How did remote places in Asia and Africa not succumb to the same wave of disease and death that the Native Americans did?

Question

I’m not saying they weren’t affected at all, but something like 90% of Native Americans were wiped out while places like Japan and deep parts of the African interior didn’t suffer nearly as hard, even though they previously had basically no contact with Europe.

In: 1583

Answer 1

The European diseases that destroyed Native American peoples came from large cities and concentrated animal domestication. Animals and humans packed together get sick and the worst diseases go back and forth a few times. It wasn’t unique to Europe.

Those remote places in China and Africa were nearby large cities long before. They already had their rampant disease filters in the past, so the populations were already more genetically immune.

Very large cities and concentrated animal domestication in both Africa and China with empires to make sure diseases reached even the far corners. We have better documentation of China than we do of Africa, but both are well known.

The Americas are incredibly huge and I don’t think the North American populations ever reached that level of concentration along with animal domestication.