A Short History of Biological Warfare: From Pre-History to the 21st Century, W. Seth Carus, Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction, National Defense University Press, August 2017.
This monograph traces the history of biological warfare from ancient poisoned weapons to modern state bioweapons programs, arguing that biological warfare was historically rare, often ineffective, but transformed in the 20th century through advances in microbiology, aerosol dissemination, and industrial-scale state research.
1. Early Biological Warfare Was Primitive, Rare, and Poorly Understood
2. Modern Microbiology and World War I Created Modern Biological Warfare
3. Japan Built the First Large-Scale Biological Warfare Campaign
4. Early Bioweapons Programs Were Often Crude and Unreliable
5. The Cold War Turned Biological Weapons into Potential Mass-Casualty Strategic Weapons
6. Bioweapons Were Rarely Used Despite Massive Investment and International Bans
7. The Future Danger of Biological Warfare Comes From Modern Biotechnology
⭐ Star Facts
- The author argues most alleged ancient biological warfare cases are exaggerated or unsupported by strong evidence.
- Prehistoric tribes sometimes poisoned arrows with rotting animal matter, decomposed blood, tetanus-contaminated materials, or venom mixtures.
- The Mongol siege of Caffa in 1346 is considered one of the few plausible medieval biological warfare incidents, involving plague-infected corpses catapulted into a city.
- In 1763, British officers at Fort Pitt gave Native Americans blankets and a handkerchief from a smallpox hospital hoping to spread smallpox.
- Germany created the first organized modern state biological warfare program during World War I.
- German World War I sabotage operations used anthrax and glanders against horses and mules critical to Allied logistics.
- Japan’s Unit 731 conducted large-scale human experimentation using plague, anthrax, cholera, typhoid, and other diseases.
- The paper states possibly up to 10,000 people died in Japanese human experimentation programs alone.
- Japanese aircraft dropped plague-infected fleas over Chinese cities such as Ningbo and Quzhou.
- During the Zhe-Gan campaign, Japanese forces contaminated wells, rivers, rice fields, and food supplies with cholera, typhoid, plague, anthrax, and paratyphoid pathogens.