The Third Plague began in Yunnan province in China in 1855,
but it would be most remembered for its devastation of the United States in the
first part of the twentieth century. Bubonic plague had ravaged Europe in the
Black Death, and once again it wiped out millions, now in North America. The
plague spread through nearly every human population on Earth, but as it arrived
in San Francisco in 1900, a new strain developed that proved far more virulent.
The plague began with the familiar bubonic plague carried by
fleas, which attached themselves to rats that stowed away on trans-Pacific
vessels. These rats escaped into San Francisco harbor, soon spreading to
humans. Somewhere among them, the plague became pneumonic. Now each infected
victim became a new source with a cough or sneeze flinging fluid into the air. Before
health officials could act, terrified Californians fled aboard trains, which
only spread the disease further.
Later attempts at quarantine proved impossible as the
disease had already spread so far and there was simply too much ground to cover
as the bubonic plague made its way through mammal populations. Rural areas were
particularly prone to bites from insects, but the bubonic strain was mild
compared to the more deadly virulent pneumonic that wiped out urban centers. Uninformed
victims never realized the difference between two, so sick people were
transported to hospitals that otherwise may have avoided the effects.
Within a generation, the United States of America had fallen
into disarray. The strong flow of immigration into the Land of Opportunity
reversed until the navies of the world began a blockade to keep further
Americans from escaping to spread the disease across the ocean. American leaders
refused to travel, putting an end to national government. Soon deterioration of
the railroads and telegraph further isolated communities. Local leaders became
warlords to keep out neighboring populations, and towns that had depended upon
trade to supply their industry soon vanished.
Eventually contained, the pneumonic strain wiped itself out.
The continent was suddenly a blank canvas, ready for repainting. Armed with
vaccines for the bubonic strain, the British Empire determined that it would
reestablish order over what had become known as the “Wild West.” Japan, which
had served in alliance with British fleets to contain the West Coast, signed a
treaty for its own lands with a capital of New Yokohama built near the ruins of
old San Francisco. The British built their own cities using scrap from the hollowed-out
previous settlements, which largely had been burned to kill any remaining
plague-bearing rats. Many were established with reverence toward the old, such
as New Liverpool mirroring New Orleans or London-on-the-Potomac where
representational American Parliament served in the same halls senators had in
Washington, D.C. Other cities remained ruined for decades more, like the area
once called Chicago being nicknamed “Dryrottingham.”
The former Canada, also devastated by the plague, was
reorganized into a province of the new Dominion of North America, while Mexico continued
as its own nation, though a protectorate under the Anglo-Japanese treaty. Many local warlords, some employing whole armies of gunslingers, fought against British reconquest, resulting in a massive prison district established in what had been west Texas, borrowing Federal forces from Mexico to serve as police.
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In reality, this map was a WWI German propaganda leaflet,
hoping to inspire distrust among the newcomer nation to the Allies. The
pneumonic strain of the Third Plague pandemic stayed largely in Asia, where it did kill millions.
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