Disease played a major role in the destruction of Indian life. Early settlers brought a plethora of diseases that attacked and easily destroyed the unadapted immune systems of the Native Americans. These diseases killed many Native Americans and had severe impacts on their population. An example can be observed in the article when it describes how the Caddoan population lost around ninety-six percent of its population due to disease. Another example of how disease devastated the natives can be seen in the article when it describes how a single Spanish soldier that suffered from smallpox spread the disease to the Incas which eliminated half of their population. Disease significantly lowered the population of the Native Americans which caused misconceptions regarding their actual population. …show more content…
Chaos probably ran rampant among Indian villages as many of its inhabitants suffered from disease. Native American society was probably more tranquil before it suffered from disease. A specific example of how disease impacted society can be seen when it killed over half of the Inca population and killed their dictator, Huayna Capac. This caused a war of succession to start and allowed for Pizarro and his small group of soldiers to to defeat the Inca. Spanish forces were able to capture the Inca capital of Cuzco which pretty much symbolized the defeat of a civilization that had around one hundred years of history. In other words, disease heavily assisted in the fall of a whole empire. These are a few of multiple examples of how disease played a major role in the destruction of Indian
These diseases completely wiped out the 10 million or so Native Americans on the islands and at least ½ of the more than 100 million on the mainland of North America.” The Europeans that came brought diseases that killed many Native Americans and destroyed entire empires. This
Smallpox was also a threat. One settler describes it as a “cloud over this province.” It drove off people and killed the people who stayed. It was also one of the major causes of the decline in the Native American population. There were definitely other kinds of diseases, but Smallpox was the most common.
The Columbian Exchange was the movement of people, animals, goods, plants, diseases, and microorganism that occurred in the sixteenth century. The effects of The Columbian Exchange on early American society were extensive. One of the most devastating effects was the spreading of disease that killed around ninety percent of the Native American population. When Europeans came to the New World they brought with them diseases such as, “smallpox, measles, typhus, and cholera”(document one). The native’s immune systems were not prepared to fight theses diseases and this lead to a catastrophic amount of fatalities.
I believe that sickness and disease greatly affected the Spanish, and their quest for the New World. However it was not purely bad nor good for them, because it helped them lay siege to cities but also killed many spanish. Some of the changes of culture that were made because of it was the fact that the Spanish were now disliked because of the diseases that they had brought with them to the New World. Some of the example of the disease helping the Spanish was how when Hernan Cortes lay siege to Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, he originally fled because of their numbers, but attacked again when there was an outbreak of smallpox and he had more siege weapons.
They brought along plants and animals such as "honeybees, pigs, horses, mules, sheep, and cattle," as well as "wheat, barley, rye, oats, grasses, and grapevines" so that they may farm in a European manner. (Alan Taylor page 20) Although, that is not the only thing the Europeans brought with them; they also brought diseases that the natives had never experienced yet the Europeans were more immune to them. Some of theses diseases included "smallpox, typhus, diphtheria, bubonic plague, malaria, yellow fever, cholera, and influenza," which killed about 90% of the Native American population. (Alan Taylor page 18) Although most of them were killed, some Indians dispersed themselves across North America. "About 150,000 Indians remained in the area east of the Mississippi.
With them came smallpox, measles, chicken pox, influenza, and many other diseases. “Before the arrival of Columbus, Native American disease wasn’t dominant in the land. Due to the lack of exposure of disease in their younger years, Native Americans were vulnerable to the European diseases that would come with the Columbian Exchange. The diseases would soon destroy many societies of the ancient Aztec, Maya, and Inca. Through many estimates it is foreseen that alien diseases caused over 50% deaths of the Native American population.
Diseases such as diphtheria, the bubonic plague, influenza, typhus, and scarlet fever were scattered throughout the New World as the Europeans settled inland. The Native Americans who had little to no resistance against these diseases succumbed. It is estimated around 90% of Native Americans population perished due to the diseases listed above. However the explorers weren’t the sole transmitters these diseases. Critters and livestock like mosquitoes, black rats and chickens that migrated along with the Europeans also carried the bacteria.
Although the Columbian Exchange supplied Spain with limitless wealth in the silver industry, the presences of both the Europeans and the Africans caused a wide-spread outbreak of diseases across the Atlantic World. Because the Native Americans had no immunities to deadly diseases such as small pox, these epidemics spread at an alarming rate. Entire towns perished without anyone left to bury the deceased.
The Colonisation of Latin America had a major negative impact on these indigenous people as the arrival in Latin America collided with 12,000 years of isolation from Eurasia which imposed many diseases on the natives. The natives were unable to fight of these diseases as they did not have the immune system for these types of sickness nor the appropriate medicine so many of them died as a result. These diseases included small pox, measles and influenza, bubonic plagues, cholera and tropical
In fact, “Native Americans died in appalling numbers, in many cases up to 90 percent of the population.” The diseases were at its worst in the Aztec and Inca Empires since the people lived close together. However, in the old world, disease related deaths were not nearly as prevalent as in the Americas. The reason for this difference is that the Native Americans had no domesticated animals (except llamas), which resulted in no acquired immunities to old world diseases.
It is estimated that approximately 95% of pre-Columbus Native Americans were killed by European diseases. Since the outbreak of the diseases spread because of the European colonization, it made conquering the Americas much easier. Health was definitely the most detrimental obstacle that the Native Americans had to face as a result of the European
Among the many things spread and shared in the Columbian Exchange, the trading of diseases is perhaps the most significant. The natives of the Americas had never experienced the serious diseases that European explorers carried over to the New World. From smallpox to influenza and malaria to cholera, Native American populations were drastically decreased due to their poor immunity. Between the numerous amounts of European diseases, though, measles was the most remarkable in that its effects were both widespread and enduring. Measles, also known as rubeola, is a respiratory infection caused by the measles virus.
Native Americans were greatly affected by the expansion of the United States during the 1800s. As the U.S. moved west, they stole large amounts of Native American land by settling the land and killing the Natives who once lived there. Also during this time, their culture was being taken from them due to assimilation. While United States citizens were expanding into the west, many Native American lives were lost. They were also responsible for destroying a major food and supply source for Native Americans.
As the Europeans found native along the coasts of the New World, they found them easily malleable and able to be used, so they enslaved them and those who fought back were wiped out. Europeans, as well as the Africans, had built up a resistance to many diseases such as smallpox and were therefore not really affected as much by the diseases if they became sick. However, the Native Americans had not had contact with the disease and it quickly spread rapidly and slowly helped the Spanish rid themselves of the natives so they could take control of the land. Geoffrey Cowley offers insight on just how profound the effect of smallpox was when he writes, “ ...When the newcomers arrived carrying mumps, measles, whooping cough, smallpox, cholera, gonorrhea and yellow fever, the Indians were immunologically
The Inca empire's decline started when diseases such as smallpox, measles, chickenpox, and influenza spread throughout the empire killing between 50% and 90% of the population ( The