Compare And Contrast The Disease And The Conquest Of Native Americans

In the article “1491” by Charles Mann , Mann also talks about the most devastating impact from the contact between Europeans and Americans came from the spread of biological agents like smallpox, smallpox had the most effect on the Americas’ native populations there population could of been destroyed stated in the article that “Dobyns estimated that in the first 130 years of contact about 95 percent of the people in the Americas died—the worst demographic calamity in recorded history.” This shows just how serious smallpox was on people considering that they had no immunity to these diseases and because of this it was able to cause a major loss of population and of the people who lived they were still heavily affected by it. Mann also states “It is well known that Native Americans had no experience with many European diseases and were therefore immunologically unprepared—"virgin soil," in

A tragedy that ravaged the Indians were diseases they weren't exposed to, causing serious problems due to their lack of immunity. Influenza, small pox, and other diseases killed hundreds of thousands of the native populations. Disease weakened the Indian resistance which allowed the conquistadors to easily conquer an area and have it portioned into encomiendas. The Spanish were given title to the land and its people in exchange for promising to teach the natives Christianity. This system was greatly abused, putting the Indians in a state of virtual slavery. Another source of a decrease in population between the New and Old Worlds was the Colombian exchange which interchanged diseases, plants, animals, and human cultures. Disease bearing microbes were transmitted leading to deteriorating populations of the

Though warfare and attacks on entire villages took a definite toll on the populations of Native Americans, disease was by far the biggest killer. We’ve all heard the stories of smallpox infected blankets being given to the Native Americans, and other such atrocities, but I was simply dumbfounded at the actual numbers of dead due to Old World diseases being introduced to the New World, North America. While it has been somewhat difficult for scholars to determine the exact count of Indians who died from disease, they have fairly accurate estimates.

A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, is a historical novel about the Spanish conquistadores coming to the Americas in the early 1500’s. Its author, Bartolome de las Casas, saw the account first hand. De las Casas revealed that the Spanish were arrogant and violently mistreated the indigenous peoples. That unveiling, showed that they couldn’t actually live up to their Catholic expectations and they weren't devout Catholics at all. On the other hand, the indigenous peoples were what de las Casas said “They are neither ambitious nor greedy”(de las Casas 10). They didn't want to give up their ways and land, but the Spanish had other plans and deliberately destroyed them as a population.

The Native American’s were the first known settlers in North America, ten thousand years before Columbus came to the continent. Their origins completely unclear, anthropologists believe there were three to five million Native Americans in North America in the year 1492 (Hoxie and Iverson, 1997). As early as the Revolutionary War in 1775, European settlers started taking note of the Native Americans. Unfortunately, the Native American population plunged significantly in the first decades after their first contact with Europeans. Native Americans were now unprotected and exposed to deadly diseases like smallpox, influenza, and measles which did not previously exist in their society (North American Natives, 2016).

Comparing the two populations at 1800, it is shown that Native American numbers have sharply declined while European numbers have exploded since the landing of Columbus. Still to this day, Native Americans represent a very small percentage of the diversity in America.

The European conquest of the new world was most commonly attributed to the superiority of the Europeans in all the facets of their confrontation. They had the superior weaponry, and were thought to have a superior intellect. After all, they were just bringing "civilization" to the new world, right? It sounds nice when you are learning about Columbus in grade school, but the traditional story is pretty far from the truth. The truth is that the Europeans, when they discovered this was a brand new world and not the spice islands, sought to rape the land for its gold and natural resources and enslave the Amerindians (native Americans), who were regarded to

An excerpt from the above book states: ‘... an epidemic broke out, a sickness of pustules. It began in Tepeilhuitl. Large bumps spread on people; some were entirely covered. . . .[The victims] could no longer walk about, but lay in their dwellings and sleeping places, . . . And when they made a motion, they called out loudly. The pustules that covered people caused great desolation; very many people died of them, and many just starved to death; starvation reigned, and no one took care of others any longer.’ This shows the severity of the natives contracting disease from the whites, especially since the immune system of the Indigenous North Americans was not so much to be called ‘weak’, however, it was vulnerable.

It is estimated that 60% to 90% of Native American tribes had died from new diseases brought from the Columbian Exchange from the Europeans. Numerous diseases such as the infamous smallpox were introduced to the Native Americans and were degrading to the population as the Europeans grew a type of immunity from the diseases unlike the Native Americans. Conflict between the Spanish and the Native Americans brought war which encourages diseases to spread through hand to hand combat. Cultures and tribes were on the brink of extinction, as European expansionism and imperialism succeeded in claiming land that was formerly the Native Americans. The mass genocide and epidemic of various diseases towards the Native Americans reach to new heights due to the Columbian Exchange as Europeans militants strived for land and gold at the cost of the Native American’s

In the 1500s, the Conquistadors came to the new world from Europe. After the Conquistadors came and conquered the new world many Native Americans fell ill with the diseases brought from Europe. After the Europeans entered the new world an estimated 15 to 20 million Native Americans died (doc 5). A majority of these deaths were due to the introduction of smallpox from Europe to the new world (doc 5). This is because the majority of the Native American population did not have the immunity to these diseases as the

The diseases the Europeans brought with them affected the indigenous negatively because it killed a large portion of the population in a painful way. The Natives had very little diseases before the Europeans invaded their land. Unlike people in the Old World, the Natives did not farm cattle or pigs and did not live near the animals they did have. They never had the opportunity to develop immunities to diseases that the cattle and Europeans carried when they came upon their shores. The diseases spread quickly and attacked the indigenous in gruesome ways. Smallpox caused sores to erupt on their skins that were so painful that an Aztec account states that “[the sick] could only lie on their beds like corpses” (Document 4). The pain would not

The Columbian Exchange was the widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, technology, and ideas between the Americas and the Old World in the 15th and 16th centuries, related to European colonization and trade after Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage. The Columbian exchange affected some lives tremendously and others lives in relatively less significantly. The people who were most strongly affected were the natives of the Americas and those of Africa. The Native Americans were affected tremendously, mostly in negative ways. It is possible to say that they were helped by the Columbian Exchange because the exchange brought new species of animals to the New World. This improved the lifestyles of many native groups. However, the natives of the Americas were devastated by the germs that came to the New World as part of the exchange. Infectious diseases like smallpox are believed to have killed up to half of the of the native population since that population had no resistance to those diseases. Europeans’ lives were generally enriched by the exchange. Europeans got new foods like tomatoes and potatoes. They got corn and tobacco and chocolate. All of these new foods diversified their diets and made them more interesting. Other Europeans enriched themselves monetarily. Many Europeans came to the New World and

Many Native American’s died due to diseases, but the one who survived obtained many great things from the Columbian Exchange. The number of indians before the diseases of the New World killed most of the native population is disputed (Document 3). Though, it is known that a great fraction of them did die, but it was not from labor (Document 6). It is actually from diseases such as Measles and Smallpox. Since Indians had no immunity against these diseases they spread quickly, often devastating populations before conquistadors got to the villages (Document 7). The explorers unintendedly spread these silent killers throughout the New World because they were naive to the idea of contagion and cleanliness.

Historians estimate that as much as 95 percent of the Native American population died within a year of Columbus’s initial contact with the New World, and while there were certainly European acts of genocide against the Native Americans that added to

Historically the treatment of Native Americans has been highly problematic, especially throughout the colonization of the New World. Although, when colonising some Europeans took a merciful and sympathetic approach to the Native Americans, generally the treatment towards the indigenous people was not humane. Not only did the Native Americans die at the hand of the settlers, they also died from diseases that had been brought to the new world by explorers for which they had no immunity. In some cases diseases such as smallpox wiped out entire tribes. Together, the introduction of diseases and the actions of the European settlers had devastating effects on the Native Americans.