EUROPEAN DISEASES Essay

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.

Approximately 350,000 people lived in Florida when the Spaniards arrived, but swiftly declined. (Text p. 187) By the time that vaccines were created to combat some of these diseases, it was too late. What little medical knowledge European settlers had, they shared with their native counterparts, if for no other reason than self-preservation. (Text p. 191) However, not all historians believe that disease was the key factor. Some believe that it was a combination of other forces, which allowed disease to cause such an impact on the Native Americans.

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

Europeans brought diseases to the Americas, such as smallpox and measles. The original descendants did not bring the diseases because they traveled through the cold and they had no domesticated animals. Many of these diseases were caused by domesticated animals. At

The problem of epidemics like smallpox, measles, and other European, Asian, and African diseases negatively affected the abilities of Native Americans to resist the invasions by Europeans. These sicknesses made native peoples too weak to resist. This pattern was no different in North, South, and Central America. As Europeans entered the lands, so did the diseases and they spread, causing the natives to become weak enough for the Europeans to easily invade.

Hundreds of thousands of natives during the Conquest period died from epidemics because of a lack of medical knowledge, not because colonists decided to use disease to kill natives. Native responses to disease, such as sweat lodges, worsened disease mortality rates. Spanish physicians first arrived in the New World during Columbus’ second voyage. However, inadequate opportunities for formal medical instruction and the lack of medical knowledge at the time meant that physicians were unable to help prevent the spread of disease in native communities. Although colonists benefited from epidemics, they did not intentionally spread disease to kill natives and destroy native

When Captain Pánfilo de Narváez landed, there was a slave on his ship who was stricken with smallpox, a disease which has never been seen before (Motolinía’s History of the Indians of New Spain). Smallpox had an immense effect on Latin America during the 16th century. Smallpox began its attack in New Spain, where there was a large population of Indians. Throughout the land, in most provinces more than half the population perished. According to the map provided, smallpox affected the Native American peoples from Central America, stretching all the way down to South America. Smallpox affected social order in Latin America. Although the disease spread throughout Latin America by the people themselves, they believed it was caused by supernatural forces. They also blamed animals for the breakout. They killed as many fish as they could, to prevent the disease from spreading any

Smallpox believed to be brought by a Portuguese explorer in 1506 who also bring tuberculosis. This disease brings to America by African slaves which kill more than half of the population of Indians, from there this disease spread to Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Yucatan. In the 17th century, this disease spread to North America killing large numbers of people. Great pox which is known as syphilis nowadays is another disease after smallpox which dominates this era. This disease is supposed to be traveled with a crew of Columbus who introduce this disease in Europe. This disease traveled to India with Vasco de Gama who also introduce the world with a new type of skin disease which is known as scurvy. Another disease which shows its glimpse is epilepsy. Arabs consider it as ‘divine disease’ and Babylonian consider it was caused by ‘touch of

It wasn't swords or guns that devastated the native Americans. It was germs the Europeans carried.

As the Aztecs were only affiliated with other cultures similar to their own, they were not in contact with many diseases. Thus when Cortes arrived to Mexico wanting to convert the Aztecs he brought foreign diseases into their empire killing the Aztecs. Even though this was a fairly poor reason, it reduced the Aztec population by a considerable amount. Due to the Spanish growing resistance to the diseases mainly polio and small pox, it posed no direct threat to Cortes’ men. Thus dispirited the Aztecs as this unknown plague killed their own and spared the Spaniards, portraying that the Spaniards were invincible. However, the downside to the diseases is that it also killed and weakened Cortes’ own Indian allies’ to equal extent as the Aztecs,

To begin with, disease carried by the Spaniards unconsciously served as biological warfare. Their immunity to small pox, the common cold, and other diseases allowed them to carry a disease without being

The indigenous people of Arica, Asia and the Americas where no match in combat against Europe’s armor, firearms and cannons. Europeans were able to survive the pandemic of Smallpox and Measles because for generations they built up an immune system to combat the disease. With the combination of murder and disease imposed by the Europeans, 70% of the indigenous population perished.

Smallpox played a huge part in helping the Europeans conquer the world. Everywhere the Europeans went they left the deadly disease called smallpox in their wake. Smallpox helped wipe out all the people that the Europeans didn’t. It decimated entire ethnic groups and civilizations. The Europeans weren’t affected because they had built up an immunity after being around it for hundreds of years. Also, Lisa Prososki states “As anyone who has ever traveled to the tropics will know, this region is plagued by infection” (Prososki, “Malaria”). The Europeans had no clue that the tropics of Africa had so many mosquitoes that were plagued with malaria and as they entered it they were blindsided by it and it extremely hurt the Europeans and decimated their invading force. The Europeans had the big disease that killed, but they also got killed by a deadly

Exposure to epidemic disease affects the development of civilization by immunity; if we hadn’t been exposed to germs such as smallpox we would be still having a problem with it today. The spanish developed an immunity to smallpox by having domesticated animals. The domesticated animals actually carried smallpox and germs. The spanish worked with the animals and developed an immunity to smallpox. The Inca’s however ,did not have an immunity. They weren't exposed to domesticated

While others, were only effected by direct contact. It was thought to have been sustainable by even touching clothing or other such items of the infected. Conditions of the fourteenth century were also a contributing factor. Famine had been an arising issue due to the number of overpopulation. Because of this, their immune systems began to weaken. “Europeans were susceptible to disease because many people lived in crowded surroundings in an era when personal hygiene was not considered important” (Dowling). The cities were unsanitary and littered with germs, making it easier to sustain such diseases. Unhealthy habits were conducted and medical advances had not yet been made. Doctors themselves had not known what to advise. No prescriptions had worked. There was no cure to what was happening. Most were not even aware of what was impending upon them. Anything that could would be tried, in hopes of living. People were becoming desperate.