Why didn’t settlers die of disease?

Question

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

Answer 1

They did, but unlike the indigenous peoples, they were able to choose the places they wanted to be. Daron Acemoglu for instance suggests settler mortality was an important factor for European colonialism, e.g. we don’t really see too many settlers in the tropical zones because of this.