Debate still rages about the specific reasons for a dramatic decline in the population of American Indian people, particularly those in the Northeast, following the establishment of European Colonial settlements.
Estimates of the decline in a period of only about 20-40 years in the early 1500's amount to as much as a 90%+ decline. Given the small number of settlements and the lack of conflict over territory at this earlier period, it is probably safe to assume that little of this decline can be attributed to outright conflict, and most historians concur with this.
The decline was precipitated by rapidly spreading diseases introduced purposefully or by virtue of simple accidental exposure among the tribes. Diseases like smallpox, influenza, bubonic plague and pneumonic plagues, spread like wildfire among Indian populations. There is evidence that such plagues were purposeful among Indians in the western US during the period of westward expansion of the American population, but it seems likely that most of the original decline of Northeast tribes were naturally occurring as a result of exposure of the Indian people to diseases that they had no natural immunities to.
Bi-directional infections: There is also evidence that some venereal diseases originated in the US and were carried back to Europe by explorers but this seems to be the only health related diseases carried from the American colonies to Western Europe.
Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas
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