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
It’s because the old world had lots of domesticated animals living in close proximity to humans and large cities, things that developed a bunch of animal->human diseases over time that were all novel to the new world when settlers brought them.
These include.
Smallpox (rodents and camels)
Measles (cattle)
Flu (domestic ducks and pigs)
Typhus (lice)
Bubonic plague (rats)
Any one of these would have been terrible to introduce to a new population. The new world got them all in a short period of time.
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