# How do we know it was European diseases that killed the native Americans **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 22, 2016, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-it-was-european-diseases-that-killed-the-native-americans/755366 "2016-05-22T15:16:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-it-was-european-diseases-that-killed-the-native-americans/755366/1 "2016-05-22T15:16:18Z")
It’s well known that the European conquest of the Americas was aided by the locals having been severely hit by disease, but how do we know that it was European diseases that were the diseases involved? European populations were subject to pandemics, so why should American populations be exempt? And why didn’t disease follow the Vikings hundreds of years earlier? Or did it? Has there been any analysis done? Graves exhumed etc? ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-it-was-european-diseases-that-killed-the-native-americans/755366/2 "2016-05-22T16:16:31Z")
Malaria had a disastrous effect, and it was probably West African in origin. [https://en.ird.fr/the-media-centre/scientific-newssheets/394-malaria-how-did-it-reach-the-americas](https://en.ird.fr/the-media-centre/scientific-newssheets/394-malaria-how-did-it-reach-the-americas) > **[Malaria’s Influence in History: 1493: Uncovering the World Columbus Created –...](http://www.malaria.com/blog/american-plasmodium-vivax)** ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-it-was-european-diseases-that-killed-the-native-americans/755366/3 "2016-05-22T17:08:23Z")
Wasn’t the slave trade significantly after the original conquest? ---
**Author:** ![Victor\_Charlie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7ea924/32.png) [@Victor\_Charlie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Victor_Charlie)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-it-was-european-diseases-that-killed-the-native-americans/755366/4 "2016-05-22T17:12:45Z")
Maybe I don’t understand the question because the answer seems pretty obvious. Other than the malaria mentioned, who else could’ve brought the diseases but Europeans? Considering the fact that natives had virtually no immunity to smallpox Or any other diseases commonly carried by Europeans, it’s a pretty safe bet they hadn’t been exposed before the post-Columbian arrival of said Europeans. As for the Vikings, I believe their contact with natives was fairly limited and remote, given the fact they landed in present-day Newfoundland and didn’t venture very far south (if I remember correctly.) Any outbreak they caused would’ve been fairly contained. ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-it-was-european-diseases-that-killed-the-native-americans/755366/5 "2016-05-22T17:14:00Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Wasn’t the slave trade significantly after the original conquest? Not really. Spain and Portugal were dealing in African slaves before Columbus’ first voyage. > **[Slavery in Spain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Spain)** > > Slavery in Spain can be traced to the Phoenician and Roman eras. In the 9th century the Muslim Moorish rulers and local Jewish merchants traded in Spanish and Eastern European Christian slaves. Spain began to trade slaves in the 15th century and this trade reached its peak in the 16th century. The history of Spanish enslavement of Africans began with Portuguese captains Antão Gonçalves and Nuno Tristão in 1441. The first large group of African slaves, made up of 235 slaves, came with Lançarote ... > [@](#): > > The history of Spanish slavery began with Portuguese captains Antão Gonçalves and Nuno Tristão in 1441. The first large group of African slaves, made up of 235 slaves, came with Lançarote de Freitas three years later.[1] In 1462, Portuguese slave traders began to operate in Seville, Spain. During the 1470s, Spanish merchants began to trade large numbers of slaves. Slaves were auctioned at market at a Cathedral, and subsequently were transported to cities all over Imperial Spain. This led to the spread of Moorish, African, and Christian slavery in Spain. By the 16th century, 7.4 percent of the population in Seville, Spain were slaves. Many historians have concluded that Renaissance and early-modern Spain had the highest amount of African slaves in Europe.[2] ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-it-was-european-diseases-that-killed-the-native-americans/755366/6 "2016-05-22T17:32:19Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > European populations were subject to pandemics, so why should American populations be exempt? 1. New World populations were descended from a small group of migrants who had passed through arctic and subarctic areas where tropical diseases couldn’t survive. Because they bands were small and dispersed, infectious diseases couldn’t propagate themselves. Epidemic diseases are mainly a feature of agricultural societies with dense populations. 2. New World cultures mostly lacked domestic animals, with a very few exceptions. Most epidemic human diseases have “jumped” to us from domestic animals. 3. Due to their origin in a small population and lack of selection from epidemics, Native Americans show less variability in the genes affecting the immune system than Old World populations, making them less able to fend off infectious diseases. > [@](#): > > And why didn’t disease follow the Vikings hundreds of years earlier? Or did it? It very well might have to some extent. However, the Vikings themselves came in very small groups in which infectious disease was unlikely to persist, and were in contact with only small isolated populations of Native Americans. Under these conditions disease was unlikely to spread to the rest of the government. ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-it-was-european-diseases-that-killed-the-native-americans/755366/7 "2016-05-22T17:43:57Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > (snip) Under these conditions disease was unlikely to spread to the rest of the government. Too bad, too bad. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-it-was-european-diseases-that-killed-the-native-americans/755366/8 "2016-05-22T17:45:44Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Wasn’t the slave trade significantly after the original conquest? Most of the diseases were initially brought by Europeans themselves, but there were a few African slaves among them very early. [Smallpox was introduced to Mexico in 1520](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_smallpox_in_Mexico), by the Narvaez expedition that was a followup after Cortes began his campaign against the Aztecs. It has generally been said that smallpox was introduced to the Aztecs themselves via an African slave who was with Cortes’ expedition (although there is some dispute about this). Smallpox decimated the native population and facilitated the Conquest. The major slave trade between West Africa and the Americas was started to replace the native populations which had declined in the West Indies due to disease. It was this trade that probably brought in malaria and yellow fever (and the species of mosquitoes that spread them). But although malaria and yellow fever may have arrived a little later, they still contributed to the decline of Native Americans. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-it-was-european-diseases-that-killed-the-native-americans/755366/9 "2016-05-22T17:46:59Z")
> [@TSBG](#): > > Too bad, too bad. I meant continent, of course. But a plague that only affected politicians and bureaucrats might be a good thing. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-it-was-european-diseases-that-killed-the-native-americans/755366/10 "2016-05-22T18:45:41Z")
> [@Victor\_Charlie](#): > > Maybe I don’t understand the question because the answer seems pretty obvious. Because correlation does not necessarily equal causation. It’s also known that there was trade - and thus contact - among the Inuit across the Bering Strait providing an alternative infection route. > [@Belowjob2.0](#): > > Not really. Spain and Portugal were dealing in African slaves before Columbus’ first voyage. I meant the transatlantic slave trade. Slavery is recorded in the old world since writing began. African slaves were sought-after in Persia. > [@Colibri](#): > > 1. New World cultures mostly lacked domestic animals, with a very few exceptions. Most epidemic human diseases have “jumped” to us from domestic animals. Are there rats native to the Americas? Or did they come with Columbus too? Wikipedia indicates the current presence of plague-infected animals in the Americas Let’s backtrack a little: are there any known pandemics in the Americas which pre-date Columbus? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-it-was-european-diseases-that-killed-the-native-americans/755366/11 "2016-05-22T18:51:07Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > It very well might have to some extent. However, the Vikings themselves came in very small groups in which infectious disease was unlikely to persist, and were in contact with only small isolated populations of Native Americans. Under these conditions disease was unlikely to spread to the rest of the government. It would also seem logical that the Vikings would have made few stops on the way to the New World, other than in very northern lands, whereas later European explorers often stopped at more tropical ports to restock supplies and were more likely to take on diseased vermin, malaria, etc. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-it-was-european-diseases-that-killed-the-native-americans/755366/12 "2016-05-22T18:56:34Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Let’s backtrack a little: are there any known pandemics in the Americas which pre-date Columbus? Possibly syphilis, but I’m not sure it was pandemic. > **[History of syphilis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_syphilis)** > > The first recorded outbreak of syphilis in Europe occurred in 1494/1495 in Naples, Italy, during a French invasion. Because it was spread geographically by French troops returning from that campaign, the disease was known as "French disease", and it was not until 1530 that the term "syphilis" was first applied by the Italian physician and poet Girolamo Fracastoro. The causative organism, Treponema pallidum, was first identified by Fritz Schaudinn and Erich Hoffmann in 1905 at the Charité Many w... ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-it-was-european-diseases-that-killed-the-native-americans/755366/13 "2016-05-22T18:57:42Z")
Most of the hugely infectious pandemic diseases we’re familiar with are tropical in origin. That alone makes a route though the far north less likely. There are also many contemporary accounts of illnesses written by Europeans who were familiar with their symptoms and progress. Of course, anthropologists have studied skeletal remains for evidence of disease. Isn’t that like asking if any scientist has done any science? Here’s one paper that discusses [Health conditions before Columbus: paleopathology of native North Americans](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1071659/). Native Americans had many chronic illnesses and conditions. What they didn’t have were the short-term acute illnesses that the Europeans brought. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-it-was-european-diseases-that-killed-the-native-americans/755366/14 "2016-05-22T18:59:28Z")
[_New York Times_, 2002](http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/29/science/don-t-blame-columbus-for-all-the-indians-ills.html?pagewanted=all): > [@](#): > > Europeans first came to the Western Hemisphere armed with… unknowingly, pathogens. Against the alien agents of disease, the indigenous people never had a chance. Their immune systems were unprepared to fight smallpox and measles, malaria and yellow fever. > > The epidemics that resulted have been well documented. What had not been clearly recognized until now, though, is that the general health of Native Americans had apparently been deteriorating for centuries before 1492. > > \ > > The researchers, whose work is regarded as the most comprehensive yet, say their findings in no way diminish the dreadful impact Old World diseases had on the people of the New World. > > \ > > The researchers attributed the widespread decline in health in large part to the rise of agriculture and urban living. People in South and Central America began domesticating crops more than 5,000 years ago, and the rise of cities there began more than 2,000 years ago. > > \ > > ‘‘Pre-Columbian populations were among the healthiest and the least healthy in our sample,’’ Dr. Steckel and Dr. Rose said. ‘‘While pre-Columbian natives may have lived in a disease environment substantially different from that in other parts of the globe, the original inhabitants also brought with them, or evolved with, enough pathogens to create chronic conditions of ill health under conditions of systematic agriculture and urban living.’’ ISTM that if indigenous people’s health was declining, they would be harder hit by the new diseases to which they had no resistance. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-it-was-european-diseases-that-killed-the-native-americans/755366/15 "2016-05-22T19:03:14Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > It’s also known that there was trade - and thus contact - among the Inuit across the Bering Strait providing an alternative infection route. Again, because of very sparse population, not a likely route for the spread of infectious disease. Although there are plenty of mosquitoes in the subarctic, they are not the ones that transmit malaria and yellow fever. > [@](#): > > Are there rats native to the Americas? Or did they come with Columbus too? Wikipedia indicates the current presence of plague-infected animals in the Americas The rats involved with the spread of human disease, especially the Black Rat _Rattus rattus_ and the Norway Rat _Rattus norvegicus_, were introduced to the Americas from Europe. > [@](#): > > Let’s backtrack a little: are there any known pandemics in the Americas which pre-date Columbus? Not that I am aware of. Of course, most cultures didn’t have a written language. Those that did, like the Mayans, recorded lots of wars and historical events but I am unaware that they ever recorded a widespread plague. Nor is there much evidence of large-scale mortality in burials, etc. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-it-was-european-diseases-that-killed-the-native-americans/755366/16 "2016-05-22T19:11:39Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Wikipedia indicates the current presence of plague-infected animals in the Americas The plague among rodents in western North America was introduced about 1900 by a ship coming to [San Francisco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_plague_of_1900%E2%80%9304) from Hong Kong. ---
**Author:** ![jjakucyk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3d9bf3/32.png) [@jjakucyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjakucyk)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-it-was-european-diseases-that-killed-the-native-americans/755366/17 "2016-05-22T19:22:30Z")
This is a pretty good synopsis of the situation 🙂 [Americapox: The Missing Plague - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEYh5WACqEk) ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-it-was-european-diseases-that-killed-the-native-americans/755366/18 "2016-05-22T19:31:10Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Of course, anthropologists have studied skeletal remains for evidence of disease. Isn’t that like asking if any scientist has done any science? Not really, no. > [@](#): > > Here’s one paper that discusses [Health conditions before Columbus: paleopathology of native North Americans](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1071659/). That’s the sort of thing I’m after. > [@](#): > > Native Americans had many chronic illnesses and conditions. What they didn’t have were the short-term acute illnesses that the Europeans brought. Actually, that article says they did. Just not the ones we brought over: > [@Cited article](#): > > Osteologic data demonstrate that native groups were most definitely not living in a pristine, disease-free environment before contact. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-it-was-european-diseases-that-killed-the-native-americans/755366/19 "2016-05-22T21:05:46Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Not really, no. In that case, you’re too close to what you wrote to see how it came across. > [@](#): > > Actually, that article says they did. Just not the ones we brought over: Well, to be exact it says: > [@](#): > > Although New World indigenous disease was mostly of the chronic and episodic kind, Old World diseases were largely acute and epidemic. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-it-was-european-diseases-that-killed-the-native-americans/755366/20 "2016-05-22T21:23:51Z")
The Old World still has chronic and episodic diseases. And I think I’d call the Black Death both episodic and epidemic. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-it-was-european-diseases-that-killed-the-native-americans/755366.md?page=2)