The Dead and the 19th Century

[Rumsfeld]

How would you fight off monsters, zombies, and ghouls if you lived in the early 1800's? Remember guns took a long time to load, cannon's were not that effective, and you have no motor vehicle to run them over with. I would find the closest European-style fortress, get a bow and arrow, and learn the finesse of archery with zombies as target practice.

[JDFP]

Easy. I'd hop into my DeLorean and come back home.

j.p.

[Trencher]

There are a lot fewer people back then and a lot more people capebale of living of the land, stores of food are everywhere too. Zombies would have no chance. You dont need guns you could use pikes, haleberds, machetes, axes and swords.

[Rumsfeld]

In Russia in the 1870's there were somewhere between 70-85 million serfs making up 90% of the population alone. That is a ton of people and the peasants weren't the smartest tools in the shed. Plus a lot more people believed in religion back then, making any zombie horde running around symbolize doomsday for Christian believers. On the other hand, the peasants handled scythes and axes with ease.

[Neil]

In Russia in the 1870's there were somewhere between 70-85 million serfs making up 90% of the population alone. That is a ton of people and the peasants weren't the smartest tools in the shed. Plus a lot more people believed in religion back then, making any zombie horde running around symbolize doomsday for Christian believers. On the other hand, the peasants handled scythes and axes with ease.

Indeed, if a large horde manifested itself, anywhere it attacked (short of castles and the like) would surely be overrun quite easily!

[Trencher]

Yeah but the towns were smaller, the people were stronger and the castles and buildings were made to keep people physically out unlike today where we live on top on eachother in houses with huge windows. Also roads were worse and people lived a lot more spread out making it difficult for herds to form and to get to people who just ran for it. Also people had horses who dont run out of gas or get stuck on the road, armour were a lot more prevelant and pesants could make their own leather armour. A group of soldiers in full leather armour wielding maces would desimate the zombie hordes. I am not saying that they would breeze through a zombie attack but they would not suffer such mass death as us either. As for the religious aspects the zombies apparece withouth any rapture would lessen the priests it would make for a lot of good stories but in the end I dont think they would let the zombies eat them.

[Neil]

Yeah but the towns were smaller, the people were stronger and the castles and buildings were made to keep people physically out unlike today where we live on top on eachother in houses with huge windows. Also roads were worse and people lived a lot more spread out making it difficult for herds to form and to get to people who just ran for it. Also people had horses who dont run out of gas or get stuck on the road, armour were a lot more prevelant and pesants could make their own leather armour. A group of soldiers in full leather armour wielding maces would desimate the zombie hordes. I am not saying that they would breeze through a zombie attack but they would not suffer such mass death as us either. As for the religious aspects the zombies apparece withouth any rapture would lessen the priests it would make for a lot of good stories but in the end I dont think they would let the zombies eat them.

If we ignore fortified positions, if a horde it your average town, it would most likely overrun it. Don't you think? People with hand-to-hand weapons would find it hard to fight off a horde!?

But your points about horses, availability of food, and the peoples general ability to still get on and not fall to pieces as technology fails them are all good ones!

[Trencher]

Yeah, the zombie is the monster of the modern age it shows us what we fear in the time we live in. In 16 century werewolves out in the dark woods and witches next door was much more scary.

[AcesandEights]

If we ignore fortified positions, if a horde it your average town, it would most likely overrun it. Don't you think? People with hand-to-hand weapons would find it hard to fight off a horde!?

True, but where are you that a horde will be able to form? Central or Western Europe in the early 1800s? Ok, that'd be a problem. Northern Europe, somewhere in the backwoods or large expanses of the New World and other areas the possibility would be less likely. Trencher had a good point about population, even if it wasn't something that might be universally applied. The OP mentioned the early 1800s, but just take a look at population estimates per square mile in the U.S. in the late 1800s (http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~20739~560020:Rand,-McNally-&-Co--s-map-of-the-Un). It's amazing how much breathing room there was back then in some places.

[Rumsfeld]

I like this discussion so far. I will add that though in Europe there were numerous fortified towns, such things did not exist in other area's like Africa, Russia (with the exception of Kiev, Smolensk, Petersburg, and Moscow), and South America.

[EvilNed]

Yeah, the zombie is the monster of the modern age it shows us what we fear in the time we live in. In 16 century werewolves out in the dark woods and witches next door was much more scary.

This is an extremely good point. Zombies are always, in fiction, what drives people out of the cities and force them underground or into a hiding place. But we're talking about places pre-urbanization here. Most likely, a horde of then wouldn't be what a horde of today would be like. Like the general population, it'd be a tenth of what it'd be today. Maybe less, considering people don't live that densely.

The general public back then were not as reliant on the authorities or the government. Something which has always been depicted as modern society's weakness in zombie literature. They were not as bright as we were today, but the individual survival skills of the general populace back then were obviously higher. Medicine excluded.

[Rumsfeld]

"The general public back then were not as reliant on the authorities or the government."


I'm not trying to get into a heated argument but I'm just confused by what you mean.

[Core]

Well i could use two of these muzzle loaded single shot Ottoman pistol (1850)

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/2926/showpicphpd.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/72/showpicphpd.jpg/)

Plus this turkish ottoman sword yatagan (1800)

http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/953/tep204900x900.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/831/tep204900x900.jpg/)

Also turkish composite bow

http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/2686/96949507.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/850/96949507.jpg/)

I could use a armoured horse for the travel but i dont if they use armoured horses in that time period.

[Christopher Jon]

In the 19th century, men were men. They'd get along just fine.


They were not as bright as we were today
Reread that a couple of times. Glass houses. Stones. You shouldn't throw them.

Yeah, that Thomas Edison guy was an idiot.

[Rumsfeld]

I think what he meant was that the knowledge we have back then can not compare to the knowledge we have now. If a zombie apocalypse occurred in the 19th century, very few people would understand that it was a virus causing it. Many scientists were still grappling with the concepts of the plague too. And for Thomas Edison, he was a marketer, not an inventor. I'm sure he would have found a way though to harness zombies and transfer them into electrical energy, through stealing Tesla's work of course.

[Trencher]

They might not know what a virus is but the one bite and you are one of them rule would they understand just fine. And it is not that they knew less than us it is that they knew diffrent things. I belive they diffrent knowledge base would help them to survive better than us.
An interesting article here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_doctor
It is wikipedia so take it with a grain of salt. Notice the sub article about their clothing that says it was designed to protect them against disease.

[Publius]

They might not know what a virus is but the one bite and you are one of them rule would they understand just fine.

True. That aspect of it would seem pretty similar with rabies (hydrophobia), which they were quite familiar with how to avoid (don't get bitten by an infected animal).