The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918: Explained (Short Animated Documentary)

history is often filled with things that aren't very fun a notable amongst those is disease sometimes it will end the reign of an important monarch sometimes it will stop a war in its tracks but every few centuries there's a major outbreak a pandemic and one of the most notable of these was the influenza outbreak of 1918 better known as the Spanish flu so how did this pandemic play out well first of all it's important to note that there's no definitive answer on where this outbreak actually came from some say it started in a British Army field hospital in France because all those sick people next to each other was a breeding ground for disease some argue that it originated in southern China because the government there had reported a deadly flu there in 1917 and there are others that say it started in Kansas and American soldiers brought it with them to the Western Front what we know for sure is that it definitely didn't start in Spain so why is it called the Spanish flu then well the reason is that during the first world war if the on tonton central power was implemented strict censorship at the press and this included suppressing the flu outbreak because authorities were concerned it would demoralize troops Spain however was a neutral country and so had no censorship and its papers were free to discuss the outbreak of flu which had spread there from France also given that the king of Spain himself got very sick many people only knew about the deadly flu there and had no idea that it was spreading in their own countries hence the name so to summarize the outbreak the Spanish influenza pandemic infected one in three people globally and of those it killed roughly 10% most deaths came from the flu causing pneumonia fortunately though pneumonia could easily be treated by antibiotics unfortunately antibiotics hadn't been invented yet and so you simply had to hope for the best in the end the pandemic reached all corners of the world and killed about 40 to 50 million people globally in the space of a year and to put this into perspective World War one could about twelve million people over the course of four years so the Spanish flu came in three waves and the first one hit in March to April of 1918 but this was the least deadly of all waves by May or June though the flu had largely disappeared until it popped back up in France in late October and it was this second wave which was the big one to put it into perspective in six weeks the illness killed 400,000 people in the United States and 200,000 in Germany and its victims were mostly young adults places like India with the hardest hit though with the death toll there alone being over 10 million people in two months and the third wave occurred around the beginning of 1919 and whilst also deadly wasn't as bad as the previous over the course of two months he killed 70,000 people in Britain and slightly more in Germany after this though the flu just simply well disappeared leaving the world to pick up the pieces and return to a sense of normalcy so how did nations try to stop it well we'll look at Italy's attempt for the answer the first outbreak barely affected the nation and soldiers on the front were only made mildly and well but it was the second wave which began in cesano in September of 1918 that was the devastating one when soldiers on the front started to die in droves the government knew that strict measures had to be taken the problem was that Italy wasn't a hugely developed nation at this point and so food was severely limited by the war effort to medical staff and equipment were prioritized for the army in the end as millions of people became unwell combat medics were sent back and first year medical students were given control of entire hospitals travel between cities was limited but ultimately this wasn't enough to stop its spread the Italian government implemented numerous strategies one advice was given to people to wash their hands often to isolate the sick and to produce contact with their neighbors which was difficult given that people had to kefir rations daily the government conscripted prisoners of war to clean the streets gave police officers face masks and reserved hospitals for only the very sick it banned public gatherings closed schools and bought hospital visitors and it was this aspect no church no seeing sick relatives are no attending their funerals which caused a deep trauma in Italian society reminiscent of the Black Death six centuries earlier like everywhere else the last wave went as quick as the first one came in in Italy the flu killed 600,000 people in six months something many people wonder is that given how destructive the Spanish flu was why isn't it better remembered and for that there are two reasons the first was that it occurred towards the end of the first world war and so that event takes precedence the second was that during this period pandemics were fairly common and people were used to cholera typhoid plague and other diseases ravaging their communities and combined with people being numb to so many young deaths in the war much of the world had become well pretty used to it which is why the Spanish flu was always seen as a footnote to the first world war because too many people at the time it was I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching with the special thanks to my patrons James Bissonnette John lucid a man of culture danny Maloney little Holliday John bass guest Robert house moe James Castaneda Aaron the white Jordan Longley Gustav Swann Marcus ours nur Rashid Ali spinning three plates filled oink oink David Silverman Maggie packs Kowski Spencer Lightfoot Lexy Schwinn Kelly moneymaker Anthony Beckett Robert Wetzel sky Chappell Marvin Castle Winston Heyward and Izzy

Channel: History Matters

Views: 1,165,671

Keywords: History, Matters, Short, Animated, Documentary, Simple, Spain, Spanish, Flu, WW1, Britain, Germany, Italy, United States, America, World

Id: nISQbh8rrv8

Length: 4min 48sec (288 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 25 2020