Title: The Turning Point: European Conquests of the Americas (1492-1800)
Headings: The Turning Point: European Conquests of the Americas (1492-1800)
The Turning Point: European Conquests of the Americas (1492-1800)
Content: Why were European diseases so lethal to the Americans? To answer this question, we have to go back in time, before recorded history. The Eurasian continent included many large domesticable animals—such as horses, cows, oxen, sheep, and goats—that did not exist in the Americas. Over the course of thousands of years, Eurasians domesticated these animals and lived in close quarters with them. The animals were a great benefit but also transmitted all kinds of terrible diseases to the farmers. Both Europe and Asia suffered many plagues that devastated their populations, such as the Black Plague during the 14th century, which killed 25 to 33 percent of people across Eurasia, from China to France. But descendants of plague survivors possessed antibodies that inoculated them from such devastating scourges in the future. The Americas, by contrast, lacked large domesticable animals and concomitant diseases. As a result, the devastating diseases went in only one direction, from Eurasia to the Americas. So, in 1492, Columbus’ arrival in the Americas suddenly collided with 12,000 years of American isolation from Eurasia.