Health crisis in Murcia during the War of the Spanish Succession (1707)

Authors

  • Aitor Díaz Paredes Universidad de Navarra

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53351/ruhm.v9i18.628

Keywords:

Military health care, contractor state, military contractors, War of the Spanish Succession, Hispanich Monarchy

Abstract

At the onset of 1707, when the War of the Spanish Succession (1700-1715) was in full swing and the Bourbon Army was stationed in the region of Murcia, a tabardillos epidemic –probably typhus– broke out. The poor hygienic and alimentary conditions, coupled with the overcrowding of thousands of soldiers in towns heavily scarred by war, provided the ideal environment for the spread of the disease. The present case study, focusing on this problem that emerged in Murcia between December 1706 and June 1707, is aimed to analyse the way in which early eighteenth-century society responded to the epidemic. In 1705, the Bourbon Monarchy had signed an ambitious hospital asiento – contract – with a French entrepreneur, Pedro Carlos de Laugeac, who was associated with a group of French merchants and financiers living in Madrid. However, the problems arising in the winter of 1707 questioned the feasibility of the asiento. The epidemic was a public health crisis, but it also had political implications as it was partially due to the decision by the Bourbon Government to favour French commercial groups and sign general asientos. But it was also a military crisis, since such an epidemic threatened to decimate military ranks. Faced with the gravity of the situation, local authorities, led by the Bishop of Cartagena and Don Luis Antonio de Belluga y Moncada, Captain-General of Murcia, resorted to the religious orders, especially the Hospitaller Order of the Brothers of Saint John of God, which had an established network of hospitals in the region. This resulted in a questioning of both the Laugeac management and the Bourbon Administration, which transferred hospital attention to the Brothers Hospitallers in the Kingdom of Murcia and neighbouring Orihuela, in the Kingdom of Valencia. The object of the present article is to analyse how that health, political and military crisis was solved, in an attempt to shed light on the little-studied history of Spanish military health care.

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Author Biography

  • Aitor Díaz Paredes, Universidad de Navarra

    Aitor Díaz Paredes es graduado Historia por la Universidad de Navarra y doctorando en Historia Moderna en la Universidad de Navarra con un contrato predoctoral FPI. Su área de investigación es la historia militar, económica y social de comienzos del siglo XVIII, más concretamente en el contexto de la Guerra de Sucesión Española. En la actualidad ultima su tesis doctoral sobre la batalla de Almansa y la campaña borbónica de 1707, y recientemente ha publicado artículos sobre prisioneros de guerra, sobre el reclutamiento de tropas en el Reino de Navarra, y sobre el impacto causado por el tránsito y alojamiento de tropas en la población civil.

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Published

2020-06-08

How to Cite

Health crisis in Murcia during the War of the Spanish Succession (1707). (2020). Revista Universitaria De Historia Militar, 9(18), 199-220. https://doi.org/10.53351/ruhm.v9i18.628

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