The Impact of European Diseases on Native Americans

Overview

Contact between Europeans and Native Americans led to a demographic disaster.
Epidemic diseases from Europe (e.g., influenza, smallpox, measles, typhus) decimated indigenous populations.
By 1518, demand for labor and demographic collapse led to the importation of African slaves.
The Americas saw a mix of peoples and pathogens from different continents.

Early Migrations: Disputed timing; some suggest migration from Asia occurred about 10,000 years ago.
Migration may have acted as a "cold filter" against Old World pathogens.
Pre-contact diseases in America included American leishmaniasis, Chaga’s disease, and others.
Major Old World diseases were absent pre-contact, including smallpox, measles, and influenza.
Controversy exists over pre-Columbian diseases like syphilis and yellow fever.

Population Decline: Massive demographic collapse after European contact, with some estimates suggesting a decline of 90% by 1650.
Population estimates pre-contact range from 8 to 30 million.
Caribbean islands witnessed a sharp decline, with cultures disappearing by 1570 except for isolated Carib areas.
Diseases and Epidemics:
- Smallpox first appeared in Hispaniola in 1518, spreading rapidly.
- Death rates from smallpox among Native Americans were between 25-50%.
- The first disease in the Caribbean could have been swine influenza.
- African diseases, including yellow fever, added to the burden post-1518 with the slave trade.
Specific Impacts:
- Aztec Empire: Destroyed by Spanish conquest aided by smallpox.
- Inca Empire: Epidemics preceded and aided Spanish conquest in the 1530s.
- Smallpox may have caused significant leadership losses in the Incan Empire.

Further reading includes works by authors such as Percey Moreau Ashburn, Nobel David Cook, and Alfred W. Crosby.
Topics cover medical history, the Columbian exchange, and population dynamics.