The Europeans were able to conquer the Americas because even though it was by “accident,” they were still more prepared for what was to come. Jared Diamond calls the European “accidental conquerors.” Diamond calls his theory geographical luck and concludes that the only way the Europeans were able to dominate the Americas was because of the way the ocean patterns happened to flow. The geographical wind patterns caused the ships to sail towards the Incas and the Aztecs and when the Europeans arrived they tried to conquer the Aztecs and Incas, they succeed for a number of reasons. One reason that they were able to conquer the Americas was because of their technological advances. The Europeans had the advancement of guns, horses, and navigation. The mastery of gunpowder technology was crucial for the European conquests. Gunpowder weapons allowed small numbers of Europeans to conqueror and win wars in far away lands. With guns, European conquerors were able to kill their enemies and be within …show more content…
The European conquerors had built up an immunity to certain diseases that were common in Europe. Some of the diseases that decimated the Indian population included the following: smallpox, measles, influenza, typhus, and the bubonic plague. Centuries of living near livestock had basically inoculated the European settlers against these diseases. However the Indians were not used to such diseases, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Native American population. According to Diamond, smallpox was a major role in the domination of the Americas by the Europeans. It is estimated that approximately 95% of pre-Columbus Native Americans were killed by European diseases. Since the outbreak of the diseases spread because of the European colonization, it made conquering the Americas much easier. Health was definitely the most detrimental obstacle that the Native Americans had to face as a result of the European
The Spanish conquest of the Americas The Spanish conquest of the Americas was used with tactics. Cortes with five hundred and eight soldiers defeated the entire Aztec empire. Through disease which would be the smallpox that Cortes and his men were immune to and did not affect them like it did to the Aztecs. The weapons that the Spanish had were more advanced.
These diseases completely wiped out the 10 million or so Native Americans on the islands and at least ½ of the more than 100 million on the mainland of North America.” The Europeans that came brought diseases that killed many Native Americans and destroyed entire empires. This
Smallpox was also a threat. One settler describes it as a “cloud over this province.” It drove off people and killed the people who stayed. It was also one of the major causes of the decline in the Native American population. There were definitely other kinds of diseases, but Smallpox was the most common.
They forced the Native Americans to convert religions, brought disease, and took away their homes and families. One of the worst things that happened to the natives was disease. Smallpox had spread to the Native Americans and their immune system wasn't used to it. PubMed says, ¨Native American populations were exposed to new infectious diseases, diseases for which they lacked immunity.¨(Katherine B 2002)
In the Americas, epidemic diseases wiped out huge percentages of natives. Smallpox was largely responsible for the deaths of thousands, but measles, typhus, influenza, and malaria also killed many natives (Norton 25). In exchange, the natives gave Europeans syphilis, an unpleasant viral sexually transmitted disease. Europeans were also responsible for the destruction of large scale governments, such as the Incan and Aztec governments. Additionally, many natives assimilated to Spanish culture and Catholicism, some perhaps by force.
Some other empires that were expanding to the Americas were France and the Netherlands. the reasons the French colonized the Americas were religion, exploration, and fur trade. The Dutch had settled there for some of the same reasons but other ones as well. Things like religion, exploration, farming, fishing and trade. The difficulties they faced consist of wars, defending more land and the risk of inflation.
Europeans brought diseases such as cholera, malaria, measles, mumps, smallpox, typhoid, and yellow fever to name a few. The only known disease that the Natives probably had was syphilis. Although the Europeans inadvertently shared their diseases they did share other
When the Europeans stormed into the New World. They brought diseases with them that the Natives were foreign to. They were rarely sick however when the Europeans came diseases rapidly spread. Diseases such as smallpox, influenza, typhus, measles, malaria, diphtheria, and whooping cough. A very common disease that the Africans and Natives got at the time was smallpox.
(Gunderman,15). Smallpox killed soldiers and rendered them incapable of fighting, which made it very easy for Cortez to take over the Aztecs. Smallpox was such a great weapon for the Conquistadors because you could not see it and it did not affect the Conquistadors. Germs were able to take over the natives because there was no technology that treated smallpox, and its ability to quickly cause death, which left the remaining natives vulnerable to guns and steel because of the absence of the majority of the
With them came smallpox, measles, chicken pox, influenza, and many other diseases. “Before the arrival of Columbus, Native American disease wasn’t dominant in the land. Due to the lack of exposure of disease in their younger years, Native Americans were vulnerable to the European diseases that would come with the Columbian Exchange. The diseases would soon destroy many societies of the ancient Aztec, Maya, and Inca. Through many estimates it is foreseen that alien diseases caused over 50% deaths of the Native American population.
The Colonisation of Latin America had a major negative impact on these indigenous people as the arrival in Latin America collided with 12,000 years of isolation from Eurasia which imposed many diseases on the natives. The natives were unable to fight of these diseases as they did not have the immune system for these types of sickness nor the appropriate medicine so many of them died as a result. These diseases included small pox, measles and influenza, bubonic plagues, cholera and tropical
This was accomplished through the Columbian Exchange, which is the network of migration and trade within the Atlantic Ocean. Next, European empires in the Americas as well as Russian, Chinese, Mughal, and Ottoman empires are different in their development because Europe had a greater impact on the native peoples that they integrated into their growing empires. When the Europeans arrived in the Americas, they brought a very tiny weapon with them. They brought disease. Small pox, measles, and malaria and just a few of the old world diseases that devastated native populations.
Among the many things spread and shared in the Columbian Exchange, the trading of diseases is perhaps the most significant. The natives of the Americas had never experienced the serious diseases that European explorers carried over to the New World. From smallpox to influenza and malaria to cholera, Native American populations were drastically decreased due to their poor immunity. Between the numerous amounts of European diseases, though, measles was the most remarkable in that its effects were both widespread and enduring. Measles, also known as rubeola, is a respiratory infection caused by the measles virus.
In contrast, the Spanish were able to conquer the Aztecs and Incas much quicker. Some of this was due to help they received from other groups of Natives and the situations that were present in these societies when the Spanish arrived. Most of this was due to the debilitating effects European diseases had on Native Americans. Another difference between the two groups’ interactions is the different ways the Africans and Native Americans reacted to the Europeans’ presence. Since the Americas had been isolated from the rest of the world before 1492, they did not know how to react to the arrival of the Europeans and were frightened by how different they were.
As the Europeans found native along the coasts of the New World, they found them easily malleable and able to be used, so they enslaved them and those who fought back were wiped out. Europeans, as well as the Africans, had built up a resistance to many diseases such as smallpox and were therefore not really affected as much by the diseases if they became sick. However, the Native Americans had not had contact with the disease and it quickly spread rapidly and slowly helped the Spanish rid themselves of the natives so they could take control of the land. Geoffrey Cowley offers insight on just how profound the effect of smallpox was when he writes, “ ...When the newcomers arrived carrying mumps, measles, whooping cough, smallpox, cholera, gonorrhea and yellow fever, the Indians were immunologically