World war I and the influenza were directly related to one another, but the intensity of such wasn’t fully recognized, furthermore being censored by the press to protect popular support for the war, and excluding the relationship between war mobilization provided the means for which the virus could travel while also creating conditions that allotted for the virus to evolve into several hard hitting waves; at the same time, influenza influenced war structure and aftermath as it swept through camps War mobilization provided an extensive network to transport the virus across camps and countries within the exchange of people and resources; which was found hard to contain as the war effort overshadowed the needs and health of the individual.
The Infection Era began in 1775 and continued until 1918.1This era was characterized by fatalities as a result of infectious diseases. Diseases weakened troops and increased their vulnerability in battle. According to military hygienist Alfred A.Woodhull “the sick are for the time as ineffective as the dead. ”2Disease spread rampantly throughout over crowded camps in which there was a lack of sanitation and disposal of wastes. Soldiers and doctors practiced poor hygiene, which helped spread disease.
There is continually something that prompts to another. Sometimes, it can bring about an enormous outbreak. At the turn of the twentieth century, Europe was at war. This war lasted more than four, long, gruesome years. It was also known as the “Great War”.
Flor Martinez Mr. Coker World History DBQ 19 April 2023 Causes of World War I There are many factors that contributed to the start of World War I in 1914. After having studied them all, I have narrowed it down to Militarism and Imperialism, but I believe that the main cause was Alliances. The term Militarism refers to a country’s belief to have a strong military and be prepared to use it whenever necessary in order to defend their country.
Although strong and disciplined soldiers are needed for a good army, the medical procedures and the system for saving injured fighters are equally as important. During World War II, many advancements in medical procedures and technologies developed due to the need to counteract the advancing weapons that cause more destruction. However, during World War II, there were less deaths due to infection and bleeding than World War I. This was primarily due to medical and surgical advancements.
During World War 1, medical advancements were inspired by the medical challenges during the war. The medical innovations that came from WW1 are still in use today such as the flu shot, which has prevented millions of people from getting the virus, the invention of blood transfusion, and the invention of plastic surgery by Harold Gillies. In previous wars, it was the illnesses and the lack of antibiotics that caused the deaths of the majority of soldiers but during World War 1, it was the battle injuries and unknown infections that caused the majority of casualties. The Spanish Influenza or the Flu Epidemic caused many nurses, surgeons, as well as soldiers, to be infected with this very contagious and incurable disease.
They believed that epidemic diseases were caused by “miasmas” or “viruses”, which they considered to be poison that float through the air. This misconception of diseases impacted the war negatively due to the fact that medicine did not reach a stage to provide certain insights of diseases. There were many infectious diseases that were common among the soldiers which included, “typhoid and other fevers, smallpox, acute and chronic diarrhea, yellow fever, measles, mumps, diphtheria, scarlet fever, erysipelas and the intermittent fevers.” These diseases gave a foul stench, according to Bollet “it was said that the Civil war army on March could be smelled before it could be seen.” Most of the stench came from the bacteria and virus causing diseases.
a. Escaping the destructive scale of World War I the United States became the world’s leading economic power. Europe on the other hand found itself short of $350 billion and virtually bankrupt. The war had ruined the economies of the Allied nations, which had been limited to the production of armaments for the last four years. A terrible product to invest a nation’s entire economy, weapons could only be used during times of war, serving no other purpose than this, and so the Allied nations looked on at their weapon stockpiles and groaned at the money wasted, as their economies entered a period of decline. To make matters worse, the total death toll of the Great War and the Spanish Influenza that followed it numbered in the tens of millions, a loss of life that meant Europe’s economies had been robbed of the talents and brains of an entire generation of young men.
The flu, incurable at the time, was being passed along in the U.S leaving thousands of citizens sick and being easily passed on. It all began with a small conflict between two countries that soon led into something much more drastic. Serbia was a new and independent country that was anxious to become a large Slavic country. (Doc 4) Serbia soon asked Austria-Hungary if they would like to combine their countries to become a larger country.
Soon, the epidemic arrived in Chicago. On August 28, 1918, reports of the increased death rate in Massachusetts were reported in Chicago newspapers, warning citizens of the potential risk of the epidemic reaching them. Nationwide, military camps suffered mass outbreaks throughout September, and yet, the Chicago Tribune printed reassuring news stories that suggested the flu was under control. On September 8, 1918, the virus took its first victims of the city: sailors at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station.
World War I is often considered the second worst war in history. In the view of past warfare we typically focus on the death total that flashes over twenty million. However consequently in doing so we often forget the sheer horror of the warfare and the life of the soldiers on the front line. The soldiers faced many hardships both mentally and physically that shouldn’t be neglected. The journals of Quiren Grossel, Reese Russell, and George Sheppard highlight the extreme difficulty of the hardships they faced while on the front of the vast battlefield.
The influenza pandemic of 1918, otherwise known as the “Spanish Flu’ was responsible for the deaths of 20 to 40 million individuals, resulting in a higher mortality than World War 1. More specifically, 675,000 Americans died, with the virus infecting close to 25% of the American population. As a result, studies have found the American lifespan during 1918-1919 had lowered 10 years due to the Spanish Flu.^1 The location of origin for the Spanish Flu is widely debated.
Spanish Flu Jaden Morrow I am going to be talking about the Spanish Flu in 1918. One of the questions I was asked to answer was how did the Spanish Flu enter the United States. The Spanish Flu originally came from Spanish and when they traveled over to America it spread to the Native Americans. Once it reached them everyone started getting it and a bunch of people died and they didn’t really know why.
World War I was not the the most destructive war, or the “Great War,” as some have called it, and was definitely not the war to end all wars, but it was the war to change how people viewed the world in the 20th Century. The declaration of war brought enthusiasm and excitement into people’s hearts as waves of nationalism moved across Europe. World War I, which began in 1914, was thought to be a “rapid war that would and within the few months, likely by Christmas” with relatively few casualties. That, however, did not happen as until 1918. In the short span of four years, shock and disbelief loomed over not just the soldiers coming back home from the battlefield, but citizens that once welcomed war.
The Death Machine Within two years, it killed 50 million people worldwide. It hindered the lives of 500 million throughout the world, and 675,000 lay dead from this in the United States alone. This killer became known as the Spanish Influenza. The Spanish Influenza struck at the perfect time, on the tail end of World War I. With soldiers densely populated in bunkers, the flu spread like wildfire, especially when it arrived in the United States of America. The Spanish Influenza was a stone-cold killer.
“If we insist on being as sure as is conceivable... we must be content to creep along the ground, and can never soar” John Henry Cardinal Newman. Newman’s quote connects to the passage by stating that one will never break away and soar if they cannot understand failure. Originally this passage was based on the flu epidemic of 1918 hints the name of the title, The Great Influenza. Throughout the passage of The Great Influenza, John M. Barry establishes the message of embracing uncertainty and doubt.