Long-readThe making of a global pandemicHow the Spanish Flu was turned into an anticipation of the apocalypse Tim Black Columnist Spiked, 8th May 2020 Some are now convinced that the Spanish Flu may have started in the Chinese province of Shanxi in the winter of 1917. Others contend that it originated in the cramped environs of a British army camp at the fishing port of Etaples..