Fascinating and sad look at history and human nature.

On a side note, mosquito-borne illnesses, including malaria, also had a profound effect on Central and South America.

When Europeans first arrived, they brought the illnesses with them, decimating native populations.

European settlers simply could not survive doing agricultural work, mortality rates again approaching 100%, but African people had enough immunity to provide a workforce for European overlords.

In some respects, the building of the Panama Canal is a tale of death by mosquito-borne disease and of African labor forces imported and exploited to do the work.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of that story.