Next, let me talk to you about the several major plagues in human history. What did humans do right and what lessons did they learn in these plagues.
first talk about the Black Death disease.
Black Death was not called Black Death at the beginning. It was a name given by the scientists who later gave the patient a name based on internal bleeding when he died, causing dark skin.
Where did the Black Death come from?
actually had something to do with a street quarrel at the beginning.
. When it comes to this quarrel, we have to talk about Mongolian Empire .
Because of Mongolia's western expedition, the human world began its first globalization. Globalization brought about trade prosperity, and Marco Polo came to China during the Mongol Empire.
On the current Crimean Peninsula , there is a fishing village called Kafa. Because they are interested in the transportation location here, the Italian city-state Genoa, which is good at doing business, purchased this village from the Golden Horde.
Next, Genoa people spent half a century to develop this fishing village into a trading city.
At that time, various trades were carried out here, including merchants from all over the world, and various religious beliefs could also be found here.
But gradually, the Golden Horde, who sold this land, was dissatisfied. Because the best trade in Kafa City is not metal, not olive oil, but slaves.
Cafa City is one of the most famous slave trading cities. They sold the captured Slavs, , Caucasians, or Turks as slaves to West Asia and Egypt. Slavic is said to have the same etymology as slaves.
And these people were originally the source of soldiers of the Golden Horde, and now they are sold to other places through the Kafa. How to guarantee the source of troops of the Golden Horde?
So, the Golden Horde was ready to take action. But how to start a war? It's always necessary to have an excuse.
At this time, something happened. A Genoa businessman quarreled with a Muslim businessman. As a result, the Genoa was very enthusiastic and stabbed the Muslim businessman to death with one knife.
This happened to give the Golden Horde an excuse, and the Golden Horde began to attack the Genoa under the banner of Muslim protectors. Genoa retreated to Cafa City.
Europe was attacked by Mongolians back then, so they were injured and very cautious. Kafa City is not only a trading city, but also a military fortress. The city is very strongly built, and the Mongolian army has already passed its peak period, so it cannot be captured for a long time. Not only can it not be captured for a long time, but even a plague began to occur in the army.
At this time, the Khanate of the Golden Horde came up with an idea to throw the infected corpses into the city with a catapult.
At the beginning, the Genoa thought the Mongols had created a flying man and wanted to airdrop the attack. But when they came to the city, they found that these people were dead.
You can imagine the horror scene at that time, a person flew over from the air, with a hideous face. After falling to the ground, blood and flesh flew everywhere.
No surprise, the Mongolians successfully sent their plague to Kafa City.
The Mongols retreated.
In addition to the West, the East is also a victim of this great plague. A family in Fengyang, Anhui died one after another in this plague, and in the end there was only one person left. In order to bury his family, he sold himself to a temple. His name was Zhu Chongba, and later changed his name to Zhu Yuanzhang.
Back to Kafa, after the Mongols left, a Genoa Mall left Kafa City and headed for Messina, Italy.
The plague followed the ship and began to land in all parts of Europe.
According to research, when the Genoa plague ship sailed out of Cafa City, the plague had begun to spread across the European continent. The spread of the plague is multi-path, but this merchant ship should be a major source of transmission.
Messina discovered that it was the Genoese who brought the plague, so she drove the plague ship out of the port. But it was too late. The plague landed in Messina. In panic, the people of Messina began to take refuge in various places in Sicily and , and finally sent the plague to all parts of Sicily, thus taking away one-third of the Sicily people.
And the plague ship returned to his hometown, because the news of the plague had already arrived, and the plague ship was refused to dock. Next, the ship sailed to France again. At that time, France had not received any news of the plague, and the ship had to dock. When the French received the news and drove the ship away, the plague had already spread in France.
Finally, the Black Death disappeared, and the person who saw it said that the ship disappeared along the coast of Spain and headed towards the Atlantic Ocean, eventually disappearing at the end of the waves.
The plague began to spread in Europe, eventually killing 25 million , accounting for one-third of all Europeans.
So, how did Europeans deal with this plague?
Europeans do not know that this plague was caused by mice and fleas.
At the beginning, they thought it was caused by domestic animals and pets, so they beat the pets at home to death and threw them on the street. This seems ridiculous. In fact, more than ten years ago, when SARS was popular, some people threw their pets on the street.
In addition, they felt that this might be a masterpiece of witches, and the land of Europe began to burn women who were placed in the name of witches. At the same time, as the witch's companion, the cat is also caught in the shooting.
In fact, the real host of this plague is mice and fleas. Humans killed cats, and mice without natural enemies were more convenient to spread the virus to every angle.
Back to the back, Europeans discovered that this disease was brought to France by a Jewish woman from Spain, so Europeans began to persecute Jews again. The Jews became the scapegoat.
French King Philip VI organized the best professors in Europe to study the Black Death. After the most outstanding brain research in the world at that time, it was found that this disease was an evil planet polluting the air. It’s very simple to keep your breath away.
Philip VI held back for a while and decided it would be more appropriate to kill those professors.
Some scholars believe that this disease is transmitted by wind, while others believe that it is transmitted by eye waves. Obviously, it is possible to spread this disease by secretly sending out the secret.
How to prevent this disease and treat this disease?
Some doctors recommend eating spicy foods, the spicy the better. If it is true, Chongqing people may survive.
It is also recommended to burn a fire at the door to prevent the disease from entering the home.
There are also suggestions that long-distance running can cure diseases. One marathon a day, and the disease can’t be caught even if you want to catch up.
However, Europeans still did the right thing, which is to isolate. Because they know very clearly that they will get sick if they come into contact, and if they don’t come into contact, they may not get sick if they don’t get sick, so the commonly used method is isolation. All localities began to block themselves and strictly prohibit outsiders from entering. All kinds of gatherings in the city were banned and all weddings were cancelled.
In Europe, there are also some places that escaped the Black Death.
such as Iceland . Because Iceland is lonely overseas, it has little contact with the European continent. It only has one merchant ship a year. In the year when the plague broke out, there were also merchant ships heading to Iceland. However, on the way to Iceland, the plague on the ship broke out, so the merchant ship was cancelled. So Iceland was lucky enough to miss the Black Death.
And among them, the most successful prevention and control of the plague is Milan.
Milan is located in Italy and was originally a hard-hit area, but Milan's city managers are very capable.
When the epidemic began, three families in Milan were infected with the Black Death. The Milan government made a quick decision and immediately quarantined all three companies. How to isolate
? It's super simple and crude. First, it seals all the doors and windows of others. This is not enough. There is also a wall outside the houses of these three families to isolate them.
I don’t know if any of these three families survived, but it does block the source of the plague.
Next, Milan City closed most of the city gates, leaving only a few small gates, and then sent troops to guard them, only a very small number could pass.
This is the first time that humans have adopted a quarantine system.
Milan City took these measures as soon as the disease was discovered, so Milan suffered almost no losses when the Black Death sieges the cities and lands in Europe.
But three hundred years later, Milan once again faced a big test of the epidemic, but this time Milan failed the exam.
Three hundred years later, in 1629, Italy fought against the German and French armies. German and French troops brought the plague to Italy. When the epidemic spread to Milan, Milan once again launched quarantine. As the founder of the quarantine system, Milan City's response is textbook-style: setting up checkpoints, isolating and quarantine, restricting the entry of foreign personnel, especially Italian and French soldiers, controlling commercial activities, and preventing the entry of goods.
Seeing that Milan is going to create another miracle in the face of the plague. But in March of the following year, Milan, who thought the plague had ended, relaxed his vigilance. The suppressed Milanese held a carnival. Tens of thousands of citizens opened the door and walked to the streets to start breathing and destiny. As a result, this carnival made the quarantine measures of more than half a year was wasted.
The epidemic spread rapidly in Milan, eventually taking away 60,000 Milanese lives, while the entire Milanese talent was only 130,000.
So, the most important prevention and control method for any major epidemic disease is isolation, no one.
This is the revelation brought to mankind by the Black Death. Follow me, next time, let me talk to you about how the Chinese overcome this century-old plague during the Harbin plague.
