UMBC Department of History presents the Robert K. Webb Annual Lecture featuring Professor John McNeil, University Professor of History & the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University "Mosquito Empires and Revolutionary Fevers in the Greater Caribbean, 1600-1900" The creation of a plantation complex in the Caribbean brought favorable environmental conditions for the spread of yellow fever and malaria, and even better ones for the female mosquitoes that carry these deadly diseases. Before the 1770s, these tiny amazons and their diseases underpinned empires in the region, in particular keeping the Spanish Empire Spanish; after the 1770s they undermined empires, helping revolutions succeed in lands from South Carolina and St. Domingue to Venezuela and Cuba. This lecture aims to cast new light on the history of the Atlantic world and the Age of Revolutions. The Annual Webb Lecture is co-sponsored by the UMBC Department of History and the Humanities Forum. November 2, 2011, 4:00 pm, A. O. Kuhn, Library Gallery