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The Impact Of Infectious Disease In The New World

"It is often said that in the centuries after Columbus landed in the New World on 12 October, 1492, more native North Americans died each year from infectious diseases brought by the European settlers than were born." (6) The decimation of people indigenous to the Americas by diseases introduced by European invaders is unprecedented. While it is difficult to accurately determine the population of the pre-Columbian Americas, scholars estimate the number to have been between 40 and 50 million people. The population in Mexico alone in 1519 is believed to have been approximately 30 million. By 1568, that number was down to 3 million inhabitants. Although there were other causes for the population reduction such as "alcoholism, warfare, genocide, cultural disruption, and declines in fertility", it is now known that disease played a central role in the depopulation of the Americas. But how is it that these native peoples harbored virtually no immunity to the European diseases? What were these diseases and how did they come to be so feared? Who introduced them to this New World? How did this biological disaster affect the social structure of the Indians? This brief will attempt to answer the preceding questions.
How is the presence or absence of disease in the New World determined? Archeologists are able to determine if a society or individual fell prey to disease by examining teeth, bones, coprolites(feces), and artistic depictions. Through the excavations of burial mounds, scientists have discovered that certain afflictions existed even before the white man landed. "Missing limbs, skin diseases, blindness, cleft palate, clubfoot, "dental disease, parasites, arthritis, and tuberculosis are all thought to have existed in pre-Columbian America. However, tracing epidemiology in the 15th century is difficult because so little was done to identify and classify diseases and their symptoms during this time period.
One might say that the New World was "ripe"...

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