A timeline of intentionally inflicted death destruction and violence as an acceptable method for the resolution of human conflict. The gold line is the duration of the conflict marked along the annular rings of the tree during which the conflict took place. The balloon is the relative number of people killed in the conflict.
During the 735 year lifetime of this tree growing on the slopes of Mt Rainier humanity all across the world endured repeated events of famine, some through bad human management of resource, some through the vagaries of nature, and some intentionally created for political gain.
Over the last 7 centuries on the African continent people organized themselves in ever evolving complex social structures, some stable, others fleeting. Of note is the eradication of many of these kingdoms during a short peripod of invasion (referred to in European culture as "The Scramble for Africa") at the end of the 19th century.
This is an attempt to represent the duration and relative stability (or not) of Chinese eras, as the tree grew over the last 7 centuries
It's relevant to point out that these "natural disasters" were disasterous for Humans. A case could be made that nature has been doing this forever, and we just got in the way....
Across the world we developed a huge diversity of culture and heritage. I'm trying to knit these together in a single time frame from the perspective of this single 735 year old creature quietly observing human activity
Kings and Queens, and all the attendant fuss and feathers going on in the island country of England over the last 7 centuries
It's a challenge to somehow represent the depth and breadth of the impact of this pandemic. Not only was there a massive die-off of humanity over the course of its initial intrusion and spread from the Mongols into Europe (where it was finally recorded), but it persisted over the coming 6 centuries with repeated outbreaks. These "minor" epidemics would regularly kill hundreds of thousands in a single outbreak, and occurred without letup for centuries.
