SMALLPOX OF 1519
Ever
noticed your face breaking out really bad and really suddenly? Your mom
probably lectured you on washing your face better or not eating so many sweets.
The next few days your arms get these red spots too and once again it’s “your fault for not taking care of
your body.” But have no fear, it’s not your fault at all! Instead you've the
lucky winner of this great, powerful, and deadly disease: Smallpox! Now maybe
you didn't know, but you've actually already had this prestigious epidemic for
close to 5 days(Dixon)! In less than a week those pimples are going to turn
into very large scabs. If they eventually fall off then it’s ok (CDC)! But have
no fear, if they don’t, you have at least three more weeks to live! You’ve
always wanted to go to Hawaii right?
Speaking of
Smallpox, I once had a personal experience with this horrible epidemic. It all
started for her that cold December day. It was the last day before Christmas
break was to start and who really pays attention to the teacher on that day?
Poor old Mrs. Wright was trying so hard to keep her students entertained: “It was 1518. Hernando Cortez was a
thriving, but young conquistador. He was very courageous and successful, but
feared by many with a lot of money who could give him financial backing in
order to send him to new lands(Kukaswadia, Atif). In his past, Cortez had taken
more than his fair share of his findings and owed numerous people. At this
point he was trying to arrange his biggest haul of them all. He had a boat,
with nearly 300 people, horses, and supplies ready to set sail to the America’s.
Suddenly, he was convicted of many crimes and was going to be thrown in jail or
sent to Spain(History.com Staff). He had to act quickly, and without the King’s
permission he quickly gathered up his few things and set sail.
He was chased by several of the king’s officials, but once
they hit open sea there was no catching them. Unfortunately for over 20 million
Aztecs living happily in Mexico City, Cortez was coming, with soldiers, guns,
and one more secret weapon even he didn't know he possessed… Germs… Eww germs(Kukaswadia, A)!!”
Just stop
Mrs. Wright. I was desperately praying that the old lady would just shut up and
let us all sleep.
“No, not like that,” Mrs. Wright
continued. “These aren't the germs you get from a girl when you are in
Kindergarten. These germs were dangerous. And, it wasn't your average flu germs
either. No, these germs were VERY potent. It was as if the conquistadors had
gotten a mad scientist to create an almost toxic smog to release over the city,
similar to what happens in hero/villain movies, but in reality they had done
nothing but show up. The Aztecs themselves killed themselves by spreading the
disease. All could have been stopped if they had kept the sick isolated from
the healthy population(Finner). The Spanish’s appearance alone brought about
the death of over 20 million people(AZTEC-HISTORY.COM Authors). Talk about an
appearance.”
Wow, now
this is a super boring. Honestly, who even cares about this stuff? Then,
suddenly, I drifted off into a quite nice nap, one that everyone seems to take
in their average high school history classes…
“Commander, your troops await your
orders. We need them now! You know who is coming. We must prepare immediately!”
Ok, resume
back to story. Immediately, I knew I had to figure some really significant
facts out: who is this person that is coming, why am I here, and, lastly, but
most importantly, what are the chances I can make these people do the whip and
nae nae?
Now, to
save you from the boring part of me finding out all of those things, I will
skip forward a few weeks to after Hernando Cortez (totally not the person we
were expecting) showed up. Oh, and, by the way, I totally taught them how to do
the whip and nae nae. I just so happened to be the commander of the entire
Aztec army. When I say jump, they ask how high.
We have
been under siege from this strange group of people for three weeks now. All
seven of my wives have full confidence in my army’s ability to defeat these peoples who come from far away.
Yes, they have many new weapons of destruction but we have the advantage of
numbers.
Taylor, one
of our brightest doctors, who did I mention is also the most beautiful girl in
our tribe, which I plan to make my wife one day, has made me aware that many of my uninjured troops have
fallen ill. But, this is no problem for us. We still have thousands of people.
And, luckily, we have so many new medical procedures to help these sickened
people.
The first
thing we will do is parade the sick around town on the first night of the full
moon. One of our traditions to help the sick is to get every single healthy
person to kiss the sick. We do this to share our health, which the great god
Apollo has given us. After that, we will invite them to stay with us in our
homes. We shall nurse them back to health!
As you can
tell, I have learned a great deal of information in these last three weeks
about the Aztecs. At first, I thought that the idea of kissing the sick was a
bad idea. Mrs. Wright had said something about keeping the sick in isolation or
something, but, honestly, I wasn't really paying attention anyway, so I am not
sure. Was she talking about the Aztecs? Quite honestly, she could have been
talking about some people in Alaska, but how the heck am I supposed to know? I
was too busy thinking about the cute girl I was going to get to see in sixth
period.
As the
weeks went on, many more of us got sick. Even the beautiful and genius Taylor
couldn't figure out what was going wrong. The most perplexing thing was none of
the Spanish people seemed to get sick. Many of my friends seemed to believe
they had brought a god with them to keep them safe. A god that was much more
powerful than our Apollo. The attacks from them became fewer and fewer. We had
to retreat from our lands because we did not have enough people in order to stay.
The Spanish got exactly what they were wanting, and they didn't have to do
anything. How could this be happening? None of them were as fierce or brave as
my soldiers were. They did their killing with these hard, loud devices.
Cowards, I say! My soldiers fought with their hand like real mean do!
We
continued this trend for nearly a year. At this point, we realized this
disease, which had killed 75% of our tribe, was due to the Spanish. They had
definitely brought dark magic with them. They had killed our god, Apollo. No
matter how many people we sacrificed, we received no response from him. That
was a very sad day for my tribe when we learned of his assassination. Soon, the
Spanish would take everything from us, and we would all die…
Unfortunately,
I woke up, and realized I was back in Mrs. Wright’s class. And, dang, I still have thirteen more minutes in
this prison!
“And remember people, if there is a
break out of a disease, ALWAYS keeps the sick isolated.”
I began to
think about my dream. Crap, I thought. I was a horrible commander. I should
have known it was silly to go around having everyone kiss the sick bodies. I
quickly realized the only possible solution to this epidemic, at that time in
1519, was isolation. There was no such thing as medication back then. Ok, yes,
they drank those weird blood and fruit and water mixtures and called it
medicine, but in reality, they had no medical technology at all.
But how
possible would have it been to keep those people isolated? The first problem
would be where would have the sick gone? And, they would have had to agree to
uproot themselves from their lives, leaving everything behind. Then, what about
figuring out how they would all go to the same spot. The iPhone is still 500
years away from being invented, and I doubt people had their own GPS back then.
Next, they would have to find a way to determine who was actually sick with the
epidemic and who was just feeling under the weather. They would have to know immediately in order to get them out of
town before others got sick. And then
the huge pressing issue: they are being invaded by Spanish soldiers. If
everyone left to go into isolation, who would be left to protect their lands?
With these
problems, and other unnamed and unknown problems in avoiding this disease
spread, it is very unlikely that there was a solution to this mass killing. Had
this happened in today’s
world, there is a possibility that it could have been stopped, or it could have
been much, much worse. There are simply too many variables to know for sure.
Next, for
me, came English class.That old man, Mr. Rangel, was ranting on and on about
some person named Camus. I realized that Camus believed no one is really truly
living(Simpson).
They all just go about their lives, not noticing anything is happening until
something catastrophic happens. Then, when that big event occurs, everyone
freaks out. But still, at this point, they believe someone else needs to take
action. Until it is to the point of no return do they truly wake up and realize
what is going on in their lives.
This can be
said true about the Aztecs. They were living their lives, unaware of the death
curse that was headed their way. They even celebrated those people as a god
because that is what they believed him to be. It was not until people began to
die did they realize something was wrong. And, at first, they believed it to
only be a small sickness that would go away by kissing each other to share
their health. Then as things got out of hand, even the doctors had no idea what
to do. Their methods were unable to help them. There was nothing they could do.
AZTEC-HISTORY.COM Authors. "The Fall of the Aztec
Empire." The Fall of the Aztec Empire. N.p., 2006. Web. 28 Apr.
2016. <http://www.aztec-history.com/fall-of-the-aztec-empire.html>.
CDC.
"Smallpox Vaccine: What You Need to Know." CDC Smallpox. 15 Nov. 2003.
Web. 23 Feb. 2016.
<http://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/vaccination/needtoknow.asp>.
Dixon, C.W. "Smallpox. - CAB Direct." Smallpox. -
CAB Direct. Web. 18 Feb. 2016. <http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts19622702588.html;jsessionid=FB981E12809E D3749232F2131158D845>.
Finner, F. "Smallpox and Its Eradicationcontinued. -
CAB Direct." Smallpox and Its Eradicationcontinued. - CAB Direct. Web. 18
Feb. 2016. <http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/19882049083.html>.
History.com Staff. "Aztecs." History.com.
A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.
<http://www.history.com/topics/aztecs>.
Kukaswadia,
A. (2013, July 30). What Killed The Aztecs? A Researcher Probes Role of 16th
Century Megadrought | Public Health. Retrieved March 21, 2016, from
http://blogs.plos.org/publichealth/2013/07/30/guest-post-what-killed-the-aztecs/
Kukaswadia, Atif. "What Killed The Aztecs? A
Researcher Probes Role of 16th Century Megadrought | Public Health." Public
Health. N.p., July 2013. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. (Updated)
Simpson, David. "Internet Encyclopedia of
Philosophy." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. N.p., 2006. Web.
28 Apr. 2016. <http://www.iep.utm.edu/camus/>.
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