The Depopulation Of Native Americans: Colin Calloway V. David S. Jones
The Depopulation of Native Americans
(Colin Calloway v. David S. Jones)
Issue #2
Karen Lee @01234920
History 170
Professor Seiling
M/W-9:05 A.M.
March 4, 2015
Was disease a key factor in the depopulation of Native Americans in the Americas? In “Taking Sides,” issue 2, Colin G. Calloway argues that key factor of the depopulation was through the epidemic diseases contact from Europeans. In contrast, David S. Jones controvert that there were other factors at work that explains the drastic loss of life among the American Indians. Calloway discloses that when the “Columbian Exchange” occurred, Europeans brought in new pathogens into the “new world” and American Indian’s immunity and natural and spiritual remedies were inadequate …show more content…
Calloway, from “New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans and the Remaking of Early America”, supports the theory that disease was the key factor in the depopulation of the America. The reciprocal trade with the Europeans and Indians also known as “Columbian Exchange,” introduced horses and other farm animals, human beings, plants and materials, disastrous diseases and ideas. From the moment Europeans set foot in America, hundreds and thousands of Indian people did not have a chance to build up an immunity resistance to epidemics of smallpox, diphtheria, measles, bubonic and pneumonic plague, cholera, influenza, typhus, dysentery and yellow fever (25). Indians neither knew what it was nor how to cure it, leaving them …show more content…
Smallpox, a deadly and quick airborne disease, infected Indians who came in contact with Europeans and contaminated the disease on to more distant neighbors before they even made contact with the Europeans themselves. They cut down economic productivity, causing hunger and famine, which made it more vulnerable to other diseases. Also, the falling birthrates, escalating warfare and alcoholism contributed to the outbreak leaving Indian America into a graveyard (29). Indian population was somewhere between 5 million to 10 million in 1492, but the population had fallen to around 600,000 (31). Indians wanted to retain the natural and traditional medicine remedies that were both herbal and spiritual but the disease spread to quickly abolishing the
(Colin Calloway v. David S. Jones)
Issue #2
Karen Lee @01234920
History 170
Professor Seiling
M/W-9:05 A.M.
March 4, 2015
Was disease a key factor in the depopulation of Native Americans in the Americas? In “Taking Sides,” issue 2, Colin G. Calloway argues that key factor of the depopulation was through the epidemic diseases contact from Europeans. In contrast, David S. Jones controvert that there were other factors at work that explains the drastic loss of life among the American Indians. Calloway discloses that when the “Columbian Exchange” occurred, Europeans brought in new pathogens into the “new world” and American Indian’s immunity and natural and spiritual remedies were inadequate …show more content…
Calloway, from “New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans and the Remaking of Early America”, supports the theory that disease was the key factor in the depopulation of the America. The reciprocal trade with the Europeans and Indians also known as “Columbian Exchange,” introduced horses and other farm animals, human beings, plants and materials, disastrous diseases and ideas. From the moment Europeans set foot in America, hundreds and thousands of Indian people did not have a chance to build up an immunity resistance to epidemics of smallpox, diphtheria, measles, bubonic and pneumonic plague, cholera, influenza, typhus, dysentery and yellow fever (25). Indians neither knew what it was nor how to cure it, leaving them …show more content…
Smallpox, a deadly and quick airborne disease, infected Indians who came in contact with Europeans and contaminated the disease on to more distant neighbors before they even made contact with the Europeans themselves. They cut down economic productivity, causing hunger and famine, which made it more vulnerable to other diseases. Also, the falling birthrates, escalating warfare and alcoholism contributed to the outbreak leaving Indian America into a graveyard (29). Indian population was somewhere between 5 million to 10 million in 1492, but the population had fallen to around 600,000 (31). Indians wanted to retain the natural and traditional medicine remedies that were both herbal and spiritual but the disease spread to quickly abolishing the