‘THROUGH THE AGES…’ CHARLES C. As we enter a new decade, only the third for most of you, many new challenges, opportunities and unknowns lay in waiting. Without sounding too pessimistic, we have a lot to sort out. A lot. Merely 3 weeks into this new chapter and Australia was on fire, World War III was looming and Eminem had released another album. In order to understand these terrible, terrible events I’ve looked back on previous ‘20s to answer a few questions; what can we learn from previous years about these turbulent times and are these next 3653 days doomed from the start?
(yes, the actual plague!) which found itself peaking in Marseilles claiming 100,000 deaths in this trying year. 1820 saw the beginning of a new Cholera pandemic, initially discovered in Siam (modernday Thailand) which spread across Asia like wildfire thanks to British Navy troops and merchant ships carrying the disease as far as China and Japan. Finally, the Influenza Pandemic, colloquially known as the Spanish Flu, infected 500 million, killing approximately a tenth to a fifth of all those infected. As history suggests, the roaring ‘20s have not often been good for humanity’s health and, given the recent outbreak of the Coronavirus in China, we could be looking at a lot of sick days this decade.
Starting off on a light note, many of you may already be aware however there have been serious disease outbreaks occurring in 1920, 1820 and even 1720. In 1720, there was the Second Plague Pandemic
Going far back now to 220 we witnessed the collapse of the Han Dynasty in China. The sitting Emperor Xian was at conflict with the fierce warlord 33
