ZKEA
World Outbreak Update
History, GeneralBiological warfare has been around a very long time. Not surprisingly, given the close biochemical relationship, biological war has usually been highly correlated with chemical warfare. Indeed, it is sometimes difficult to draw a line between them, since sometimes biological agents are used to manufacture chemicals that are then distributed on the battlefield (or in the city) without the originating bacteria. An example of this is Botulinum Toxin, or BT. However, generally it is the case in biological war that the infectious organism itself is applied.It is well-known that ancient and pre-modern people used biological warfare. However, given their limited technology and scientific understanding, their efforts met with only sporadic success. Even so, some of these "sporadic" successes could be quite huge. Witness the fall of Kaffa to the Tartars in 1346, which is generally credited to the systematic spread of plague. Even more horrific was the total destruction of hostile Indian tribes in the early colonial history of North America. These biological warfare efforts were generally unwitting or, at worst, carried out in a very basic fashion. Yet when the appropriate circumstances existed they demonstrated great destructive effect. Yet modern biological warfare did not really exist until World War 1. This war is mainly known for its innovations in chemical weapons, although a few attempts were also made with biological agents. The best-documented of these was the German attempt to spread glanders among French horses. The goal of this attack was to cripple the French transport system, which was almost totally dependent on the horse. This effort failed for unknown reasons. Even despite these failures however, scientists and military men clearly saw the dangers (opportunities?) in improved biological weapons. It was felt, even then, that such weapons simply could not be allowed in this world given their capacity to run amok and inflict apocalyptic damage to friend and foe alike. For this reason the war catalyzed the first attempts to control bioterror by treaty. Not surprisingly, the treaties were largely flouted. Biological weapons were simply too promising to pass up. The Japanese led the way here, creating a huge biowar effort in China during the Chinese/Japanese war. After World War 2, the United States took this Japanese effort and used it as the foundation for its own program.
Link: Biological Warfare And
Biological Warfare Conventions
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| Recommended Books |
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The Complete Guide To Biological Weapons
by U.S. Department of Defense |
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The Coming Plague
by Laurie Garret |
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The Demon In The Freezer
by Richard Preston |
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The Collapse Of Public Health
by Laurie Garret |
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The Menace of Emerging Infections
by Madeline Drexler |
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The Hot Zone
by Richard Preston |
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BioHazard
by Ken Alibek |
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Plague Wars
by Tom Mangold |
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The Biology of Doom
by Ed Regis |
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Living Terrors: Survive The Bioterrorist Catastrophe
by Michael Osterholm |
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Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox
by Jonathan Tucker |
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Virus X: Tracking The New Killer Plagues
by Frank Ryan |
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Virus Hunter
by C.J. Peters |
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Ebola: Through The Eyes of The People
by William Close |
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The Cobra Event
by Richard Preston |
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Germs: America's Secret War
by Judith Miller |
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Man & Microbes: Plagues Throughout History
by Arno Karlen |