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The Role Of Smallpox In The 1700s

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Sometimes the smallest things have the biggest impact. What was infinitesimal but so widespread that no part of North America was untouched by it? The devastation of Smallpox in the 1700s played a key role in the outcome of the revolutionary war and also in shaping modern medicine and in how we handle diseases. But these medical advances didn 't come without terrible sacrifice. Nearly 30% of europeans living in the Americas during the epidemic would succumb to smallpox totaling thousands. But the indigenous population fared much worse. Nearly 90% would be eradicated by smallpox. A result of having no immunity to the newly introduced virus.

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