Disease and Native American Demise During the European Conquest of the

Disease and Native American Demise During the European Conquest of the upstart World The European conquering of the stark naked world was most commonly attributed to the premiumity of the Europeans in only the facets of their confrontation. They had the superior weaponry, and were thought to have a superior intellect. After all, they were and bringing civilization to the new world, right? It sounds nice when you are schooling about Columbus in grade school, but the traditional trading floor is pretty far from the truth. The truth is that the Europeans, when they discovered this was a brand new world and not the spice islands, sought to rape the land for its atomic number 79 and natural resources and enslave the Amerindians (native Americans), who were regarded to be less than human. One has to wonder why it was so easy for the Europeans to impose their will on the Amerindians. Was it solely because the Europeans were superior technologically and intellectually? Unfortunately the answer is not that simple. The Europeans were superior in those areas, but the bulk of the disaster they imposed was not what they knew, but what they brought with them, disease. Disease, on the epidemic level, is thought to be the major factor in the compensate of the Amerindians during the age of discovery. Before I go any further, I spirit that I should clarify the contrariety between the terms epidemic and autochthonic disease. An epidemic disease is a disease that enters into a population and exclusively ravages it. Epidemics are particularly destructive because they are usually diseases that have never been introduced into that specific population. A good example of an epidemic is the bubonic plague, or smallpox. Smallpox uncontrollably ravaged Europe for more than two hundred years.... ... the disease that accompanied an average race of people that made the difference in the conquest of the Americas Bibliography Crosby, Alfred W. Ecological Imperialism The Biologi cal Expansion of Europe 900-1900. New York Cambridge University Press, 1986. ---. The Columbian Exchange. Westport Greenwood Publishing Company, 1972. McNeil, William H. Plagues and People. Garden City Anchor Press, 1976. Verano, John, and Douglas Ubelaker. Disease and demography in the Americas. Washington D.C. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992. Cowley, Geoffery. The Great Disease Migration. Newsweek Fall/ spend 1991 54-56. Snow, Dean, and Kim Lanphear. European Contact and Depopulation in the Northeast The Timing of the First Epidemics. Ethnohistory spend 1988 15-33. Diamond, Jared. The Arrow of Disease. Discover October 1992 64-73.