Before Christopher Columbus’ first expedition landed on the shores of an island south of present day United States the Native American population was thriving. Tribes of all beliefs and customs were scattered across North, Central, and South America expanding and creating technology. In the article “The American Population before Columbus “historians, ethnologist, anthropologists and ethnographers debate the population decrees of the native tribes before the European’s arrival. An opinion stated in the text as a reason to the Native’s demise was merely being conquered by the newly settled Europeans. Evidence that upholds this argument is that the Europeans came into the picture with armor, guns, and other means of fighting in that era, and the Native people contained no technology of that sort. Another opinion that was gathered from the text was the vast spread of dieses. The Europeans had just arrived in America only years after a deathly plague seized the lives of many Europeans. Little did the new settlers know, most still contained a strain of the plague that no longer could affect them but could affect the Natives they were encountering with. In result to the sickness being spread many Natives died because there was no form of treating the illness that had taken over their bodies.
In my opinion, the main cause of the Native demise was dieses. Such a massacre taking millions of people’s lives in that amount of time is very hard to comprehend, because of the Native tribes being spread out all over the Western Hemisphere.
I would like to know your thoughts regarding this issue. Comments and feedback are greatly appreciated!
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hb(history blogger) girl<3
