Melissa PhanAs we move out of 2016, many people are cheering “good riddance” to what was widely called the “worst year ever.” Although 2016 was filled with political upsets and celebrity deaths, “worst year ever” might be overly dramatic. To put the last year in perspective, we talked to five history professors about what year they thought the worst ever. If anything can be comforting after a terrible year, it’s knowing that bigger problems have been faced and overcome.
Heather Coleman
Area of Study: Russia, Eastern Europe, and the USSR
We tend to be very presentist and think our own time is the most dramatic. I’m pretty sure the worst year was 1945. That year saw a refugee crisis that was maybe not quite as large as the one we have now because of the second world war. In Europe, there were between 10 and 20 million people displaced by the end of 1945, and millions were displaced in Asia, two atomic bombs were dropped, and German cities at the end of the war were carpet bombed, all of which make that the worst year in history.
Dominic Wujastyk
Area of Study: Ancient India
I think 1918. You might think that’s a happy year, because that was the end of the World War I, but it was also the beginning of the influenza pandemic, which affected 500 million people. It was a very unpleasant, life-threatening disease. Of those 500 million people, about one in ten died. And it affected everybody you know, of all ages. So people in their prime, you know 20-year-olds died, children died, old people died. The estimates for the deaths goes up to 50 million. It’s a completely mythic event that made so many people sad.
Ryan Dunch
Area of Study: East Asia and Modern China
I thought that a good candidate is the year 1127. It’s in 1127 that the forces of the nomadic Jin Kingdom besieged and sacked the northern Song capital and basically threw the Chinese rulers out of northern China. It’s the end of the northern Song dynasty. The Jin didn’t just take over the Song capital, they captured the emperor, and his father, and most of his brothers, and took them to the north where they died in exile. It was a sort of cultural and political shock similar to the collapse of the Roman Empire. Particularly as the father of the emperor was one of the most admired figures of ancient Chinese history. He was kind of the acme of the cultivated emperor and benevolent ruler. It’s another almost 250 years before China is once again a unified empire under Chinese rule.
Susan Smith
Area of Study: U.S., Medicine, Gender and Race
I would pick 1917, so exactly one hundred years ago. That’s the year the United States entered World War I. This is a war that devastated Europeans and involved people from many nations; thousands of people died, and it was also the first time mustard gas was used in warfare. The First World War also brought a huge pandemic; the argument being that when American troops left the United States, many had the flu and took it over to Europe. More people died of the flu than of the war itself. Lastly, the United States also passed the Espionage Act, which basically quelled dissent. It says, “We’ve gone to war so you have to be 100 per cent for us. If you are against the war, then you’re disloyal.” That cracked down on freedom of speech, the press, and civil liberties. So I think 1917 was pretty terrible moment in so many avenues.
Jaymie Heilman
Area of Study: Latin America
As a historian of Latin America, 1492 definitely stands out as the worst year. Not only because of the massive violence and loss of life, but also because 1492 is the beginning of centuries of colonialism, which we still see the legacies of today. That year was also the beginning of African slavery in the Americas, with many men, women, and children being enslaved, resulting in a huge loss of life.
However, I do think it’s important to not use history to minimize the circumstances of the present. Although 2016 does not see the same dramatic violence as some years in the past, it still was a very troubling year. We saw a massive loss of life in Syria, in the drug wars. Also keep in mind the results of the American election. I’m worried about what is going to happen in 2017.
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lovely discovery of Gateway and History lessons, while we whine about Der TRumpus. I have not lived in the worst of times, think some of our best ever, 1967, 1972 and 2008. Era of disasters like Plague and Spanish Flu did not wipe our ancestors out, they are here. but The Great War and Flu after and use of Mustard gas led to other gases and Nuclear war, some things tipped there, while China was tipping off another way, more so than end of Song. sorry for pun. loved this lesson
If the majority of people answering your poll say 1945 was the worst because of WWII, let’s not forget that without WWI we may not have had WWII.