How Did European Sailors Pass Small Pox To Native Americans

They also said trader William Trent wrote in his journal about the situation. He wrote that two blankets and a handkerchief out of the smallpox hospital were given to the Native Americans. This was also shown through military hospital records that reported two blankets and a handkerchief were taken. These two examples are proof that they intentionally gave the disease to the Natives. (Doc

This article focused on depopulation via smallpox. “Within just a few generations, the continents of the Americas were virtually emptied of their native inhabitants – some academics estimate that approximately 20 million people may have died in the years following the European invasion – up to 95% of the population of the Americas.” The article goes on to describe the transmission process of smallpox, incubation period, and symptoms of the disease. It then discusses the fact that diseases such as smallpox, influenza and measles were a product of the European society, specifically livestock farming and close interaction with domesticated livestock. Though smallpox outbreaks would occur in Europe, killing major portions of the population, some would survive and build immunities which they genetically passed to the next generations. Because the Native Americans had no exposure to smallpox and no genetic immunities, exposure to this virus was deadly all across the continent. “More victims of colonization were killed by Eurasian germs, than by either the gun or the sword, making germs the deadliest agent of conquest.”

Did Europeans purposefully infect the Native Americans? That question will never be answered. Whether intentional or accidental, the truth remains that disease was indeed brought to the early Native American culture due to European expansion. The true question is in Taking Sides, issue 2, Was Disease the Key Factor in the Depopulation of Native Americans in the Americas? In this particular issue two sides are represented; yes by Collin G. Calloway, and no by David S. Jones. Let’s take a look at Calloway’s perspective towards the issue.

At some point in our lives, we all come to realize that death is a part of life. Cultural diversity provides a wide variety of lifestyles and traditions for each of the unique groups of people in our world. Within these different cultures, the rituals associated with death and burial can also be uniquely diverse. Many consider ritualistic traditions that differ from their own to be somewhat strange and often perceive them as unnatural. A prime example would be the burial rituals of the Native American people.

However, the Native Americans didn’t just use these resources they garnered solely for food - they used the resources in several aspects of their lives, specifically for health. The Native Americans were dependant on the use of plants and other resources found in nature to use for curatives. Historians often attest that these curatives were far superior to the ones that Europeans used, and thus the span of life for Native Americans was often longer than that of the European people (The People). However, upon Native American and European contact, the Europeans introduced new, foreign diseases that were deadly because the Native Americans had never been exposed to these diseases, and thus did not have natural immunities to them. This was the same for other infectious diseases introduced to the Europeans, namely syphilis. Although, the amount of Europeans affected by syphilis was not even near the amount of Native Americans killed by some of the European diseases brought over in the Columbian exchange. Bartolomé de Las Casas commented on the epidemic of European viruses that killed thousands of Native Americans: “Who of those in

Was disease the key factor in the depopulation of Native Americans in the Americas? There can be no denying that disease played its role in the depopulation of the Americas. Populace tribes went from tens of thousands to hundreds in a matter of years. But the question here is was it the “key” factor or did something else cause their demise?

Due to the native’s total isolation from the rest of the civilized world, they had been prevented from developing immunities against many devastating diseases. These diseases were carried into the country unaware by the conquistadors from Europe and Africa. For example, smallpox reached Espanola by 1518 and was carried to New Spain in 1520. It then moved through Central America and entered Peru by 1527. Wherever the disease passed, it left a detrimental death toll in its wake. There are many accounts of villages that lost half or more of their population, some even lost as high as 90% of their population. Many more disease continued to slowly decimate the natives, such as measles typhus, influenza, yellow fever, malaria diphtheria and the bubonic plague. Within the next 100 year of disease, the native’s population became less than 10% what it was in the

Culture wasn’t the only thing that the Europeans brought over to the Americas. Along with their customs and rules, came the diseases that the Native American’s have never been exposed to. The Europeans brought many communicable diseases such as small pox and measles which were transmitted to the Native Americans through trade goods or someone infected with them. This quickly annihilated most of the Native American population.

Smallpox was the number one eradicator facing those who didn’t possess immunity to the rank disease. Over 90% of native peoples died from this illness. Spain constructed a system known as encomienda. Under this arrangement Indians could be traded to slave owners in exchange for the devotion of their Christian loyalty. The relationship between Indians and Spanish voyagers was not all horrific. They did

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

Sailing from the West Indies, the HMS Seahorse was heading to Boston Massachusetts, which was America’s largest port city. Aboard the ship were Royal Navy sailors and cargo such as food and sugar for trade. The sailors had no idea that one of their men had carried a deadly virus from Barbados onto the ship. The virus was carried to the ship at the perfect time, allowing it to spread the infection. The virus was microscopic; therefore it escaped notice from the sailors. A normal voyage to an American port would typically last about two weeks, therefor if a sailor began to experience symptoms before they reached the port, the captain would take notice

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

And death is something that ran rampant through the native population. The Indians were not able to combat these new afflictions because they were new to their systems. Small pox, whooping cough, chicken pox, scarlet fever, influenza and many more had long been around in Europe and the colonists had developed resistance to most of them. (Crosby, 198)

Still some parts of the culture or religion honor their death people with celebrating their memories, but some people often do the rituals to protect themselves thinking the dead people might harm the living ones. Over the time, the act of ones dying has become more important so as the afterlife. In the premodern society the act of death has become simpler and less painful due to evolving technology and pain reduction drugs. Modern medicine and the technology has also changed the touch of the death by prolonging it using different medicines and

Smallpox has been causing disease for perhaps as long as 5,000 years and is believed to have evolved from an African rodent poxvirus (Medscap Article). There is evidence of a smallpox outbreak in Egypt in 1157 B.C. as pockmarks were found on the mummified remains of Ramses (Medscape) and is thought to been in China around 1122 B.C. (Burtons). It is believed that, “International traders spread smallpox throughout the Old World during the 4th-15th centuries CE, while European explorers and conquerors brought the disease to the Western Hemisphere in the early 16th century” (Medscape). By the 18th century, the disease was at pandemic proportion and caused over 400,000 deaths annually in Europe alone. (Baylor). Those which