Quote:
Originally Posted by DeepFrz
The European sailors introduced disease into the native populations. I assume that is why the relationship broke down. Disease killed many of the natives in the Islands, North America, South America and the Pacific Islands. Not least among the diseases introduced were gonorrhea and syphilis but also the pox wiped out many and vastly reduced the native populations.
|
No question smallpox killed large numbers of Native Americans. There is no
record of syphilis in
Europe before Columbus returned and the first records of syphilis are after his voyage. Modern science ascribes the large number of deaths of Native Americans to their lack of robust immune systems, at least compared to the Europeans who developed better immune systems through contact with domestic
animals and more dense living quarters. A big part of why relationships broke down was the Europeans treatment of Native women which in today's view would basically be rape. There was also the almost
single minded lust for gold by the Europeans to the exclusion of almost everything else.