Effect of Disease on Early History of the Americas, Especially New Spain

Most historians’ accounts of America’s early history indicate the presence of territorial wars between European settlers and Native Americans over Native American lands from Christopher Columbus’s arrival. However, one fundamental aspect of these wars was largely neglected in these historic times. Diseases have played a significant role in the Europeans’ conquest of Native American empires in America. Many Native Americans had such a solid grounding of their territory that the Europeans would have had difficulty conquering these territories. Yet, diseases had an impeccable win against both sides of the war. Crosby suggests that in accord to Pedro Pizarro’s writing, the Spaniards would not have conquered the Huascar and Atahualpa lands if the war had not broken from the two kingdoms: “Had the land not been divided between Huascar and Atahualpa, we would not have been able to enter or win the land unless we could gather a thousand Spaniards for the task, and at that time, it was impossible to get together even five hundred Spaniards” (69). This civil war followed the death of Huayna Capac from smallpox, leaving the region under confusion for the succession of power. For this reason, the European conquest of the Americas is largely attributed to diseases that ravaged the people of the region.

The complexity of diseases at the time of European conquest of Native American lands may be attributed to its being left out in American history. Most of history only accounts for………………….

………….However, the Spanish colony has used the same Malaria parasite against their enemies, making it a war weapon to them as well (McNeill 4). As the mosquitoes and the disease transmitted by them wrought indiscriminate havoc,” Spanish fighters and engineers relied on the disease to protect their colonies from intruders, “Spanish forces would retreat by stages, slowing the assault, to let the disease climate work its havoc on the attackers” (McNeill 156). This evidence indicates the role of malaria parasites in the Native wars between Europeans over land and wealth.