During the Age of Exploration and Colonization, who used smallpox as a biological warfare and against whom?

Answer 1

the english they actually gave blankets full of small pox to the native in order to kill the whole native population living there. in return they got the land

Answer 2

The use of the type of proto-biological warfare has been documented within every New World European society. That said however, this technique for the large part was almost entirely an Anglophone North American phenomenon (British, American, Canadian) For the French and Spanish when they came to the New World, they did so with the approach that the aboriginal population there was a benefit and not a hinderance. They wanted to convert these people to Catholicism and have them become the agents of their mother country's commercial empire. Sure guys like Pizzarro or Cortez came in and caused a bloodbath, but once the indigenous political and economic structure was subverted, the only natives that would get the sword were the ones that chose to fight back.

This was not the case with the English speaking peoples. Because Britain was in the mode to export massive amounts of surplus population, they wanted the land for their purposes to the exclusion of the natives. This lead to a much greater use of such dastardly tricks such as deliberate small pox infection. Now depending on the area of settlement history you're most familiar with, you might also think this was a short term phenomenon but you'd be wrong. There is documented cases of such destructive efforts occurring every where from seventeenth century Massachuchettes to twentieth century Alaska. There are examples of public authorities doing this. There are even more of private citizens doing this. Lots of Canadians like to think we never did anything like this either. Sorry, but there are clearly documented cases of rhis happening among the Plains people and the North-west coast people as late as the 1880s and 90s. There are even some examples of one aboriginal society attacking another like this as well. It was widespread and endemic and something that alot of us English speakers don't really care to talk about anymore.

Answer 3

Europeans used it against the native americans.

Answer 4

in a lot of cases, i don't think that it was on purpose; native populations simply hadn't developed the same immunities that the invading populations had, however, i do believe that the u.s. government purposely gave smallpox infested blankets to the native americans.

Answer 5

Basically,yes.

Answer 6

the american goverment against the native americans.

Answer 7

who used it: white people
whom it was used on: everybody else