Deyner´s Notes!

⌛ Reading time: 9 minutes

Contrary to what is believed, 2020 is not the worst year in the history of mankind. It has been so far a very bad year for every people in every corner of planet Earth, but the truth is that there have been many bad years throughout the history of mankind...moments in which it was a real nightmare to live on.

This year 2020, started with high expectations for almost everyone: a beginning of a brand new decade at which the entire world looked at with optimism.....just to see those high expectations disappear like the morning mist swiped by a hot and shiny sun: Australia on fire with more than 46 million acres burned to the ground, Brazil rainforest wildfires affecting a wide range of biodiversity with more than 32 000 hotspots “alive” in the world’s largest rainforest, a disastrous North American wildfire season implanting a new record for the state of California and the United States as a whole with more than 8 million acres burned so far, the awakening of racial unrest in USA leading to large demonstrations and vandalism in many states of the North American Union, a super active Hurricane Season being the busiest season in history since records began....and, in case all of that wasn't enough at all, the world was beaten the hard way by a very infectious disease: Covid19; a deadly pandemic that has already claimed the lives of more than a million and a half people worldwide (so far) :(

For many people maybe this 2020 has been the worst year of their lifes, and maybe so it is, but, as stated before, there have been (in the past) years that have punctually marked humanity by the disastrous consequences they brought for the planet and actually, the whole mankind. Wanna know about what years i am talking about? Come check it out!

☹ 536 AD: Volcano Eruption and a Plague

Usually, unanimously taken by most historians as the worst year in mankind history, 536 AD was a year to be forgotten. According to many experts like Michael McCormick 536 AD “... was the beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive, if not the worst year.” That year an Icelandic volcano (or maybe another one) erupted and the ashes that this eruption released into the sky hid the sun for about 2 years depriving whole Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia of natural light...a complete darkness. 24 hours a day for about 18 months the sun light was perceived as if it had been as “moon light” – wrote Byzantine historian Procopius.

Fig 1. Simulated summertime (June-August) average temperature changes in 536. (Credit: Matt Toohey, *GEOMAR*)

Temperatures fell to 2.5°C and 1.5°C even in the mid of the summer, starting a mini “ice age” leading to a big failure in the normal farming cycle. Famine was a common thing and crops failed all across Europe, Africa and Asia...millions of people died. If, by that time, this was not enough at all, by the year 541 AD, an outbreak of Bubonic Plague (Plague of Justinian) spreaded by parts of Middle East and Europe, which led to the death of nearly 100 million people and almost half of the Byzantine Empire.

☹ 1316 AD: Great Flood and Great Famine

During the summer and autumn of 1314 it rained almost non-stop day after day in many parts of Europe. Subsequent years, 1315 and 1316 were not good either with unstoppable floods devastating crops and grass. In fact, it rained so much that rising seas swallowed entire coastal communities, leaving many people homeless and forcing them to seek shelter inland, joining strained and starving communities.

The hunger was such that many people abandoned their children to their fate and there are stories that say that many of these abandoned children ended up becoming food for other villagers...a widespread example of cannibalism. Perhaps the story of Hansel and Gretel have its roots in real facts taken from harrowing experiences from that time.

Fig 2. *Areas affected by The Great Famine 1314-1317 (https://britishfoodhistory.com)*

In affected regions of Europe 10–25% of population died of starvation, or of diseases like pneumonia or bronchitis attacking weakened bodies. “The Great Famine”, as it was later known, impacted around 30 million people across much of Europe, especially affecting areas from Britain and Scandinavia...was not a good time to live in i guess... **:(**

☹ 1347 AD: Peak of the Bubonic Plague (Black Death)

Curiously, showing some similarities with our brand new Covid19 disease regarding its origins, this outbreak of Bubonic Plage also began somewhere in “the East” and arrived in the west in Italy, which had the worst initial outbreak, spreading itself very quickly all over the European continent.

Fig 3. *A medieval doctor treating some Bubonic Plague victims (*https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au)

Between the years 1347 and 1348 an estimated 30 to 50 per cent of the European population was killed by this pandemic with many more victims across Russia and Middle East. Between 25 to 50 million people were affected by this disease with a high degree of mortality; besides Jewish communities suffered a lot given some conspiracy theories stating that Jews had poisoned the wells, hence the probable cause of that pandemic.

According to some experts, in the middle of the most powerful outbreak of the Bubonic Plage, consistently, Jews were slaughtered, burned, killed and hunted in several European countries and kingdoms. By 1351, 60 major and 150 smaller Jewish communities in northern Europe had been destroyed....awful year may i say!

☹ 1520: the Native American population almost disappeared

When Spanish explorers anchored in Mexico in the year 1520, they carried a disease that soon after will almost wipe out the native American population: smallpox. Over centuries of recurring smallpox epidemics, much of the European population had acquired immunity to the disease. This disease was totally unknown in the recently discovered continent so, Native populations had zero immunity to smallpox... a disaster was coming.

Fig 4. *Drawing accompanying the 16th-century text known as the “Florentine Codex”, showing Nahua of conquest-era central Mexico suffering from smallpox. (https://en.wikipedia.org)*

Just in the city of Veracruz, Mexico between the months of April and October, 1520, half of the population died from this disease.

And it wouldn't stop there....as the colonization process continued the spreading of the smallpox was something common among native communities who had contacted Europeans: between 60 to 90% of the Aztec Empire was wiped out by this disease and muskets in a year...the same fate was shared by The Incas a few years later.

☹ 1918: End of the WWI and the start of Spanish Flu

After 4 years of fighting the World War I was coming to an end with more than 20 million deaths and 21 million wounded people all over the world when another misfortune started again: a novel avian influenza virus made started to infecting humans causing a deadly pandemic that lasted for more than a year....was later known as “The Spanish Flu”.

Fig 5. *Hospital beds in the Great Hall of the Exhibition Building during the Spanish flu pandemic. Australia, 1919. (https://www.theage.com.au)*

Unlike our modern Coronavirus, the avian virus causing the Spanish Flu specially attacked children and young people. Adults between 20 to 40 years old were specially affected by this pandemic. With no vaccine and any kind of treatment the disease quickly spreaded by vast regions of North America, Europe and Asia. In the span of one year The Spanish Flu took the life of more than 50 millions people worldwide, bringing awareness on some basic hygiene rules encouraging the technique that we know now as mask-wearing.

☹ 1943: The worst year of WWII

Years between 1933 and 1945 starting with the Nazi Party seizing the power in Germany and finishing with the end of World War II, brought misery, devastation, death, starvation and hopelessness for the entire world population. The year 1943 was especially hard among all other years, mainly because the application in all its facets of the mass extermination process that we know now as “The Holocaust” where millions of people (Jews, LGBT people, Slavs, and anyone else the Nazi deemed unworthy to live) were killed in concentration camps.

Fig 6. *Experts say that Winston Churchill’s policies caused the 1943 Bengal Famine (https://thewire.in)*

Besides, by this year the WWII reached a fever pitch and a turnover in favor of the Allies with with Nazi forces fighting back with all of their strength. By this year, and following the efforts dedicated to war, Great Britain increased the volume of food it took from its Indian colonies, especially Bengal where this fact unleashed a famine later known as “Bengal Famine” where 3 million people died of starvation in a span of a year.

☹ 2020: Covid19 Pandemic

Some “2020 worst year facts” were summarized at the beginning of this article. However and with no doubts at all, this year will be remembered always by the initial outbreak and subsequent expansion of what we know as the Covid19 Pandemic. A deadly disease affecting the whole world which have took the life of more than 1.7 million people worldwide (so far).

Fig 7. *Virgen de Lourdes cemetery outside Peru's capital has become a monument to the pandemic's devastating toll among the poor. (http://www.radiohc.cu)*

The economic losses have also been quite large....According to a report given by IMF: ”...the COVID-19 pandemic will cost the world economy $28 trillion in lost output over the next five years while is predicted a severe disruption of labour markets for the foreseeable future”.

Disease, death, economical problems, forest fires, racial issues leading to huge demonstrations and vandalism somehow and more have made this year stand out among other really bad years we have had in the past....it is, no doubts at all, one of the worst years that humanity has had for a long time....and it will be remembered as such.

Final thoughts...by now

We can say, without a doubt, that mankind has faced many many bad years along its history. A single article would not have enough space to list them all. Hopefully for all of us, mankind has always found the way to overcome those situations and all together as a single race or entity, we have given ourselves a new opportunity to live and develop.

The truth is that sometimes a bad year in one region of the planet means maybe a good year for the other part...it's like natural or physical laws perhaps, but we can´t never forget that WE ARE ALL ONE and at the end of the day we all live in a single piece of rock floating in the space...so, if we want to survive as a species we need to help each other and growth strong, united...

Mankind says goodbye to this year with the hope that one of the vaccines already approved to counter this disease will work properly. However, there is no way to know what does the future holds.

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We have seen some of the worst years mankind have had along its history so far...from Ancient World´s volcano eruptions to Modern Era Coronavirus outbreak....but...would be possible that there are really bad years still to come? What some nasty predictions say about it?

Let´s see a couple of them!

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