THE FIRST PANDEMIC, 1817–1826

The first modern cholera pandemic coincided with the beginning of a new era in world history: the economic transformation of the world system. After Britain led a European alliance to defeat France in 1815, peoples' lives everywhere were changed by the economic reordering of their societies. Paramount among these changes was the rise of British hegemony, which was based on a new guiding commercial policy that held that domestic wealth depended on the import of basic goods and the export of new manufactured commodities. What became known as British free trade created new magnitudes of capital and labor in society and generated responses everywhere.

In South Asia, the leading edge of this transformation was the British East India Company, which was on the verge of reordering political power by defeating and replacing the Mogul Empire. In the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire, although not yet destroyed, was rapidly declining into dependency on Europe as it uncomfortably adjusted to the new rules of commerce and diplomacy. In Africa, alternate visions held by charismatic leaders were emerging in response to the changes in long-distance trade, and especially the slave trade. In the Americas, the United States and the former colonies of the Spanish Empire looked on the new British rules of international trade with energy and enthusiasm, as they recognized the economic opportunity offered by these new principles.