Disease and Native American Demise During the European Conquest of the

Disease and Native American Demise During the European Conquest of the New World The European conquest of the freshly humanity was most commonly attributed to the shiningity of the Europeans in all the facets of their confrontation. They had the superior weaponry, and were thought to have a superior intellect. After all, they were just bringing civilization to the new world, right? It sounds nice when you are learning about Columbus in grade school, but the traditional story is pretty far from the truth. The truth is that the Europeans, when they sight this was a brand new world and not the spice islands, sought to rape the land for its gold and natural resources and enslave the Amerindians (native Americans), who were regarded to be less than human. whizz 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 plaguey level, is thought to be the major factor in the filiation of the Amerindians during the age of discovery. Before I go any further, I feel that I should clarify the difference between the terms epidemic and endemic disease. An epidemic disease is a disease that enters into a population and completely 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 mediocre race of people that made the difference in the conquest of the Americas Bibliography Crosby, Alfred W. Ecological Imperialism The Biological Expansion of Europe 900-1900. New York Cambr idge 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/Winter 1991 54-56. Snow, Dean, and Kim Lanphear. European Contact and Depopulation in the Northeast The time of the First Epidemics. Ethnohistory Winter 1988 15-33. Diamond, Jared. The Arrow of Disease. Discover October 1992 64-73.