The British Empire: A source for good or evil? January 2014 | Page 11

What happened, exactly?

I
I

Test Your Knowledge:
- Give some examples of diseases
brought or worsened by colonists.
- How might colonists have
worsened
diseases which already existed?

How did the British bring diseases anyway?
When people travel around the world, they bring diseases to which the native
inhabitants have not developed immunity. The British colonists were no exception,
and many native people died in every country they added to their empire. For their
part, many British colonists died from native diseases, too. It is mostly this second
part which prompted the Imperial government to work on improving its colonial
medical systems.

Medical Help
The British government brought many diseases, but to be fair, they also dedicated
much of their power to fighting those diseases among both the colonists and the
native people (usually). In 1880, for example, there was a law passed that required
the vaccination of all children, mostly against smallpox but also for other diseases,
and by 1903 the percentage of successful vaccinations had risen to 39.1%.
Sites referenced: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2763662/ , http://www.
nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/empire/g2/cs2/background.htm

Quinine is used to treat malaria.