Epidemic diseases, such as smallpox,
measles, plague, and influenza, were among the leading causes of the decline in
population of the indigenous American populations. These diseases were brought
to the Americas by European explorers and settlers, and the native populations
were decimated due to their lack of previous exposure. Out of all of these
diseases, smallpox was the most feared because of the high mortality rates of
infected native peoples. Of course, not
all deaths can be attributed to disease. A great number of them were due to the
high price and scarcity of food[1]. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention
defines smallpox as “a serious, contagious, and sometimes fatal infectious
disease”[2]. In regards to the 1576 smallpox epidemic, one
doctor reported that “Blood flowed from the ears and in many cases truly gushed
from the nose...The disease attacked primarily regions populated by Indians
here and there, then regions of mixed population of Indians and Spaniards,
later the Ethiopians, and now, finally the Spaniards.”[3]
He described a highly contagious and
lethal scourge that killed within a few days, causing raging fevers, jaundice,
tremors, dysentery, abdominal and chest pains, enormous thirst, delirium and
seizures. “Blood flowed from the ears,”
the physician observed, “and in many cases blood truly gushed from the nose.”
There is some evidence that suggests
that, for a long period of time, the Native Americans did not believe that the
disease could be transmitted from person to person. Sometimes, they would
consider these diseases to be retribution from whatever god that particular
group worshipped. Thus, the native groups had various unsuccessful ways to
treat smallpox. For instance, the Aztecs
began to make pilgrimages to Popocatépetl to pray to the spirit of smallpox, or
etsá.. By the late 1700s, there is evidence
that many natives knew that European settlers carried the disease, and that
they went out of their way to avoid contact with white people.
Disease played a vital role in
conquering and destroying various native empires for the Europeans,
intentionally or otherwise. European diseases started in Mexico, before
travelling down to Central America, and, finally, to the Incan Empire
European epidemics like smallpox,
influenza, measles, and plague[4]
killed millions of native Mexicans from 1520-1527. Smallpox, specifically, was
credited with causing Hernando Cortes's 1521 victory over the Aztec Empire at
Mexico City. It was accidentally introduced to the native population in and
around Veracruz when Panfilo de Narvaez landed there on April 23, 1520. Huayna
Capac, the ruler of the Inca, and 200,000 others were killed by smallpox,
essentially cutting the Inca population in half. These parts of Latin America
were "virgin soil", meaning that almost none of the diseases that the
Europeans brought over had ever been seen by the indigenous population. Since
the natives had never seen smallpox, they were not immune to it, so it caused
an extremely high death rate when it spread. The Europeans, however, had
developed genes that were resistant to smallpox, making it easier for them to
survive the disease.
Hernando Cortes and his
conquistadors began to conquer Mexico in 1519, and at the time there were
approximately 25 million native people living there [5].
Only one century later, there were as few as 1.2 million people. While some of
this is a result of the war and violence of two disparate cultures clashing, a
significant number of these people died from disease. Almost immediately after
the Europeans arrived, in 1519 and 1520, there was a smallpox epidemic that
killed between 5 and 8 million people. The disease was, apparently, carried by
a black slave that travelled with Cortes, and spread quickly among the natives.
This was followed by two larger epidemics in 1545 and 1576, which killed as
many as 17 million people.
In 1577, a Franciscan friar wrote
that "Nobody had the health or strength to help the diseased or bury the
dead. In the cities and large towns, big ditches were dug, and from morning to
sunset the priests did nothing else but carry the dead bodies and throw them
into the ditches." These smallpox outbreaks devastated the population and
, more importantly, killed many of the Aztec leaders while leaving the immune
European leadership relatively untouched. The conquest of Mexico was critically
important in the colonization of the Americas by Spain. By conquering Mexico,
Spain gained access to the Pacific Ocean, thereby opening the route to the
Asian markets. The incredible change in population in such a short amount of
time also led to an upset in the balance of food production.
The Inca Road System made the spread
of smallpox that much easier throughout the empire. It consisted of two roads
that stretched throughout the entire empire. The Inca Road System was highly
trafficked and the many people who travelled along it spread the disease with
them wherever they went. Besides Huayna Capac, the Inca lost many military and
political leaders to disease as well. This is, in large part, what helped Francisco
Pizarro to conquer the Inca Empire. When Huayna Capac died, his two sons began
a civil war over who should rule, essentially cleaving the empire in two, thus
making it even easier for the Spanish conquistadors to succeed in their
conquest. Besides the military and political strife, smallpox had a lasting
effect on the psychology of the nation. The disease cause rampant fear and
hysteria and must have "shaken the confidence of the Incas that they still
enjoyed the esteem of their gods"[6]. If disease had not practically wiped out the
population meant to defend the Incas from attack and crippled their morale,
they might have been able to stave off the Spanish invaders, even if it was not
for long.
The Portuguese also spread disease
unintentionally when the conquered Brazil. There were two significant
epidemics: One in 1562 and a larger one in 1563. These outbreaks were a mixture
of smallpox, tuberculosis, measles, and influenza and halved the population,
creating competition over use of the declining labor force. The population
shrink also made the natives more easily conquerable because they were
outmatched in technology and could no longer rely on their previously
overwhelming numbers to resist conquest.
Some of the effects of disease on
these people were sociocultural. For
example, families and communities decreased in size and were therefore forced
to fuse with nearby clans. This caused a
shift in societal norms and caused a spread of culture and customs across
different populations and a change in cultural identities. Another reason for the population decrease
might have not necessarily had to do with the actual death rate, and may have
had to do with the fact that smallpox can cause survivors to become sterile.[7]
Another thing that was affected by
disease was the encomienda.[8] Spanish conquistadors would be given a grant
of land that included any native families or communities already occupying that
land. Ideally, the natives would supply
tribute of some kind, such as animals, crops, or wealth, to their feudal
lords. Another option was for the
natives to provide labor, say in a silver mine.
In exchange, the conquistador who owned the land would take care of the
natives and convert them to Christianity.
In Peru, these encomiendas were built on the back of the fallen Inca
Empire. Although the natives were used
as a labor force, they were supplanted by African imported slaves, at least in
part because of their increased immunity to diseases, which apparently made the
African slaves a better investment.[9]
Certain members of the Catholic
Church realized the toll that disease brought from the European explorers and
settlers was having on the natives.
According to Fray Toribio de Benavente, a Catholic missionary, the Spanish
"do nothing but command. They are the drones who suck the honey which is
made by the poor bees, the Indians".[10] This sentiment was echoed by many clergymen,
and the observation of the rampant death caused by disease contributed to La Leyenda Negra (Black Legend). Leyenda Negra was, by some accounts,
propaganda from England, the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Italy to portray
the Spanish as corrupt tyrants who mistreated the natives left in their charge.
This was part of the reason that the king of England, William of Orange,
supported a rebellion of Dutch Protestants against the immoral Spanish
rule. However, this was based on the
ideas of 16th century critics such as Bartolomé de las Casas, the bishop of
Chiapas, who saw the mistreatment of the natives firsthand. The solution that he suggested in his
writings was to replace the current Native American labor force with that of
African slaves, which, eventually, they did. This was not, however,
particularly helpful in the end, and he came to regret his position in
encouraging the African slave trade.[11]
Spanish missionary, Bernardino de
Sahagún, described the epidemics as “a great havoc. Very many died of it. They
could not walk. . . . They could not move; they could not stir; they could not
change position, nor lie on one side; nor face down, nor on their backs. And if
they stirred, much did they cry out. Great was its destruction.”[12] Disease contributed to many things that
affected the native populations of Latin America. It caused millions of deaths, the weakening
of common defense and the subsequent collapse of long lived empires, the defeat
and essential enslavement of the remaining natives, a great deal of
sociocultural change, and the eventual birth of the Trans- Atlantic African
slave trade. Epidemics, such as
syphilis, measles, mumps, bubonic plague, and most of all smallpox, caused the
severe depopulation of native groups and struck assorted Native American
communities with varying frequency from the 16th to the 19th century.
Without diseases like smallpox, it
is less likely that European invaders would have been able to conquer that
native populations of South America so quickly and thoroughly. The arrival of European epidemics and the
decline of the Native American populations are inexorably linked. The indigenous people of South America were
some of the first victims of early European biological warfare. Their lack of natural immunity led to an
intense wave of death that swept through South America from the 15th century
all the way to the 19th century.
[1]
Lockhart, James, and Enrique Otte. Letters
and People of the Spanish Indies, Sixteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1976.
[2]
“Smallpox Disease Overview." CDC Smallpox. Accessed March 13, 2016.
http://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/overview/disease-facts.asp.
[3]
Torquemada, Juan De, and Miguel León-Portilla. Monarquía Indiana. México: Instituto De Investigaciones
Históricas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma De México, 1975, 642-643.
[4]
Bethell, Leslie. The Cambridge History of
Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013, 213.
[5]Bethell,
Leslie. The Cambridge History of Latin
America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013, 182.
[6]
Crosby, Alfred W. The Columbian Exchange:
Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492: 30th Anniversary Edition.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003, 57.
[7]
Bethell, Leslie. The Cambridge History of
Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013, 329.
[8] Ibid., 223.
[9]
Ibid., 364.
[10]
Lockhart, James, and Enrique Otte. Letters
and People of the Spanish Indies, Sixteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1976.
[11]
Casas, Bartolomé De Las. Breuissima
Relacion De La Destruycion De Las Indias. Fue Impressa ... Enla ... Ciudad
De Seuilla: En Casa De Sebastian Trugillo ..., 1552.
[12]
Crosby, Alfred W. The Columbian Exchange:
Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492: 30th Anniversary Edition.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003, 56.
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