HI 440 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Smallpox
Invasions of Disease and Weeds
European Invasions of North America, 1500-1900
● Europeans are arriving from the south and the east (Spanish and Portuguese) and these
are the first colonies, and the most significant, in the New World
○ The Spanish pioneer the colonization of North America
● The English, Dutch, Swedish, French and Russians have their expeditions to the New
World soon after
● This 400 year period transformed the nature of the Americas and the nature of the people
who live there; this was a drastic change unseen in Europe and Asia. It truly is a “New
World” by 1900.
Smallpox Epidemic in Mexico
● “Virgin soil” epidemics distinguishes the diseases from others in history; these are even
worse than other epidemics
● The greatest killer has been disease in American history due to the lack of protection to
many diseases
● Between 30-90% of the Native population died from disease between 1500-1900
○ Physical consequences of great pain
○ Social consequences of people not taking care of each other → starvation
● These diseases wiped out the elderly and the young; ways of remembering were
destroyed with their elderly, so their culture suffered as well
European and African Population Growth, 1620-1780
● Opposite of the Indians population
● The population grew dramatically
● Allows people to understand why the Indians, who were dying, could not defeat their
enemies, who were growing in numbers
Weeds
● Can choke out other species/agriculture, many of which would have been useful to
human beings
Horses
● Horses had profound impacts on many Native peoples due to not having domesticated
species that could make such a large increase in wealth, production and trade
● Represented a revolution in hunting, especially bison
● People abandon horticulture
Pigs
● Change the way people fit themselves in their new environment
● Extended human ability to survive and allowed humans to use their own energy
efficiently because animals did the work for them
● Livestock measured wealth
● Pigs were the masters of surviving without human intervention, but they required
property boundaries, “Wherever my pig is, it is my boundary” and the creation of fences
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Document Summary
Europeans are arriving from the south and the east (spanish and portuguese) and these are the first colonies, and the most significant, in the new world. The spanish pioneer the colonization of north america. The english, dutch, swedish, french and russians have their expeditions to the new. This 400 year period transformed the nature of the americas and the nature of the people who live there; this was a drastic change unseen in europe and asia. Virgin soil epidemics distinguishes the diseases from others in history; these are even worse than other epidemics. The greatest killer has been disease in american history due to the lack of protection to many diseases. Between 30-90% of the native population died from disease between 1500-1900. Social consequences of people not taking care of each other starvation. These diseases wiped out the elderly and the young; ways of remembering were destroyed with their elderly, so their culture suffered as well.
