Born Then
1846–1860

Life during the Third cholera pandemic

Be born in a place it hit, a few years before it began, and see what it did to five ordinary lives.

What it meant for ordinary people

The deadliest cholera wave of the century. Russia lost over a million people, and outbreaks hit Europe, the Americas and Japan. In 1854 John Snow traced a London outbreak to one water pump, the first strong evidence that cholera spread through water.

Deaths: over 1 million in Russia alone; tens of thousands in Britain, the United States and Mexico.

How hard it hits each person in the game (risk of death, of being conscripted, of leaving) comes from scholarly estimates.

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