The Unification of the Globe by Disease? The International Sanitary Conferences on Cholera, 1851–1894

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8958583
AutoresValeska Huber (0000-0002-8726-0096, University of Konstanz, autor de correspondencia)
Año2006
Volumen49
Número2
Páginas453-476
Fecha de publicación2006-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Historical Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0018246x06005280
OpenAlexW2112962354
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas61

This article analyses the proceedings of eight International Sanitary Conferences which were convened between 1851 and 1894 to address the danger that cholera epidemics posed to Europe. These conferences are examined in the context of the intellectual and institutional changes in scientific medicine and in the light of the changing structure of internationalist endeavours that took place in the second half of the nineteenth century. The article shows that the International Sanitary Conferences were as much spaces of co-operation as they were arenas where differences and boundaries between disciplines, nations, and cultures were defined. Furthermore, it seeks to shed light on a broader tension of the period. On the one hand, the fact that the world was growing together to an unprecedented extent due to new means of transportation enabled Europeans to establish and expand profitable commercial and colonial relations. On the other hand, this development increased the vulnerability of Europe – for example to the importation of diseases. The perception that the world was becoming increasingly interconnected was thus coupled with the need for controllable boundaries. The conferences attempted to find solutions as to how borders could be secured without resorting to traditional barriers; like semipermeable membranes they should be open for some kinds of communication but closed for others

Cholera · Colonialism · Context (archaeology · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Globe · Political economy · Political science · Sociology · Unification · Vulnerability (computing · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Medicine · Yersinia bacterium, plague, ectoparasites research