Mosquito Empires: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean, 1620–1914This book explores the links among ecology, disease, and international politics in the context of the Greater Caribbean - the landscapes lying between Surinam and the Chesapeake - in the seventeenth through early twentieth centuries. Ecological changes made these landscapes especially suitable for the vector mosquitoes of yellow fever and malaria, and these diseases wrought systematic havoc among armies and would-be settlers. Because yellow fever confers immunity on survivors of the disease, and because malaria confers resistance, these diseases played partisan roles in the struggles for empire and revolution, attacking some populations more severely than others. In particular, yellow fever and malaria attacked newcomers to the region, which helped keep the Spanish Empire Spanish in the face of predatory rivals in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. In the late eighteenth and through the nineteenth century, these diseases helped revolutions to succeed by decimating forces sent out from Europe to prevent them. |
Contents
1 | |
13 | |
Deadly Fevers Deadly Doctors | 63 |
IMPERIAL MosQUIToEs | 89 |
Panama and Darien | 106 |
Guyana and Kourou | 123 |
Yellow Fever Rampant and British Ambition Repulsed | 137 |
Havana and Environs c I 762 | 172 |
Other editions - View all
Mosquito Empires: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean, 1620-1914 J. R. McNeill Limited preview - 2010 |
Mosquito Empires: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean, 1620-1914 J. R. McNeill No preview available - 2010 |
Mosquito Empires: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean, 1620-1914 J. R. McNeill No preview available - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
Additional MSS aegypti African Albemarle America Amerindian Anopheles anophelines arrived Atlantic attack August Bolivar Borland Brazil Britain British Army campaign Caribbean Carolina Cartagena Cartagena de Indias Chanvalon climate coast Colombia colony Cornwallis Cuba Darien death Dessalines died disease doctors Domingue Dutch ecological epidemic Estado European expedition fever and malaria fields fight fighting figures find first fit five fleet forces fortifications France French French Guyana garrisons gens de couleur Gorgas Granada Greater Caribbean Guadeloupe Guyana Havana herd immunity immunity Indian infections islands Jamaica June killed Kourou Leclerc llanos lost mainly malaria military months Morillo mosquitoes naval navy North numbers officer official Panama percent perhaps plantations planters political population Portobelo ports printed in Roussier quoted recruited regiments resistance Revolution sailors Scots season ships sick siege slaves soldiers South Spain Spanish Empire sugar Surinam Toussaint trade troops vector Venezuela Veracruz Vernon Wentworth West Indies wrote yellow fever virus Yorktown