Top 4 'craziest' biological weapons in human history

If today biological warfare is completely banned by international conventions and laws, in the past it was considered a smart tactic.

For the sake of victory, the opponents did not hesitate to throw at the enemy from poisonous animal 'bombs' to even bodies of people dead from the plague.

Poison snake

In 184 BC (BC), General Hannibal of Carthage (247 - 183) had a confrontation at sea with Emperor Eumenes II (221 - 159) of Türkiye. Not being strong in naval warfare, Hannibal was determined to lose the battle.

Unexpectedly, this military genius came up with a secret trick to reverse the situation by using poisonous snakes. He ordered his soldiers to find as many poisonous snakes as possible, put them in clay jars and throw them onto enemy boats.

Wisely throwing a clay jar containing poisonous snakes into the enemy's boat, General Hannibal won the battle. (Photo: Thecollector.com - Khqa.com)

At first, Emperor Eumenes II laughed when he saw that the clay pot was not lethal, but soon he was so scared that his face turned blue. The agitated poisonous snakes were extremely aggressive, everyone bit them, causing his soldiers to panic and only worry about running away. Unable to help, the emperor had to order a retreat. Carthage's general Hannibal won without spending a single soldier.

Impressively, Hannibal isn't the only one taking advantage of poisonous animals. In 198 AD in Arabia, soldiers of the Parthian Empire (247 BC - 224 AD) learned this technique.

They captured many scorpions in clay jars, then threw them into the army of Roman Emperor Septimius Severus (145 - 211). Distraught, the Roman soldiers fled in disarray, breaking their formation and forcing Severus to temporarily retreat.

Bodies of people who died of the plague

Throughout human history, plague has always been the most terrifying nightmare. However, while many countries and regions were paralyzed by it, Great Khan Jani Beg (? - 1357, Mongolia) saw this disease as the ultimate weapon.

Jani Beg's strategy of throwing "black death" into her opponent's citadel is just like the same fate. (Photo: Thecollector.com - Khqa.com)

In the 1340s, after a three-year failed siege of Caffa on the Crimean Peninsula, he ordered his soldiers to use catapults to throw the bodies of people who died of the plague into the citadel.

'A mountain of dead bodies was thrown in and people in the city did not know where to run or hide to avoid the risk of infection. Soon, the corpses rotted, polluting the air and poisoning the water' , historian Gabriele de'Mussi (1280 - 1356) wrote.

Despite using the most cruel tactics, Great Khan Jani Beg did not win. The 'Black Death' not only attacked the enemy, but also destroyed his own army, causing 'both defeat and injury'.

The consequences of taking advantage of the 'black death' did not stop at the destruction of Caffa, because many sailors in this citadel abandoned the city and boarded boats to Genoa, Messina and Constantinople. They brought the plague with them throughout Europe and eventually caused the plague era.

Smallpox, malaria

In the 18th - 19th centuries, British colonialists invaded the Americas and continuously encountered fierce resistance from the Native Americans. Because they wanted to win without much effort, they deliberately took blankets from people infected with smallpox and gave them to native tribes so that the disease could spread and kill as many people as possible.

The British were accused of causing smallpox disaster among Native Americans. (Photo: Thecollector.com - Khqa.com).

Although the British never admitted this crime, according to the diary of soldier William Trent (1715 - 1787), they gave 2 blankets and 1 handkerchief from the smallpox hospital to the Indians.

In addition to Trent's notes, there are many other documents written about plots to kill Native Americans by infecting smallpox. 'I pretended to hump myself to put a few blankets in their hands, of course also being careful not to get infected myself,' Captain Simeon Ecuyer, commander of Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh) told the people. others.

Around the same time, Napoleon the Great (1769 - 1821) also did the same thing. In the summer of 1809, during a fight with the British army occupying Walcheren, an island located off the coast of the Scheldt River, he ordered soldiers suffering from malaria to go everywhere to spread the disease.

In just one month, the number of British soldiers infected with the disease reached nearly 10,000 people. The British had no choice but to abandon Walcheren.

Mustard gas

Gas masks are ineffective against mustard gas. (Photo: Thecollector.com - Khqa.com)

World War I (1914 - 1918) was the era of multiple biological weapons and the most terrifying 'weapon' was mustard gas. As the name suggests, this gas has a pungent odor similar to mustard.

The first time mustard gas was used was in July 1917 in Ypres, Belgium. Soldiers reported seeing 'shimmering clouds' surrounding their feet. Because he was wearing a gas mask, no one paid attention to this 'cloud'. Unexpectedly, mustard gas is not only absorbed through the respiratory tract, but also through the skin. It causes the skin to become red, blister and form blisters, causing terrible pain.

Mustard gas is not very soluble in water, so washing it off completely is unlikely. When inhaled into the lungs through the airways, it causes the lining of the lungs to become pimples. If it gets into the eyes, mustard gas damages the cornea, leading to blindness.

The wetter the place, the faster the mustard gas acts due to the hydrolysis reaction. The scariest thing is that this toxic gas does not cause the victim to die immediately, but causes ulcers on their body, causing endless pain and prolonging the waiting time for death up to 6 weeks. In Ypres alone, mustard gas caused 'slow death' to 10,000 people.