what percentage of the Native population did Old world diseases kill?

Question

Within 100 years of the arrival of Columbus in the New World, what percentage of the Native population did Old World diseases kill?

A. 50%
B. 75%
C. 10%
D. 25%
E. 90%
F. I'm not sure.

Answer 1

Number E 90% is what i am saying

There may have been at least one Native American bug that wiped out a few boatloads of Europeans; see below. But in general you're right: percentage-wise, and probably absolute numbers-wise, a lot more Native Americans died of European diseases than did Europeans of American diseases. The natives had no resistance to smallpox, influenza, or plague, or even to mild (to us) diseases like measles. Entire populations were virtually wiped out, with some Atlantic Coast tribes losing 90 percent of their adult members. Some historians go so far as to say European diseases reduced the precontact population of the New World as a whole by 90 percent or more. One says the population of central Mexico was reduced from 25 million in 1519 to 3 million by 1568 and to only 750,000 by the early 1600s--3 percent of the preconquest total.

Granted, some of these horrifying numbers may be arrived at by exaggerating the size of the original population. One researcher says there were 18 million people living north of Mexico before Columbus, but a more conservative estimate puts it at four million and some say only one million. Maybe there were only 12.5 million pre-Columbian Mexicans, not 25 million. Even so, we're talking 94 percent mortality for central Mexico, maybe 87 percent for the Americas overall--thereby reducing the population from 80 million in 1500 to 10 million 50 years later. One can make a good case that it was European germs rather than European military prowess that conquered the New World. One can also argue that disease led to the African slave trade. The conquistadors would have been happy to enslave local labor except that it was dead.

Answer 2

B or E.

Smallpox alone infects 90% of an un-immunized population and kills 45%. Cortes brought it with him in 1520 CE. When he returned a year later, he found the Aztecs devastated and he easily won with his small army. The smallpox spread south and when Pizarro encountered the Incas in 1540 CE, he found an equally destroyed group.

Add to the smallpox all the other diseases and a figure of 75% to 90% is quite likely.

If you want to write an interesting science fiction book, write one about the diseases going the other way, with the Old World being decimated and the Native Americans colonizing Europe.

Answer 3

The historical past of all countries is affected by appropriate-prevalent females and person adult males human beings of questionable character, and that i don't care to get caught up in arguing over no remember if or not Columbus must be held in my view responsible for the destruction of community way of life. besides the fact that, i don't see why the guy desires a countrywide trip for attempting to sail around the Atlantic to China and stumbling onto the nice and comfortable international particularly. i'm useful it required super bravery, yet so did the acts of endless others for whom no trip exists, and it is already been shown that he wasn't the 1st eu to make it superb right here. All subject concerns seen, I say drop it. according to danger replace the date and rename it Explorers' Day, or something else that each and every physique persons can rejoice.

Answer 4

F. I am not really sure, but I have heard estimates of well over 50%, so haykat's 75 - 90% answer sounds good.

Answer 5

There is no consensus, but estimates run high. Depending on which resource you are using it could be as high as 75 to 90 percent.

Answer 6

E