For every officer living the privileged life described in this article there were dozens of rank and file British troops, who certainly had no servants, or any of the other described comforts and luxuries. No mention of them?
How did British officers live in the scorching heat of India?
61–70 of 96 posts
Re: How did British officers live in the scorching heat of India?
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
There was enough trade to exchange disease between Europe and Asia. The most well known example would be the plague that devestated Europe originated in East Asia. So the Indian population survived because they were exposed to the same diseases as Europeans and had developed some level of immunity.
> There was enough trade to exchange disease between Europe and Asia If you look at the long term history, there was widespread and massive instances of migrations too.
Good point. Alexander the Great made it all the way to India before being defeated. Going the other way, Genghis Khan made it from Central Asia to Eastern Europe.
Re: How did British officers live in the scorching heat of India?
#63Uh... but how had the Indians been doing it for thousands of years?
Plenty of melanin, and habits that didn't involve being out in the direct sun at its hottest probably helped.
As for the British officers of the time, I assume a key factor was having people (slaves and/or other subordinates) to order to do work while they stayed out of the direct sun as much as possible, in their relatively luxuriant accommodations.
Re: How did British officers live in the scorching heat of India?
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Follow-up question: why did the disease exchange only affect native Americans. Why didn't the colonists perish due to contact with deadly American diseases they had no exposure or resistance to? Why were the European diseases so deadly to Americans, but not vice versa?
My uneducated guess is that the Europeans lived in much larger communities (in Europe), which is a much better breeding ground for disease. This meant they were much more full of disease than the native Americans. Another uneducated guess is that this is why your pet doesn't often get sick - they have much less contact with other s than you do with other humans, contributing to less and slower spread of disease. Plea…
> My uneducated guess is that the Europeans lived in much larger communities (in Europe), which is a much better breeding ground for disease
Not a bad guess, but completely wrong. The cities of Mesoamerica or the Andes or the Mississippian culture of North America would have dwarfed most European cities, before they were ravaged by disease.
The best explanation I have seen is that almost all domesticable animals in the New World were exterminated early, and so there wasn't anywhere near the cross-species disease potential in the Americas. Old Worlders had domesticated horses, goats, sheep, pigs, cows, a wide array of fowl, camels, dogs, cats, etc, etc. In the Americas, there were turkeys, ducks, llamas & alpacas, and guinea pigs - and not all of those in any one place.
Re: How did British officers live in the scorching heat of India?
#65For every officer living the privileged life described in this article there were dozens of rank and file British troops, who certainly had no servants, or any of the other described comforts and luxuries. No mention of them?
The last paragraph in this article is as follows:
Finally, the British had servants. Even common British soldiers had servants.
So maybe read the article before commenting on what is or is not in it?
Re: How did British officers live in the scorching heat of India?
#66For every officer living the privileged life described in this article there were dozens of rank and file British troops, who certainly had no servants, or any of the other described comforts and luxuries. No mention of them?
The question was specifically about British officers.
Re: How did British officers live in the scorching heat of India?
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Native Americans had no exposure or resistance to smallpox, cholera, diphtheria, influenza, malaria, measles, scarlet fever, typhoid, tuberculosis, etc etc. There are a lot of accounts of cities and towns being completely depopulated very rapidly during the early colonial period just from disease before there was large scale immigration to the Americas from the old world.
Follow-up question: why did the disease exchange only affect native Americans. Why didn't the colonists perish due to contact with deadly American diseases they had no exposure or resistance to? Why were the European diseases so deadly to Americans, but not vice versa?
Two reasons stand out:
First, Europeans lived in appalling filth. The sanitary details are well documented elsewhere, the most telling point being that cities of Western Europe only gained population by migration, not internal growth, so bad were the epidemics. It was a millennium-long germ warfare lab.
Second, Europeans and Asians lived alongside livestock such as pigs and fowl, and also rats, all notorious breeders of diseases that humans can catch. The interplay of illnesses between humans and animals fed the epidemics.
Re: How did British officers live in the scorching heat of India?
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Native Americans had no exposure or resistance to smallpox, cholera, diphtheria, influenza, malaria, measles, scarlet fever, typhoid, tuberculosis, etc etc. There are a lot of accounts of cities and towns being completely depopulated very rapidly during the early colonial period just from disease before there was large scale immigration to the Americas from the old world.
Follow-up question: why did the disease exchange only affect native Americans. Why didn't the colonists perish due to contact with deadly American diseases they had no exposure or resistance to? Why were the European diseases so deadly to Americans, but not vice versa?
The New World lacked domesticated animals.
Re: How did British officers live in the scorching heat of India?
#69British had separate Summer and Winter capitals e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ooty
Re: How did British officers live in the scorching heat of India?
#70Uh... but how had the Indians been doing it for thousands of years?
Plenty of melanin, and habits that didn't involve being out in the direct sun at its hottest probably helped. As for the British officers of the time, I assume a key factor was having people (slaves and/or other subordinates) to order to do work while they stayed out of the direct sun as much as possible, in their relatively luxuriant accommodations.
Does melanin help with the heat, though? I thought it just protected from skin cancer.