<P> After first contacts with Europeans and Africans , some believe that the death of 90 -- 95 % of the native population of the New World was caused by Old World diseases . It is suspected that smallpox was the chief culprit and responsible for killing nearly all of the native inhabitants of the Americas . For more than 200 years , this disease affected all new world populations , mostly without intentional European transmission , from contact in the early 16th century to until possibly as late as the French and Indian Wars ( 1754 -- 1767 ) . </P>
<P> After first contacts with Europeans and Africans , some believe that the death of 90 -- 95 % of the native population of the New World was caused by Old World diseases . It is suspected that smallpox was the chief culprit and responsible for killing nearly all of the native inhabitants of the Americas . For more than 200 years , this disease affected all new world populations , mostly without intentional European transmission , from contact in the early 16th century to until possibly as late as the French and Indian Wars ( 1754 -- 1767 ) . </P>
when was smallpox introduced to the new world
when was smallpox introduced to the new world
the early 16th century
the early 16th century