-states, a small dozen in three days, a big dozen in five days, and the Middle East is even more chaotic. After the dissolution of the ancient Babylonian Empire, four or five dynasties ruled the region in succession.
As for India and Egypt, the situation is similar. Although this war continues, the population growth has not stopped.
Eventually, around 500 BC, each war zone gradually formed its own unique cultural and social structure. At that time, the Persian Empire occupied a vast territory in Central and Western Asia, competing with the Greek city-states of Europe.
In China, western Zhou rule had just ended. Entering the Spring and Autumn Period of the division of the princes, India and Egypt ruled the Indian Peninsula and northern Africa respectively.
At this point, many centralized empires have arisen around the world, and the boundaries of rule have been demarcated. The back-and-forth wars allowed the disease to spread fully between the empires, but also formed a relatively stable state.
The so-called disease circle was first formed in the world, then at that time. What are the main diseases that countries in different regions face? Second, the emergence of four major disease circles
Let's start with China, which was in the Western Weekend at that time. The southernmost point of Western Zhou's territory was the State of Chu and the State of Wuyue, roughly equivalent to the location of present-day Hunan and Jiangsu provinces.
So why doesn't China's territory continue to expand southward? One important reason is that there is a powerful enemy in South China - miasma.
Compared with the north, the current two-guangzhou place has two most prominent characteristics in the climate, that is, high temperature and humid climate.
Infectious diseases that had never been exposed to northerners at the time, such as dengue fever and malaria, had long been developed by the local indigenous people, with whom the local natives had already established a symbiotic relationship.
But the villagers in the north could not adapt, so it was not that the rulers of the time did not have ambitions to conquer the south. It was that he had a weak heart, and the concubines really couldn't do it.
Every time you send 100,000 armor soldiers, you haven't fought a few battles, and only 20,000 sick seedlings have come back, who wants to do such a loss-making business.
However, the Chinese people at that time could not imagine that there was a place further south of this inaccessible land, and there was a miasma, that is, India and Southeast Asia, which were warmer and more humid than South China.
From ancient times to the present, the test of infectious diseases faced by Indians has been more stringent than ours. The Ganges region seems to have been a hotbed of infectious disease transmission.
Some scholars believe that many of the infectious diseases we are familiar with, such as chickenpox, plague and cholera, may originate in India.
In this environment, the Indian people have developed a stronger tolerance. In the eyes of the Indian people, miasma is nothing at all, so they have expanded their territory all the way to farther places.
Today's Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, was once ruled by Indian dynasties. After talking about the two disease circles in Asia, let's look at Europe.
One of the core civilizations of Europe was ancient Greece. The ancient Greek cities were very developed and densely populated, and naturally became the center of infectious disease outbreaks.
From the records of Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, we can read about similar symptoms of malaria, white monkeys, influenza-conjugated diseases, and mumps.
Image from the web
Interestingly, the smallpox, measles, and the Black Death that later ravaged the European continent did not appear in the ancient Greek medical records.
Considering the severe symptoms of the following infectious diseases, we have reason to believe that ancient Greece at that time did not have these diseases.
But the ancient Greeks opened up trade routes in the Mediterranean basin by growing grapes and olives, and then making wine and olive oil.
Thus, with the frequent trade exchanges, the circle of disease formed the last circle of disease in the Mediterranean region.
Located in the Middle East on the eastern side of the Mediterranean Sea, the Persian Empire ruled over this vast territory. The territory stretched from Egypt and Syria on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean to present-day southeastern Afghanistan.
Geographically, it is not difficult to find that it is close to the disease circle centered on ancient Greece. In fact, the first fusion of these two disease circles was in 500 BC.
The ambitious Persian Empire sent troops to Greece and launched the Persian War. Although the Persians failed to take Greece, they sowed the seeds of the disease in Western Europe.
And these seeds have rewritten the history of Greece to some extent, and a careful friend may have to ask why the two circles of disease around the Mediterranean first merged.
The two major disease circles of East Asia and South Asia have been able to live without incident for many years. This is because of the spread of the disease, which requires a carrier, along the Mediterranean coast, by water, much faster than on horseback on foot.
If that man had fallen ill on a ship. It can easily be passed on to the next person, allowing the disease to spread from port to port.
On the contrary, when walking, when you fall ill, you can find a place to raise it for a few days, and then rush to the road when you are well, and the probability of infection to others is greatly reduced.
In addition, there is a natural barrier between ancient China and India, that is, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Whether it is civilians or the military, it is simply impossible to cross the Himalayas on a large scale.
Therefore, for a long time, the two disease circles in Asia have maintained their own stable state. Of course, stability always has a time to be broken.
Before the two disease circles in Asia communicated directly, around 100 BC, the disease circles of East Asia and Europe began to intersect first.
The answer is the Silk Road, where land and sea trade connects the Eurasian disease sphere. The spread of this disease is easy to say, but it is also difficult to say.
In ancient times, when there were no trains and planes, they rode mules and horses from Yumen pass all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. It was definitely a protracted long march.
If a person gets sick before china leaves, it is likely that he will either die on the road or wait for the Mediterranean sea to be cured.
Therefore, for this infectious disease to cross such a long geographical distance, it requires two conditions, a large number of susceptible people and a stable transmission route.
The Silk Road, which was designed to promote trade across continental caravans, met these conditions. The Silk Road was established in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty and was abolished by internal political struggles.
Reaching its peak around 100 AD in the Eastern Han Dynasty, through this trade corridor, Chinese silk was continuously imported into the Mediterranean Valley and became the favorite of the ladies of the Roman Empire.
At the same time, India's exchanges with Western Europe also began, and the countries along the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean coast began maritime exploration almost at the same time.
According to ancient records, in 14 AD, the Roman emperor sent emissaries to establish trading stations in India. Such exchanges between regions mean both the exchange of trade commodities and the exchange of infectious diseases.
What's interesting is that this kind of communication is not reciprocal. Western Europe and China, for example, have suffered severe diseases, while the Middle East and India have suffered less.
For example, the records of the second and sixth centuries AD record that there were many plague outbreaks along the Mediterranean coast and China. Populations have plummeted several times, but india's clicks have hardly been recorded.
Moreover, the population has been on the rise, and the frequent plagues have brought great turmoil to human society. When the plague hit, it lost not only the population, but also the labor force.
Population decline will lead to food production, famine, war and chaos, thus profoundly changing the political pattern of different parts of human society.
For example, in the fifth century AD, the Eastern Roman Empire lost its ability to rule during frequent epidemics. The Iberian Peninsula and the Lombard region became independent until the beginning of the sixth century.
Black rats brought bubonic plague to Europe, triggering another wave of plague. At this time, the Eastern Roman Empire, faced with the invasion of the Persian Dynasty, almost collapsed, and could only hand over a large amount of gold to maintain a short peace.
Later, the Persian Empire was conquered by the Muslims, and the Eastern Roman Empire had new opponents, and the chaos was not calmed down until the end of the eighth century.
It was not until the middle of the ninth century that the Eastern Roman Empire finally regained most of its lost territory, and the situation was similar in China at that time.
Between the second and sixth centuries AD, repeated outbreaks of plague prevented China from forming a stable dynasty that ruled the country.
For example, after the brief reign of the Western Jin Dynasty, ethnic minorities invaded the Central Plains to establish dynasties. At the same time, Ge Hong recorded a disease that was highly similar to smallpox or measles.
It is not difficult to imagine that the social unrest brought about by the spread of this plague has brought some opportunities for the northern peoples to invade the Central Plains. It was not until the Tang Dynasty unified China in the first half of the sixth century that social unrest eased.
At the same time, the plague that severely weakened the Eastern Roman Empire did not affect the Tang Dynasty. But what should come, always comes. By the mid-seventh century, the plague spread by sea in the coastal areas of Guangdong, a plague that plunged the population of the Tang Dynasty at its peak.
People were deeply mired in famine and displacement, and the Government was overwhelmed and unable to control the situation throughout the country. All kinds of turmoil and contradictions finally broke out in 755 AD, and the Tang Dynasty turned from victory to decline.
After the end of the Tang Dynasty's rule, China entered the five generations and ten kingdoms with frequent wars, and due to repeated plagues and wars, the population has never recovered.
It was not until the Song Dynasty unified China again hundreds of years later that the population began to grow slowly.