Disease in the 1700s significantly contributed to the decline of the Native American population; after European contact exposed many to serval diseases. The most significant disease, however, was smallpox. By the end of the 1800s, Native Americans had suffered a series epidemics having a devastating effect and leaving some tribes destined for extinction. Historian Alex Alvarez perspective examines if the spreading of smallpox was a deliberate or unintentionally spread. In this analysis, he covers disease in Native America and the link between smallpox and genocide. Disease was the most significant factor the conquering of Native America by colonial forces. Alvarex supports his argument by comparing the Aztec Empire and the collapse of the
What is a “virgin soil” epidemic? How did they impact European-Native American relations? What would have happened throughout North America if Native Americans had not been so vulnerable to these diseases? Virgin Soil is a strong disease that affects population. The Europeans and the Natives American were two totally different groups.
With the Spaniards venturing to the Americas during their conquest, they unintentionally brought diseases along with them. While this could have been little to no issue, it turned into a massive killer for the natives due to them not having the tolerance against them like the Spaniards did. The “...epidemic of smallpox..” took cities by storm and caused deaths that could easily have been avoided (The Broken Spears, 92). This “... terrible plague that… spread throughout the city” weakened the natives to the point where “...no one could walk or move”, leaving them helpless and unable to take care of themselves (The Broken Spears, 91-93). This tragedy may not have been directly the fault of the Spaniards, considering spreading a disease was more than likely not their top priority, however, it is something that caused the natives great deals of pain and suffering over the course of the Spaniards’ conquest and demonstrated how little the Spaniards cared about the Native Americans and their
As European settlers witnessed the declining health of Native Americans to diseases believed to be endemic on American soil, colonists conceived that Native Americans’ mortality resulted from their bodily
In 1540 to 1700, the Scientific Revolution occured, events and tools created during this time period would change life forever. First, the astrolabe and the compass were both technological advances created to help navigate and explore the world. Also, at this time Asian spices were huge, but Italy and Egypt controlled the trade routes to Asia. Then, explorers started to sail the world, finding new routes and lands. Lastly, Christopher Columbus tried to sail to Asia in late 1492, but messed up on his way there and discovered the New World.
In document five, it states, “Then there was great destruction of American Indians by war, disease, and killing work, and the importation of African slaves into Spanish America was begun order to fill the void in the labor market.” (Helps) This quote affected the Native Americans so much because of war, diseases, killing work, and importation of slaves. These cause is what caused the decline of Native Americans, but mostly it was diseases. Some disease were smallpox, measles, and
Though they once felt powerful as a group, they knew there could be many other much stronger civilizations further away to be fearful of. But there was one other factor that resulted in the Spaniards’’ victory over the Aztecs. “The natives could do little to stop the invisible warrior that marched alongside the Spaniards - disease. Measles, mumps, smallpox, and typhus were just some of the diseases Europeans were to bring with them to the Americas” (McDougal 556). Because of their lack of immunity to the diseases brought over by the Europeans, hundreds of thousands of Aztecs and other native Americans died.
One of the biggest summer nuisance would be the mosquito, but more specifically the Ades aegypti mosquito. The Aedes aegypti is the vector for yellow fever and the cause of the numerous deaths. In her book The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, The Epidemic the Shaped Our History, Molly Caldwell Crosby presents the idea that the mosquito is not just the only reason an epidemic occurred in the 18th century. This story accounts for the disease that broke out across the world and nearly destroyed almost all of North America’s population, which some believe could have been avoided by simple quarantine analysis and sanitary methods.
Historians differ on what they think about the net result of the European arrival in the New World. Considering that the Columbian Exchange, which refers to “exchange of plants, animals, people, disease, and culture between Afro-Eurasia and the Americas after Columbus sailed to the Americas in 1492,” led to possibly tens of millions of deaths on the side of the American Indians, but also enabled agricultural and technological trade (Henretta et al. 42), I cannot help but reflect on whether the effects should be addressed as a historical or a moral question. The impact that European contact had on the indigenous populations of North America should be understood as a moral question because first, treating it as a historical question is difficult due to lack of reliable historical evidence; second, the meaning of compelling historical claims is contestable as the academic historian perspective tends to view the American Indian oral history as invalid; and finally, what happened to the native Indians is morally repulsive and must be discussed as such. The consequences of European contact should be answered as a moral question because historically, it is hard to be historically objective in the absence of valid and dependable historical evidence.
During the late 1400s and the early 1500s, European expeditioners began to explore the New World. Native Americans, who were living in America originally, were much different than the Europeans arriving at the New World; they had a different culture, diet, and religion. Eventually, both the Native Americans and the European colonists exchanged different aspects of their life. For example, Native Americans gave the Europeans corn, and the Europeans in return gave them modern weapons, such as various types of guns. This type of trade was called “the Columbian Exchange.”
The Europeans were able to conquer the Americas because even though it was by “accident,” they were still more prepared for what was to come. Jared Diamond calls the European “accidental conquerors.” Diamond calls his theory geographical luck and concludes that the only way the Europeans were able to dominate the Americas was because of the way the ocean patterns happened to flow. The geographical wind patterns caused the ships to sail towards the Incas and the Aztecs and when the Europeans arrived they tried to conquer the Aztecs and Incas, they succeed for a number of reasons. One reason that they were able to conquer the Americas was because of their technological advances.
Native Americans prospered for a long while until colonizers and Europeans began showing up, and this is no accident. In the book, Cherokee Medicine, Colonial Germs, written by Paul Kelton, he shares his view on the correctness of the virgin soil thesis. The virgin soil thesis is the belief that the indigenous tribes that resided in North America were wiped out simply by accident and to no fault of the Europeans who were showing up and colonizing in America. The thesis implies that diseases that were brought over were accidentally spread to the indigenous people and they, unfortunately, did not have the spirits on their side, have strong enough immunity to fight off the diseases, and were incapable of implementing effective measures against
The Columbian Exchange between the new world and the old world significantly change people’s lives. After 1492, Europeans brought in horses to America which changes the nomadic Native American groups’ living from riding on buffalos to horses. This interchange also change the diet of the rest of the world with foods such as corns (maize), potatoes which are major diet for European nowadays. Besides all the animals from old world to the new world, Spanish also brought in the diseases that Native Americans were not immune of, such as smallpox which led to a large amount of Native Americans’ deaths.
Portilla mentions that as soon as the conquistadors backed off a new battle began. Smallpox created an epidemic to the size of the Aztec population. Once the population is depleated, the author describes how the Spaniards came in for the fatal
The Europeans came to America for many reasons but the biggest was wealth. One thing they brought with them was smallpox which had disastrous effects because the Cherokee’s immune system was never introduced to the disease. The medicine men were incapable of finding a cure so they went to the traditional purification treatment, sitting in sweat houses before wading in the chilling streams. This treatment only increased the number of deaths which was around 7,000 to 10,000 Cherokees. The Cherokees tribe suffered heavy losses due to the illness and at the end nearly half of the tribe was dead.
During the late 15th and early 16th centuries, eExplorers from Europe had made vast advancements on traveling methods and shipbuilding and had new methods to travel the world. Due to needs for faster trade routes or access to new markets, most powers, starting with Portugal, had started sending Explorers to find different ways to trade and navigate. This would eventually lead them to the New World where they would meet people of different culture. Explorers during this period have many positive and negative effects on the natives. Europeans indirectly killed off native with diseases, enslaved natives with cruel slave methods, and tried to completely erase the native cultures in place of the typical European cultures and religion.