We often hear indigenous peoples died from disease introduced by European settlers in North and South America. If indigenous peoples there were susceptible to eradication by unfamiliar disease why is the same not true of disease and death to settlers? Or is it true but more easily overcome?
In: Biology
Survivorship biased.
Failed expeditions do not have tales to tell.
There is an advantage of being a settler. You have a home base for people to do research. You can ask the people back home for an answer. They can keep sending people over to overcome the problem. If you have more knowledge of the world, your chances of having an answer is better.
Plus the initial settlers are usually the fittest as they need to survive the voyage. If you are the native, you have got children and elderly to take care of. A pandemic is going to wreck more havoc on the vulnerable population.
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