stirringwinds:

thicc-vanexel:

The Mayans had mastered water pressure and had fountains and toilets as early as 750 AD.
Aztecs had running water and sewage.

The Victorians In the mid-1800s were dying of cholera because they just dumped their raw shit in the river Thames. They wouldn’t shower for months at a time because they were afraid of the polluted water.

it is true that the mexica built very complex architecture and tenochtitlan was indeed an engineering marvel, and it’s a myth that 15th century europeans were significantly more “”advanced”” than other cultures they encountered…but this rather oversimplifies why victorian britain had a cholera problem and appears to subscribe to the fallacy that history is a linear progression of less advanced —> more advanced. britain was part of the roman empire, and the romans definitely had running water and toilets. roman londinium was possibly cleaner than london in 1858. 

it’s useful to remember technological advances don’t necessarily increase the quality of life for everyone with no detriments (for example: just look at the invention of cars. now air pollution and respiratory illnesses from car exhaust are a huge problem in many cities). victorian britain was in some ways more “advanced” than rome. in the midst of the industrial revolution…but that meant many factories were producing chemical waste that ended up in the thames (far less a problem in roman london or tenochtitlan). it’s not that victorian london lacked toilets or that people literally hurled shit into the river without thinking ‘uh…we get our drinking water from there’. they did have a sense of hygiene, but that, combined with an imperfect understanding of what caused disease (miasma theory, anyone?) had very unfortunate consequences. 

many sewers and cesspits were in fact built in 1800s london. the expansion of plumbing brought more water directly to the homes of londoners, which meant more and more people could install taps and flush toilets in their homes. naturally, this seemed more hygienic than using a chamber pot and having to keep your shit until the night soil collectors came around (especially if you subscribed to miasma theories). but because the city’s rapid population growth overburdened existing sewers, when they flushed their crap, a huge volume overflowed into the thames, where it mixed with all sorts of chemical waste coming from factories. perfect concoction for the great stink—and cholera. 

on that note, cholera wasn’t a global pathogen until the last 200 years. it seems to have originated in south asia. so again; it would not have been a problem in the americas or in the time of the romans. another lesson to us about: 1) how many diseases are new and can cause a shitload more damage when people lack immunity, and yes, imperialism can bring disease. the british navy is likely responsible for spreading cholera out of south asia 2) how improvements in technology had other very negative consequences; rapid travel enabled by steamships allowed cholera to leapfrog across the globe, spread not just by british soldiers but ordinary people— instead of outbreaks burning out before they reached a new continent— which it’s been doing ever since. so, it’s significantly more complicated than just “more advanced technology = better quality of life”; many of our hunter gatherer ancestors were not plagued with quite so many infectious diseases—as many originated in animals but jumped to humans thanks to the domestication of animals and the rise of large, settled societies (you need a certain population size to keep epidemics going, after all).