The Plague, Typhus and Cholera. Outbreaks of Epidemic Diseases in Upper Silesia in the Period between the Thirty Years’ War and the Revolutions of 1848. An Outline

Abstract

The article reviews several cases of epidemics which afflicted the historical Upper
Silesia in the period between the 17th and mid-19th century, as well as the methods

used to fight them. Outbreaks were often connected with the military stay of for-
eign troops, as it was with the plague brought along by the Brandenburg army dur-
ing the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648). Another factor, facilitating the emergence of 

epidemics (e. g. of veneral diseases), was poor sanitation, as seen, for example, in
city bath-houses. The 18th century, as well as the Napoleonic wars period in Silesia

(1807–1813), saw – according to the historical sources – occurrences of typhoid fe-
ver, linked in the first place with adverse weather conditions and crop failure. Dur-
ing the European Restoration, including the restoration of the Kingdom of Prussia,

two most fateful epidemics hit Upper Silesia: the cholera epidemic (1831–1832) and
its second wave (1835–1837) and the typhus outbreak(1847–1848). The former was

linked to the stay of Russian military troops, used to suppress the November Up-
rising, on the territory of the Kingdom of Poland and resulted in introduction of

a number of modern solutions, such as creating a sanitary cordon along the border.
The latter contributed significantly to the escalation of social unrest, which in turn
became one of the causes to trigger the Revolutions of 1848.