WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:04.719 Hello everybody, Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends. 2 00:00:04.839 --> 00:00:08.359 We are back again with another special episode of History Impossible, 3 00:00:09.320 --> 00:00:15.279 this time another direct adaptation of research that I've conducted 4 00:00:15.359 --> 00:00:19.640 during my time in graduate school. Before we get into that, 5 00:00:19.760 --> 00:00:23.600 I want to first give a shout out to the 6 00:00:23.640 --> 00:00:28.359 people supporting History Impossible at the executive producer level or 7 00:00:28.399 --> 00:00:32.719 even above, if that is ever the case, specifically my 8 00:00:32.840 --> 00:00:36.880 longtime supporters John Andre Saither and Mike Maylebin. You guys 9 00:00:36.920 --> 00:00:39.079 are the best for sticking with me all this time. 10 00:00:39.439 --> 00:00:43.200 Really appreciate it, Really love getting feedback from you guys directly, 11 00:00:43.479 --> 00:00:45.640 and that includes everybody, not just those guys. I mean, 12 00:00:45.640 --> 00:00:47.119 I talk to them a fair bit at this point. 13 00:00:47.200 --> 00:00:49.359 But if you ever want to get a hold of me, 14 00:00:49.479 --> 00:00:52.840 just reach out to History Impossible at gmail dot com. 15 00:00:53.079 --> 00:00:55.280 Simple enough. You can find me on all the social 16 00:00:55.359 --> 00:01:00.240 media platforms x Facebook, Instagram. I guess technically I'm on 17 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:02.399 threads as well, though I don't really use that. I 18 00:01:02.439 --> 00:01:04.480 started a Blue Sky account, don't really use that, but 19 00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:08.840 I'm there. I'm in those places. So yeah. If you 20 00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:11.480 also want to support this show, make sure to go 21 00:01:11.519 --> 00:01:15.560 to Patreon dot com. Slash History Impossible, or become a 22 00:01:15.599 --> 00:01:19.120 pay subscriber on the History Impossible substack. That's History Impossible 23 00:01:19.159 --> 00:01:22.799 dot substack dot com, whatever works. Guys, I just really 24 00:01:22.840 --> 00:01:26.359 appreciate any support you can give this show and give 25 00:01:26.439 --> 00:01:29.280 me as I go further into debt to get my 26 00:01:29.439 --> 00:01:34.120 history education finished up. In all serious as though, you know, 27 00:01:34.280 --> 00:01:37.079 financial support is welcome, but if you can't make that work, 28 00:01:37.400 --> 00:01:40.760 just telling people about this show, people who might be 29 00:01:40.760 --> 00:01:43.200 interested in history but you know, don't really have anything 30 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:47.879 to listen to, will be much appreciated. So with that said, 31 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:50.159 thank you to everybody. Please consider supporting the show, like 32 00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:54.599 I said, and let's get into it, because you guys 33 00:01:54.599 --> 00:01:56.920 have probably some of you at least have listened, but 34 00:01:57.120 --> 00:01:59.560 some of you probably are still you know, have it 35 00:01:59.599 --> 00:02:02.560 on your that catalog. Listening to my most recent episode, 36 00:02:02.799 --> 00:02:05.519 Mother's Wrath, Mankind's Cope, where I talk about the Los 37 00:02:05.519 --> 00:02:08.800 Angeles fires of twenty twenty five as well as the 38 00:02:08.879 --> 00:02:12.479 downstream effects of them, and more broadly, how humankind copes 39 00:02:12.520 --> 00:02:16.400 with natural disasters, I recommend giving that a listen if 40 00:02:16.439 --> 00:02:18.439 you haven't already. You don't have to hear it to 41 00:02:18.639 --> 00:02:22.879 have This episode makes sense, but it's definitely related in 42 00:02:22.919 --> 00:02:26.599 the sense that it is, or was rather my first 43 00:02:26.599 --> 00:02:31.199 exploration into environmental history in grad school. What this episode 44 00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:32.879 you're about to listen to is at least the paper 45 00:02:32.879 --> 00:02:36.599 that it's based on this time. I mean, we are 46 00:02:36.599 --> 00:02:38.759 gonna be talking on environmental history, but it's going to 47 00:02:38.759 --> 00:02:41.759 be a little different in its approach. It'll be less 48 00:02:41.800 --> 00:02:46.479 story related to, you know, specific events in history, and 49 00:02:46.560 --> 00:02:50.639 more related to subject, more related to theme. Because this 50 00:02:50.960 --> 00:02:53.319 is the reason I like to say that I am 51 00:02:53.319 --> 00:02:56.319 subjecting you all to the quote unquote delights of historiography. 52 00:02:56.400 --> 00:02:58.879 I say that somewhat jokingly. Historiography is not my favorite 53 00:02:58.879 --> 00:03:01.360 thing in history, but I've started to grow on me, 54 00:03:01.400 --> 00:03:03.680 and we have a couple other things that I've written 55 00:03:03.719 --> 00:03:06.719 so far for school that have to do with historiography, 56 00:03:06.759 --> 00:03:08.560 and like I said, it's grown on me. It's a 57 00:03:08.599 --> 00:03:11.159 history of history, so to speak. Though. Topic that we're 58 00:03:11.159 --> 00:03:13.639 talking about now, though, is, like I said, environmental history, 59 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:18.439 specifically the role of infectious disease, which is sort of 60 00:03:18.479 --> 00:03:21.439 the cornerstone, and really it was my entry point into 61 00:03:21.439 --> 00:03:24.400 being interested in environmental history. As a lot of you 62 00:03:24.439 --> 00:03:28.199 listening probably remember, I've spoken a number of times on 63 00:03:28.319 --> 00:03:32.000 history impossible about infectious disease in history, we had the 64 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:35.319 Spanish flu pandemic episode back in twenty twenty and then 65 00:03:35.439 --> 00:03:40.159 the Black Death and downstream effects episode in twenty twenty three, 66 00:03:40.199 --> 00:03:42.439 I believe, and in this particular case, we're not going 67 00:03:42.479 --> 00:03:45.240 to be looking at any disease in particular, but a 68 00:03:45.280 --> 00:03:48.360 more zoomed out approach is going to be taken. Something 69 00:03:48.400 --> 00:03:51.919 you might be surprised to hear that there actually isn't 70 00:03:52.039 --> 00:03:55.639 that much in the way of literature on this subject, 71 00:03:55.759 --> 00:03:58.919 as you might think, or in my opinion, as there 72 00:03:58.919 --> 00:04:01.719 should be, because as I've made pretty clear, I do 73 00:04:01.800 --> 00:04:05.680 think that the role of infectious disease, but also the 74 00:04:05.800 --> 00:04:08.639 role of nature itself, the environment in which we live, 75 00:04:08.719 --> 00:04:12.759 the ecology in which humankind exists, is vital for understanding 76 00:04:13.080 --> 00:04:16.279 the human condition and sometimes even the decisions that we 77 00:04:16.360 --> 00:04:19.240 make that we believe we might have a little more 78 00:04:19.240 --> 00:04:23.959 agency over than we actually do. But without totally downplaying 79 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:25.800 the role of agency, which is something that comes up 80 00:04:25.839 --> 00:04:28.959 in this essay, the fact that there's not that much 81 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:32.279 literature about the subject in the grand scheme of things, 82 00:04:32.319 --> 00:04:34.800 I should say, compared to history of war, for example, 83 00:04:34.879 --> 00:04:38.120 the history of politics, or ideology even has added to 84 00:04:38.160 --> 00:04:40.680 my suspicion that while there are plenty of people interested 85 00:04:40.680 --> 00:04:44.000 in the subject of infectious disease at particular historical crossroads 86 00:04:44.079 --> 00:04:46.959 or causing them, even there does seem to be a 87 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:49.759 bit of an avoidance of the subject. I recently appeared 88 00:04:49.800 --> 00:04:52.560 on C. J. Kilmer's Dangerous History podcast to talk about 89 00:04:53.199 --> 00:04:54.959 a number of things. It was actually a very wide 90 00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:57.920 ranging conversation, but among those things, we talked about the 91 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:02.439 role of nature impact humankind to a certain degree, and 92 00:05:03.079 --> 00:05:04.680 how there just doesn't really seem to be a lot 93 00:05:04.680 --> 00:05:06.879 of appreciation of that. I'd add to what I said 94 00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:10.560 in that interview that we did. I think the reason 95 00:05:10.639 --> 00:05:13.600 people want to avoid such things is because they don't 96 00:05:13.639 --> 00:05:16.839 like the idea of there being stuff that challenges our agency. 97 00:05:17.480 --> 00:05:19.240 Because we do like to believe that we're in control 98 00:05:19.279 --> 00:05:22.439 of everything, and we ultimately are for all intents and purposes. 99 00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:26.279 But anything that challenges that is, you know, is hard 100 00:05:26.360 --> 00:05:31.199 to stomach. It is natural, I would argue that. But 101 00:05:31.279 --> 00:05:34.199 the important thing is that agency can be found in 102 00:05:34.519 --> 00:05:38.439 this subject, and I think that we should make an 103 00:05:38.439 --> 00:05:40.480 attempt to do so. And that's what I tried to 104 00:05:40.519 --> 00:05:44.319 do with this research. That I did just over a 105 00:05:44.399 --> 00:05:47.639 year ago. So with all that said, let's get into 106 00:05:47.720 --> 00:05:53.120 some impossible historiography, and lets me to. 107 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:55.319 Tell you what you would have seen and heard if 108 00:05:55.319 --> 00:05:57.839 we're not being pleasants listening, if you're at lunch, or 109 00:05:57.839 --> 00:05:59.639 if you have no appetite, knowledge a good time to 110 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:00.560 switch off the radio. 111 00:06:06.360 --> 00:06:09.759 An ancestor of mine maintained, if you eliminate the impossible, 112 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:12.160 whatever remains, however. 113 00:06:11.839 --> 00:06:16.439 Improbable, elevation lessen banji ot to it. 114 00:06:16.600 --> 00:06:23.319 You know I despise a thousand. I wish I could 115 00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:26.360 say tonight that a lasting peace is inside. 116 00:06:26.920 --> 00:06:28.600 I don't see any laughing dream. 117 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:30.160 I feel an a laughing night. 118 00:06:30.279 --> 00:06:30.519 Moore. 119 00:06:34.680 --> 00:06:38.639 I f if we share for issue to kill, if 120 00:06:38.680 --> 00:06:42.319 we share for hued to guill. Some say the world 121 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:45.639 will end, empire, some stay a night. From what I've 122 00:06:45.800 --> 00:06:46.959 tasted of desire, I. 123 00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:48.639 Hold for those of favor fire. 124 00:06:49.399 --> 00:06:52.000 But if it had to perish twice, I think I 125 00:06:52.160 --> 00:06:55.480 know enough of hate to say that the destruction ice 126 00:06:55.680 --> 00:06:57.519 is also great and would sufficed. 127 00:07:04.399 --> 00:07:06.480 This is history impossible. 128 00:07:12.759 --> 00:07:16.680 When the COVID nineteen pandemic of twenty twenty hit, humanity's 129 00:07:16.720 --> 00:07:21.319 past relationship with infectious disease became of greater interest, to 130 00:07:21.399 --> 00:07:25.480 say the least, there is no shortage of diseases that 131 00:07:25.800 --> 00:07:28.399 have occurred in the past and cause equal, if not 132 00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:33.279 far more profound disruptions of the human experience than COVID nineteen. 133 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:39.639 The pandemic forced us to consider how significantly transformative historical 134 00:07:39.720 --> 00:07:43.959 events might have been impacted by the presence of infectious disease, 135 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:49.519 and how that might allow us to reframe their significance 136 00:07:49.560 --> 00:07:55.879 in a different context. However, despite the renewed interests after 137 00:07:56.079 --> 00:07:59.839 the pandemic in twenty twenty, previous scholarship had been ax 138 00:08:00.079 --> 00:08:03.360 glorying the role of infectious disease and shaping significant human 139 00:08:03.480 --> 00:08:08.399 driven historical events for decades. Like I said in the intro, 140 00:08:08.680 --> 00:08:13.399 this was and is still a relatively niche corner of 141 00:08:13.639 --> 00:08:16.439 not just history, but even the subfield of environmental history. 142 00:08:16.519 --> 00:08:19.000 But it was there, there was a significant number of 143 00:08:19.079 --> 00:08:22.199 books that cover that and a fair amount of study, 144 00:08:23.360 --> 00:08:27.759 and that became my area of interest for the paper 145 00:08:27.839 --> 00:08:33.639 that inspires this podcast that you're listening to right now now. 146 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:38.519 Studying the role of infectious disease on human driven historical 147 00:08:38.600 --> 00:08:43.639 events had frequently faced controversy, thanks largely to its supposedly 148 00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:48.120 deterministic nature that felt, at least to a number of critics, 149 00:08:48.200 --> 00:08:52.120 like it robbed human beings of agency. No one likes 150 00:08:52.159 --> 00:08:56.639 to feel that way. After all, This concern over agency 151 00:08:56.720 --> 00:09:01.080 became particularly acute in conversations about infections diseases role in 152 00:09:01.279 --> 00:09:07.120 moments of significant historical change like conflict, conquest, and colonization, 153 00:09:07.799 --> 00:09:11.759 which had for many years been ascribed with, for lack 154 00:09:11.759 --> 00:09:13.759 of a better way of putting it, total or okay, 155 00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:19.639 maybe near total human agency, like, for example, the only 156 00:09:19.759 --> 00:09:24.840 reason Europeans were able to conquer North and South America 157 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:29.759 for a long time was just seen as bloody human conquest. Obviously, 158 00:09:29.879 --> 00:09:31.879 that view has changed over the years, and it's pretty 159 00:09:31.960 --> 00:09:37.519 much common knowledge now that the indigenous people of North 160 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:41.360 and South America just couldn't handle the role that infectious 161 00:09:41.360 --> 00:09:47.960 disease played in their interactions with these new European peoples. Now, 162 00:09:48.039 --> 00:09:52.679 this concern was obviously understandable, like I was saying, with 163 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:56.759 many pioneers in this field of environmental history edging closer 164 00:09:57.360 --> 00:10:00.879 to various levels of determinism in their analyzes. But from 165 00:10:00.919 --> 00:10:05.279 the nineteen seventies onward, there was a constant conversation occurring 166 00:10:05.320 --> 00:10:08.000 within the field and a more nuanced view began to 167 00:10:08.080 --> 00:10:13.000 take shape. I mentioned this book in the last episode 168 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:16.320 of History Impossible when talking about environmental history, so it 169 00:10:16.399 --> 00:10:20.279 might sound familiar when I mentioned the publication of J. R. 170 00:10:20.399 --> 00:10:24.559 McNeil's Mosquito Empires, Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean 171 00:10:24.799 --> 00:10:28.279 sixteen twenty to nineteen fourteen, and with its publication in 172 00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:32.399 twenty ten, it became pretty apparent that this more nuanced 173 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:35.840 view of infectious diseases role in human history really started 174 00:10:35.879 --> 00:10:39.480 to come into greater focus. A number of other books 175 00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:43.360 since then have been published, but McNeil's Mosquito Empires kind 176 00:10:43.399 --> 00:10:47.320 of serves as the culmination point of this change in 177 00:10:47.360 --> 00:10:51.960 the continuity of the scholarship. It had taken many years 178 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:54.960 for us to get to that point anyway, and it 179 00:10:55.039 --> 00:10:57.799 had not been without controversy and a fair amount of 180 00:10:57.879 --> 00:11:01.519 interdisciplinary soul searching on the part of scholars who wanted 181 00:11:01.559 --> 00:11:05.399 to take on this task of recontextualizing the human experience's 182 00:11:05.559 --> 00:11:09.039 most dramatic and in a lot of cases, well known 183 00:11:09.200 --> 00:11:17.600 historical events. This recontextualization casts the supposedly human driven events 184 00:11:17.639 --> 00:11:21.360 of conflict, conquest, and colonization, The Big Three c's there. 185 00:11:21.399 --> 00:11:24.240 I guess we could call them in a new light 186 00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:28.039 in which a greater deeper understanding of just how much 187 00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:32.159 agency human beings actually have neither total nor all that limited, 188 00:11:32.559 --> 00:11:39.039 can be appreciated by the historian. Within some circles, the 189 00:11:39.200 --> 00:11:41.720 first half of the twentieth century had seen some discussion 190 00:11:41.799 --> 00:11:45.440 of the role that infectious disease had played in human history, 191 00:11:45.519 --> 00:11:49.799 but it was relatively limited. Remember, German theory is not 192 00:11:49.879 --> 00:11:54.240 that old at this point, and I can't recall the 193 00:11:54.360 --> 00:11:57.000 year that it was proven, but it was in the 194 00:11:57.120 --> 00:12:01.240 nineteen thirties that a virus was proven to exist at all, 195 00:12:01.480 --> 00:12:05.159 at least in terms of visual evidence, something we talked 196 00:12:05.159 --> 00:12:08.240 about in the Spanish flu episode that we did on 197 00:12:08.320 --> 00:12:12.840 History Impossible a number of years ago. Regardless, the biologist 198 00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:16.600 Hans Zincer had written a book called Rats License History 199 00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:20.440 in nineteen thirty five to some moderate success, and in 200 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:24.679 nineteen forty one a junior statistician named Clara E. Council 201 00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:28.159 had written a paper for Public Health Reports in which 202 00:12:28.200 --> 00:12:31.679 he stated that quote the waging of war has always 203 00:12:31.720 --> 00:12:35.200 been attended by increases in the prevalence of disease unquote, 204 00:12:35.480 --> 00:12:38.360 but noted that quote only a blurred picture can be 205 00:12:38.440 --> 00:12:41.799 obtained of the true character and incidents of the great 206 00:12:41.840 --> 00:12:45.440 waves of fatal illness that decimated the nations involved in 207 00:12:45.639 --> 00:12:54.960 early Wars unquote. This limited appreciation was fully articulated in 208 00:12:55.080 --> 00:12:59.960 nineteen forty nine, when the godfather of modern environmentalism, Eldo Leopold, 209 00:13:00.279 --> 00:13:03.720 called for a rewriting of history from an ecological perspective. 210 00:13:04.759 --> 00:13:07.039 I mentioned him in the previous episode of History Impossible 211 00:13:07.039 --> 00:13:11.480 as well, you might recall, however, a true shift in 212 00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:15.799 this direction towards looking at history from an ecological perspective 213 00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:18.759 would not begin to appear in earnest until the early 214 00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:24.120 nineteen seventies. During this time, and increasing number of scholars 215 00:13:24.200 --> 00:13:26.799 began to take the role of disease far more seriously 216 00:13:27.399 --> 00:13:31.759 as a significant contributing factor in events otherwise thought to 217 00:13:31.840 --> 00:13:34.200 be primarily the result of human win Like I was 218 00:13:34.240 --> 00:13:37.279 saying earlier, and I just mentioned it a little bit ago, 219 00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:41.080 but it's worth reiterating and looking at one of the 220 00:13:41.559 --> 00:13:45.600 primary books, if not really the first primary major work 221 00:13:46.200 --> 00:13:51.879 that recontextualized the conquest of the Americas. Because of the 222 00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:55.559 obvious downstream effects the so called discovery of North America. 223 00:13:56.480 --> 00:14:00.120 Therefore proved fertile ground for questions of human agency the 224 00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:05.039 hands of environmental forces like disease. This was at the 225 00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:08.919 center of Alfred W. Crosby's The Colombian Exchange, Biological and 226 00:14:08.960 --> 00:14:11.919 Cultural Consequences of fourteen ninety two, which was published in 227 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:16.240 nineteen seventy two, in which Crosby demonstrates that quote the 228 00:14:16.360 --> 00:14:19.639 fatal diseases of the old world killed more effectively in 229 00:14:19.799 --> 00:14:25.840 the new unquote. This recontextualization of one of the modern 230 00:14:25.879 --> 00:14:29.320 world's most significant changes, really the creation of the modern 231 00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:31.240 world when you think about it as we know it today, 232 00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:36.200 was profoundly significant because it challenged the fundamental assumptions that 233 00:14:36.759 --> 00:14:39.600 most historians up until that point and the general public 234 00:14:39.639 --> 00:14:42.879 as well, had about the arrival of Europeans on the 235 00:14:42.919 --> 00:14:47.279 American continents. Like I said, it was believed to be 236 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:50.960 just a simple act of human conquest, simple in air quotes. 237 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:51.120 There. 238 00:14:51.159 --> 00:14:56.399 Of course, the Crosby notes the fundamental contradiction at the 239 00:14:56.440 --> 00:14:59.320 heart of Native American resistance and the fact that they 240 00:14:59.360 --> 00:15:02.159 still were un able to stop the tide of European conquest, 241 00:15:02.879 --> 00:15:05.000 and he sought to explain why this was the case. 242 00:15:05.120 --> 00:15:08.440 He didn't think that simple human conquest was the answer, 243 00:15:08.679 --> 00:15:13.799 or another big assumption is the technological differences between the 244 00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:17.360 two cultures. As we know, that doesn't necessarily matter all 245 00:15:17.399 --> 00:15:21.240 that much on its own at least, and that was 246 00:15:21.360 --> 00:15:24.679 what previous scholarship had highlighted, the technological and in some 247 00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:27.960 cases in a sort of dated, politically incorrect way of 248 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:33.159 putting it, cultural superiority of the Europeans, and Crosby knew 249 00:15:33.200 --> 00:15:38.159 that that wouldn't suffice to explain this significant phenomenon in history, 250 00:15:39.320 --> 00:15:43.159 especially because it all neglected the role infectious disease actually played, 251 00:15:43.799 --> 00:15:47.080 as evidence written by accounts from indigenous survivors in the 252 00:15:47.159 --> 00:15:51.840 years after European contact. This is an important thing to 253 00:15:52.039 --> 00:15:55.559 point out. There were a lot of pieces of evidence 254 00:15:55.600 --> 00:15:59.360 out there, primary sources, that made it very clear infectious 255 00:15:59.360 --> 00:16:01.919 disease was a major problem, and it wasn't just the 256 00:16:02.039 --> 00:16:08.399 smallpox blankets that we've become colloquially aware of. Evidence of 257 00:16:09.159 --> 00:16:14.120 mass die offs, complete negation of villages and the like 258 00:16:14.600 --> 00:16:18.159 was well known and recorded at the time. Just awareness 259 00:16:18.200 --> 00:16:20.360 of it or appreciation of it as a force, had 260 00:16:20.440 --> 00:16:24.000 fallen by the wayside, likely thanks to the like I said, 261 00:16:24.120 --> 00:16:28.080 discomfort with the idea that human agencies sometimes can take 262 00:16:28.080 --> 00:16:33.559 a back seat, even relatively speaking, so Crosby sought to 263 00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:37.320 correct a record by exploring the role of biological exchange, 264 00:16:38.159 --> 00:16:40.960 which included narratives of disease exchange, and how that led 265 00:16:40.960 --> 00:16:43.799 to shifts that changed and shaped the landscape of the 266 00:16:43.879 --> 00:16:48.159 New World. This included an examination of the botanical and 267 00:16:48.320 --> 00:16:52.120 zoological imports from the Old World and how they specifically 268 00:16:52.200 --> 00:16:57.480 impacted the peoples already living in the Americas. Because animals 269 00:16:57.519 --> 00:17:00.559 are one of the largest vectors for disease exposure, if 270 00:17:00.639 --> 00:17:04.920 not the largest, the introduction of several species into the 271 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:08.440 new environment brought with them several of the diseases that 272 00:17:08.680 --> 00:17:12.920 ultimately wrought so much havoc on indigenous Americans. Like measles 273 00:17:13.079 --> 00:17:18.000 comes to mind. However, if one counts the arrival of 274 00:17:18.279 --> 00:17:22.319 new humans as a zoological import, not just the animals, 275 00:17:22.759 --> 00:17:27.640 and Crosby thinks that we should, then that helps explain 276 00:17:27.720 --> 00:17:31.480 the introduction of human exclusive disease into the American ecosystem, 277 00:17:31.599 --> 00:17:38.000 like smallpox. These introductions and interactions created massive effects on 278 00:17:38.119 --> 00:17:41.240 the indigenous populations that went well beyond just killing them 279 00:17:41.279 --> 00:17:46.759 off in droves. As Crosby explains, quote, one can only 280 00:17:46.839 --> 00:17:51.160 imagine the psychological impact on quote of the epidemics felt 281 00:17:51.160 --> 00:17:54.440 by indigenous people, which quote must have shaken the confidence 282 00:17:54.480 --> 00:17:57.160 of the Incans that they still enjoyed the esteem of 283 00:17:57.200 --> 00:18:05.039 their gods unquote. Crosby's ability to reasonably infer the cultural 284 00:18:05.119 --> 00:18:08.359 significance of infectious disease upon a people who had once 285 00:18:08.440 --> 00:18:11.119 seen few equals, like in the case of the Incas, 286 00:18:11.720 --> 00:18:16.359 helps demonstrate the previously less appreciated downstream effects of affectious disease. 287 00:18:16.839 --> 00:18:21.160 In the Conquest of the New World. Crosby made some 288 00:18:21.279 --> 00:18:23.880 assertions in the Columbian Exchange that would turn out to 289 00:18:23.920 --> 00:18:26.640 be challenged by later scholarships. So it's important for us 290 00:18:26.680 --> 00:18:30.160 to remember that none of these claims were infallible, and 291 00:18:30.319 --> 00:18:33.160 none of them ever will be. No claim in history 292 00:18:33.599 --> 00:18:38.519 in the actual literature will be considered infallible, just varying 293 00:18:38.640 --> 00:18:43.640 levels of difficult to challenge meaningfully. For example, Crosby made 294 00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:46.319 the claim that syphilis was likely introduced to Europe by 295 00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:50.039 indigenous Americans. There's not really much evidence to support that notion, 296 00:18:50.599 --> 00:18:56.599 not anymore, at least not exclusively. However, Crosby's inquiries were 297 00:18:56.759 --> 00:19:00.440 central in starting the conversation about what determined the outcomes 298 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:05.759 of European contact. This, in turn opened the field of 299 00:19:05.920 --> 00:19:09.400 environmental history to broader questions about the role played by 300 00:19:09.480 --> 00:19:17.079 infectious disease on significant historical events. Essentially supplementing Crosby's work 301 00:19:17.119 --> 00:19:21.000 in nineteen seventy two was medical historian Frederick F. Cartwright 302 00:19:21.400 --> 00:19:25.759 an historian Michael D. Biddis's book Disease and History, which 303 00:19:25.960 --> 00:19:29.680 offered a broader view than Crosby of the various diseases 304 00:19:29.720 --> 00:19:33.519 that have affected mankind across time and helped to universalize 305 00:19:33.559 --> 00:19:36.920 the idea that infectious disease played a significant role in 306 00:19:37.079 --> 00:19:42.319 human history's most dramatic moments. Cartwright and Biddis made a 307 00:19:42.640 --> 00:19:46.720 noteworthy contribution with their work by demonstrating infectious diseases quote 308 00:19:47.079 --> 00:19:50.960 effect not only upon historically important individuals, but also upon 309 00:19:51.000 --> 00:19:54.920 the people's quote, ranging from diseases of the ancient world 310 00:19:55.319 --> 00:20:01.720 to more modern maladies. For example, they pointed the spread 311 00:20:01.720 --> 00:20:05.359 of malaria into romes surrounding agricultural districts in the first 312 00:20:05.440 --> 00:20:10.279 century BCE as being quote probably more catastrophic than the 313 00:20:10.359 --> 00:20:14.079 attacks of the Goths and the Vandals unquote, since the 314 00:20:14.119 --> 00:20:17.240 effects of such an outbreak quote accounted for the slackness 315 00:20:17.240 --> 00:20:22.960 of spirit which characterized the later years of Rome. They 316 00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:27.079 also followed the same chain of cultural logic basically used 317 00:20:27.079 --> 00:20:29.920 by Crosby and suggests that had it not been for 318 00:20:30.119 --> 00:20:33.279 these centuries of plague that convulsed Rome after the death 319 00:20:33.319 --> 00:20:36.400 of Christ, the people of the Roman world would not 320 00:20:36.480 --> 00:20:39.480 have been so susceptible to the rhetoric and world vision 321 00:20:39.640 --> 00:20:45.039 of early Christianity. This kind of reminds me of how 322 00:20:45.160 --> 00:20:49.960 the old religions of Indonesia of Java, specifically the faith 323 00:20:50.039 --> 00:20:53.640 in them was so shaken by the explosion of Krakatoa 324 00:20:53.759 --> 00:20:57.920 and the apocalyptic destruction that wrought upon so many thousands 325 00:20:57.960 --> 00:21:02.119 of people, and how Islam filled that vacuum for a 326 00:21:02.160 --> 00:21:05.400 lot of them, leading ultimately to what we now recognize 327 00:21:05.400 --> 00:21:08.359 as the most populous Islamic country in the world today. 328 00:21:11.160 --> 00:21:14.359 Now this could well be overstated, all of it, but 329 00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:17.319 we do see the beginning of a more environmental and 330 00:21:17.559 --> 00:21:21.799 arguably deterministic view of human history forming with work like 331 00:21:21.880 --> 00:21:26.400 that of Cartwright and Biddus. And this can be seen 332 00:21:26.880 --> 00:21:29.480 when Cartwright and Biddus highlight the Black Death of the 333 00:21:29.519 --> 00:21:33.720 fourteenth century as a worldwide pandemic quote unquote, after which 334 00:21:33.759 --> 00:21:36.680 they make the argument that quote the devastation wrought in 335 00:21:36.759 --> 00:21:40.400 Scandinavia may ultimately have had a greater effect upon world 336 00:21:40.559 --> 00:21:44.960 history than did the English catastrophe of the Black Death unquote. 337 00:21:46.519 --> 00:21:49.000 When you read Cartwrite and Biddus, one can sense a 338 00:21:49.039 --> 00:21:53.160 bit of the traditional historiography from before the early seventies 339 00:21:53.160 --> 00:21:56.799 slipping into their analyzes, with their frequent invocations of the 340 00:21:56.880 --> 00:22:00.480 great men of history, like the Borgeaus, Ivan the than 341 00:22:00.519 --> 00:22:03.480 Henry the Eighth in their exploration of the effect that 342 00:22:03.599 --> 00:22:07.079 syphilis has had on the course of history. It's not 343 00:22:07.200 --> 00:22:09.359 to say that the great men don't matter. They certainly do. 344 00:22:09.839 --> 00:22:12.599 Great man theory is a little underrated at this point, 345 00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:16.160 i would say, at least in some circles. And while 346 00:22:16.200 --> 00:22:19.160 it is certainly significant that they would approach the behavior 347 00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:22.160 of well known rulers and historical figures from this standpoint 348 00:22:22.200 --> 00:22:25.480 as opposed to a moral one, this does suggest that 349 00:22:25.759 --> 00:22:29.319 some old habits of just singularly placing focus on the 350 00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:32.920 great men of history, rather than combining them with the 351 00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:36.359 trends and forces out there, that that habit of just 352 00:22:36.480 --> 00:22:40.279 focusing on one dies hard. It would be another four 353 00:22:40.359 --> 00:22:43.279 years before the insights explored by the likes of Crosby, 354 00:22:43.440 --> 00:22:47.200 Cartwright and Biddus would be given new life within the field. 355 00:22:49.079 --> 00:22:52.440 William McNeil, the father of J. R. McNeil. Funny enough, 356 00:22:52.640 --> 00:22:56.960 his book Plagues and Peoples from nineteen seventy six helped 357 00:22:57.039 --> 00:22:59.880 break new ground with its more nuanced approach than the 358 00:23:00.079 --> 00:23:04.039 previous scholarship that we just looked at. It did so 359 00:23:04.160 --> 00:23:07.200 by attempting to further provide quote a fuller comprehension of 360 00:23:07.319 --> 00:23:10.559 humanity's ever changing place and the balance of nature unquote, 361 00:23:10.799 --> 00:23:14.599 to use McNeil's words, by providing a broad analysis of 362 00:23:14.680 --> 00:23:19.200 humanity's interaction with disease, including conflict, conquest, and colonization. There's 363 00:23:19.240 --> 00:23:24.440 those three c's again, starting his chronology with the beginning 364 00:23:24.519 --> 00:23:28.839 of humankind itself, so don't mistake him for being modest 365 00:23:28.880 --> 00:23:32.519 with his timeline. McNeil was the first to place human 366 00:23:32.599 --> 00:23:36.839 beings in a truly environmental context, beginning in prehistory in 367 00:23:36.920 --> 00:23:41.440 other words, pre civilization, showing how we are animals and 368 00:23:41.680 --> 00:23:44.960 like all animals, are part of a constantly shifting ecosystem. 369 00:23:46.160 --> 00:23:49.200 He notes that despite our incredible ability to adapt to 370 00:23:49.640 --> 00:23:55.480 rapidly changing circumstances, our species is quote relations with microparasites 371 00:23:55.880 --> 00:24:00.279 remained until the nineteenth century largely biological, that is, beyond 372 00:24:00.440 --> 00:24:07.640 or beneath human capacity for conscious control unquote. This recontextualization 373 00:24:07.839 --> 00:24:11.359 went well beyond historical events and instead focused on humankind 374 00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:15.240 as a biological species, which helped then make the case 375 00:24:15.440 --> 00:24:19.400 the ultimate case really for which environmental historians had been 376 00:24:19.480 --> 00:24:25.000 advocating that human beings are not exempt from environmentally driven forces. 377 00:24:27.319 --> 00:24:33.480 Despite his significant recontextualization of humanity as a species, McNeil 378 00:24:33.519 --> 00:24:36.359 follows the trend that had been set by Cartwright and 379 00:24:36.519 --> 00:24:39.119 Biddhus by moving through the rest of human history from 380 00:24:39.480 --> 00:24:42.440 the ancient world until the modern day and exploring how 381 00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:46.200 disease made impacts along the way in broad terms at least, 382 00:24:48.920 --> 00:24:51.880 Like Cartwright and Biddus, he also uses cultural responses to 383 00:24:52.119 --> 00:24:55.160 disease to help explain the rise of certain religious views, 384 00:24:55.200 --> 00:24:59.720 including Christianity, noting that for Christians believe that quote care 385 00:24:59.720 --> 00:25:02.839 of the even in time of pestilence was for them 386 00:25:02.920 --> 00:25:07.680 a recognized religious duty. McNeil argues that Christianity thus had 387 00:25:07.720 --> 00:25:10.920 an advantage over the old pagan religions of Europe that 388 00:25:11.160 --> 00:25:13.599 did not share such views, at least in terms of 389 00:25:13.640 --> 00:25:18.680 incentivizing conversions. He cites early Christian writers such as Cyprian 390 00:25:19.119 --> 00:25:21.880 in making this case at least, though unlike Cartwright and Bidus, 391 00:25:21.920 --> 00:25:25.680 he outright admits that this is just speculation, however compelling, 392 00:25:25.720 --> 00:25:30.200 and therefore cannot be proven. It's still a very interesting idea, though, 393 00:25:30.759 --> 00:25:34.880 that the ethics the morals baked into Christian theology in 394 00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:40.680 Christian teaching might have actually served a sociobiological purpose in 395 00:25:41.079 --> 00:25:44.440 furthering the at least the civilizations that felt under the 396 00:25:44.519 --> 00:25:51.519 sway of Christianity during times of epidemics and whatnot. Now, 397 00:25:51.799 --> 00:25:54.480 William McNeil does not always follow his own advice throughout 398 00:25:54.480 --> 00:25:57.720 the rest of his monograph, but what this shows is 399 00:25:57.839 --> 00:26:01.599 a growing awareness of the limitation of unchecked environmental views 400 00:26:01.640 --> 00:26:04.640 of history, especially when they begin to veer too close 401 00:26:04.680 --> 00:26:08.759