When the Europeans travelled to the New World and brought the diseases that wiped out so many Native Americans, why didn’t the local diseases have the same impact on them?

Question

Were the endemic diseases just less severe?

In: Other

Answer 1

Europe attaches to Asian and Africa, and these three continents passed around a lot more communicable disease that the two America continents did. Keep in mind that the reason descendants of the three continents are immune to so much is because they are the descendants of those who survived long enough to have kids. That’s why Bubonic Plague is no longer a thing, we’re all immune to it.

Besides that, a whole lot of the tribes westerners encountered were very isolated, and isolation means you don’t pass around a lot of disease, so your offspring don’t inherit your immunity.

However (there is always a However), there is syphilis, which appears to have come to Europe by way of the Spanish who conquered the Aztecs. Old joke about Americans and Europeans (white) who go to Mexico and get diarrhea. They call it Montezuma’s Revenge. Well, the real revenge was syphilis. This disease was well established with the Aztecs, who were a very large tribe who conquered a lot of other tribes before the Spanish conquered them.