ABSTRACT
Most history examines the political, sociological, military, or economic events that have defi ned our past. But throughout our existence, unseen and often underappreciated microscopic participants have helped to shape the human experience. In many of history’s important wars, for example, far more combatants and civilians have been killed by microorganisms than by bullets and bombs. In the American Civil War, just to name one, 140,414 Union soldiers died on the battlefi eld or of battle-infl icted wounds. Disease, however, was responsible for 224,097 Union army deaths, many due to typhoid. Similar statistics are not available for the Confederate army, but the death toll due to typhoid was believed to be even higher for the South. It was not until the 20th century that mankind’s ability to kill in battle exceeded that of microorganisms. Infectious disease may have hastened the fall of Rome and the abandonment of feudalism in medieval England and contributed to Napoleon’s decision to sell French territories in North America to the United States.
