Pandemics in World History

Abstract

The article presents stories of the greatest pandemics in world history. Diseases have been the scourge of mankind for centuries. They turned out to be most aggressive when people began to live in larger clusters, i.e. mostly in cities. One of the larger pandemics that afflicted people quite regularly was the plague. But other diseases, such as cholera, typhoid, smallpox, syphilis, leprosy and Spanish flu, were also extremely devastating. These diseases left a huge mark on people’s mentality, they were described many times in literature and captured in paintings and sculptures. They influenced the course of battles, caused economic turmoil and changed the private lives of individuals. Treatment was intuitive for many centuries. Only vaccinations and identifying the causes of a disease offered a chance of recovery.