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The diseases Columbus brought over from the Old World to the New World were immensely dangerous to the Native Americans. Basically any European who crossed the Atlantic during the 16th century had battled illnesses, such as smallpox and measles, during childhood and emerged fully immune. This meant that anyone who was not immune to these…
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Even though the Native American were susceptible to change, the European colonization drastically altered their lives forever. Unfamiliar diseases ravaged their population and whole entire cultures.The desire…
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At the beginning of the Columbian Exchange, native Americans were weakened by disease brought by the conquerors, reducing their population by millions. It would have been impossible, in such a short amount of time, for the conquerors to subdue millions of people with only hundreds of soldiers, even with their horses and guns, unless natives were somehow weakened. It is because of this that J.R. McNeill (n.d.) stated, “By far the most dramatic and devastating impact of the Columbian Exchange followed the introduction of new diseases into the Americas.” Diseases like smallpox, typhus fever, or measles, among many others, were the silent monsters that almost completely annihilate American native populations. Two examples of the destructive nature…
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It was one of the French that carried the disease that passed it on to the Indians of Nauset. This disease was not recognized in the Americas so people didn’t know what to do. Since it spread so quickly from person to person it soon became an epidemic. Thomas Morton said, “Indians dies in heaps, as they lay in their houses” (34). Evidence that supports that Europeans brought this disease to the Americas is that we didn’t have many epidemics until they were brought aboard European ships, “As much as nine-tenths of the indigenous population of the Americas died in led than a generation from the Europeans pathogens”…
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Crawford examines that when the Europeans came to the New World many of their disease causing microbes killed populations of Native Americans. Their bodies were not used to many of the microorganisms introduced and they quickly died because the immune system of the Native Americans were not susceptible to the diseases caused by certain microbes, “The result was devastating 90 percent drop in the Native American population over the next 120 years” (Crawford 114). The death of many Natives due to disease helped the Europeans gain more power over the land and bring their customs, which has shaped the history of this country. If the Europeans would not have wiped out entire communities of Native Americans due to disease, then the U.S. would not be a western civilization country. Microorganisms played a big role in destroying the Natives, Crawford talks about the diseases spread to the New World as smallpox flue, measles, dysentery, whooping cough, and meningitis. She argues that due to the “wiping out of their population their customs, culture and language were lost forever” (Crawford 118). This can be supported by Columbus Conquest in America, many of the population of Native Americans died because of disease transferred from Europe through the Columbian Exchange. Microbes have not only shaped our history by causing disease, but it also has helped distinguish between social…
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The population of Native American was estimated to be between 30-100 million people. The Eurasian continent included many domesticated animals, large animals, such as cows, horses’ oxen; Etc. The Americas, by contrast lacked these large domesticable animals and concomitant diseases. These animals offered a lot of great benefits, but also transmitted all types of diseases to the farmers. In the 14th century The Black Plague devastated their population, which killed 90 percent of their people. The devastating disease only went in one direction from Eurasia to the Americas. Columbus arrival in 1492 suddenly collided with 12,000 years of American isolation from Eurasian. The European were not affected by the disease as much as the Native American because they had a robust immune system due to the fact that they have been the caretakers of domesticated animals for thousands of years, and had somewhat grown immune to the common diseases that accompanied the domestication. Natives American on the other hand had very limited exposure to the spread of the diseases, so it was easy for the to catch these types of diseases.…
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Diseases passed through the exchange from Europeans to Native Americans were without a doubt, the most brutal aspect of the Columbian Exchange. The most deadly of the diseases were smallpox. (Doc1) According to Alfred W. Cosby, the smallpox epidemic was the “worst and the most spectacular of the infectious diseases mowing down the Native Americans.” (Doc1) Having been exposed to the disease before, the European carriers of the smallpox virus had built up immunity to the strain, meaning that if the disease was inside them, it was in a dormant or stationary state. The smallpox disease blisters the entire body making the slightest movement utterly painful. (Doc3) Many of the Native Americans were affected so rapidly that they could not aid each other due to the extremely high rate of spread. (Doc1) While smallpox is the most notorious of the diseases passed through the Columbian Exchange, many others also spread havoc among Native American tribes. These included measles, cholera, STD’s, influenza, tuberculosis, and many…
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My choice for my research is Native Americans. After I choose my topic I will create specific questions about my topic, Then I will look for more information on the internet or libraries. In that way I can use the information to answer my research question about Native Americans. Depending on the questions also I can use the last paper you gave us about thanksgiving. My goal is to find as many information as possible about Native Americans because it will be easier for me to put all the pieces of information together. Moreover, I have to keep everything organized to have the reference of my research in order to cited my…
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The Europeans were said to be thoroughly diseased by the time Columbus set sail on his first voyage (Cowley, 1991). Through the domestication of such animals as pigs, horses, sheep, and cattle, the Europeans exposed themselves to a vast array of pathogens which continued to be spread through wars, explorations, and city-building. Thus any European who crossed the Atlantic was immune to such diseases as measles and smallpox because of battling them as a child.…
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The “discovery” by Columbus of the New World in 1492 was followed by the establishments of European colonies with French initially in the north and down the Mississippi. The arrival of European settlers in the late 1500s-early 1600s in North America disrupted the Native American tribes that had been living peacefully there for centuries. The responses European settlers had to Native American tribes reflected their own cultural and economic viewpoints. As a result, the Native Americans’ lives changed drastically. The French had developed peaceful, mutually beneficial relations with Native Americans in the establishment of the French fur trade and culturally befriended them. On the other hand, the British tended to oppress Native Americans economically and culturally and denied their potential contributions to helping growing settlements in the New World.…
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Did Europeans purposefully infect the Native Americans? That question will never be answered. Whether intentional or accidental, the truth remains that disease was indeed brought to the early Native American culture due to European expansion. The true question is in Taking Sides, issue 2, Was Disease the Key Factor in the Depopulation of Native Americans in the Americas? In this particular issue two sides are represented; yes by Collin G. Calloway, and no by David S. Jones. Let’s take a look at Calloway’s perspective towards the issue.…
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After the Indians started getting tired of sharing their food and knowledge with the English, the pitfalls of living in a land the settlers were not prepared to handle began to take a toll. From a military perspective the settlers had set themselves up in an ideal location, however, the land was not ideal for farming, the water was brackish at different times during the year, and the bugs and disease were rampant. “As at this time were most of our chiefest men either sick or discontented, the rest being in such despair, as they would rather starve and rot with idleness, then be persuaded to do anything for their own relief without constraint: our victuals being now within eighteen days spent, and the Indians trade decreasing.”1…
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European settlers also brought new diseases when they began their exploration of the new world. The Europeans brought smallpox, influenza, measles, chicken pox, and other sicknesses that the Native Americans had no way to fight (Kincheloe 2). The Native Americans had zero resistance to the new diseases since they had never been exposed to them before. While the Europeans’ bodies were able to defend against these diseases, sickness usually ended in fatality for the Native Americans. Neither the European settlers, nor the Native Americans understood what was happening. They couldn’t fathom why the diseases affected the Native Americans so harshly. The spread of disease to the Native Americans was an accident that no one could have seen coming back in the 1500s. According to Kincheloe, an estimated ninety percent of the then Native American population was destroyed by the diseases the Europeans brought to the United States (2).…
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Out of all the horrible things that the colonists brought to the Native Americans, alcohol and guns were two of the worst. While alcohol destroyed their livers and killed their people, guns killed their people and their culture. The World Turned Upside Down gives several accounts of the Native Americans’ lives and the destruction of them as well. I believe that guns had a bigger impact on Native Americans. Not only could they defend themselves against the colonists, but they could hunt better as well.…
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The Indians “suffered devastating epidemics” because European settlers carried diseases they had built an immunity to (2). Sickness killed a staggering percentage of Indians, even though Europeans had fewer cases of becoming sick off of the diseases they brought to America.…
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