Essay On Native American Disease

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Perhaps the most overwhelmingly devastating aspect of the Spanish discovery and conquest of the Americas was one that was unknown to both the Spanish conquistadors and the Natives throughout the exchange. Death and destruction swept throughout the Americas in the form of multiple lethal diseases unwittingly brought to the land by the Europeans. Before European contact, Native Americans had few contagious diseases, and people rarely died because of this. The Natives were also generally healthier than typical Europeans. However, in Eurasia at this time, many highly contagious and potentially fatal diseases were raging epidemic. Several reasons have been discussed as to why the Europeans were carriers of such a vast majority of diseases. Some …show more content…
On his first voyage, about 39 of his men were left on land, nearby the territory of the Taino tribe. They were believed to have infected the Taino, starting the wide spread of multiple diseases that would soon dominate the Native American civilization. Not long after that, the Spanish conquistadors began traveling to the Americas in search of the fame and wealth that awaited those successful in conquering prosperous Native peoples. Conquering and infecting several powerful indigenous nations, The Spanish stronghold expanded further into both North and South America. In certain cases, European diseases were introduced to Native societies prior to European contact. Diseases may have been passed from tribe to tribe, rather than from direct European contact. Once these diseases were initiated, they spread like wildfire. In one instance, during Hernan Cortes’ conquest of the Aztecs, one of his soldiers had contracted smallpox. This man was killed in battle, and his corpse was exposed to the Aztecs. This alone was believed to have killed about 20% of their people. Many of their political and religious were lost to this grievous epidemic, offering an opportunity for the Spanish to seize the empire at its weakest. Once the conquistadors discovered how much devastation this could cause, they began to use it as a deadly weapon, intentionally exposing and killing hundreds of thousands of
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