Seminar
RHI Seminar: War, Peace and the Spanish flu in Belgium, 1918-19
On invitation of the Rural and Environmental History Group, Prof. Dr. Isabelle Devos from Ghent University will give a seminar on April 14, 2022. Her presentation will build on a recently published article on the Spanish flu in Belgium, and is titled: ''War, Peace and the Spanish flu in Belgium, 1918-19'' To attend, please register via email
Abstract:
This paper provides the first comprehensive overview of the severity and impact of the Spanish flu in Belgium and thereby makes a long overdue connection with the extensive international literature on the pandemic. In Belgium, research has been seriously hampered by incomplete, missing or non-existent sources due to wartime conditions and the difficult context of the German occupation. Using ego documents (war diaries) and municipal-level excess mortality figures, we present new evidence on the chronology and spatial distribution of Spanish flu mortality in Belgium in 1918 and 1919. Leveraging the unique individual-level cause-of-death register of the city of Antwerp, we furthermore analyze the demographic and social characteristics of the victims of Spanish flu and its interaction with other airborne diseases such as tuberculosis. Our analysis shows that the chronology and geography of the Spanish flu cannot be seen in isolation from the vagaries of the First World War, in terms of soldiers and evacuees both acting as likely vectors of influenza transmission as well as inflating death rates at the municipal level.
This paper provides the first comprehensive overview of the severity and impact of the Spanish flu in Belgium and thereby makes a long overdue connection with the extensive international literature on the pandemic. In Belgium, research has been seriously hampered by incomplete, missing or non-existent sources due to wartime conditions and the difficult context of the German occupation. Using ego documents (war diaries) and municipal-level excess mortality figures, we present new evidence on the chronology and spatial distribution of Spanish flu mortality in Belgium in 1918 and 1919. Leveraging the unique individual-level cause-of-death register of the city of Antwerp, we furthermore analyze the demographic and social characteristics of the victims of Spanish flu and its interaction with other airborne diseases such as tuberculosis. Our analysis shows that the chronology and geography of the Spanish flu cannot be seen in isolation from the vagaries of the First World War, in terms of soldiers and evacuees both acting as likely vectors of influenza transmission as well as inflating death rates at the municipal level.