The Appearance of Plague in Two Minority Communities: Hungary at the Beginning of the 18th and Hawaii at the End of the 19th Century

Throughout centuries, plague was the most dreaded disease that scourged humankind. The emotional and psychological imprint of its consequences left considerable evidences in arts, literature, music, film and even general consciousness. In this paper, however, we are concerned with the response of authorities to the occurrence of this disease by studying two examples of plague outbreak – one in Hungary in the early 1700’s and another in Hawaii at the tail end of 1800’s. The temporal and spatial distance between two observed examples is used to underline the similarity of governmental attitudes toward affected minority communities, especially those considered responsible for the plague outbreak. Besides literature which addresses the subject, the collection of the 18th century sources from archives of Court War Council and Court Chamber in Vienna, as well as sources from Hungarian archives, were used.