Home
:
Book details
:
Book description
Description of
Pandemic in Potos : Fear, Loathing, and Public Piety in a Colonial Mining Metropolis (Latin American Originals)
In 1719, a deadly and highly contagious disease took hold of the Imperial Villa of Potos, a silver mining metropolis in what is now Bolivia. Within a year, the pathogen had killed some 22,000 people, just over a third of the citys residents. Victims collapsed with fever, body aches, and effusions of blood from the nose and mouth. Most died within days. The great Andean pandemic of 171722 was likely the most destructive disease to strike South America since the days of the Spanish conquest. Read more