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The Impact of Zoonotic European Diseases in the Colonial Caribbean[edit]

The decline in the indigenous population of the Caribbean during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, occurred due to the introduction of invasive species. The European advanced technology, and organization, did not directly cause the decimation of the Amerindians but rather the introduction of Old-World germs, by people and animals, quickened the process of conquest.[1]

Contemporary Observances[edit]

Though aware of the problems of disease, contemporary observers explained the rapid decline in the Amerindian population with two concepts. First, Friar Bartolome de Las Casas (1474-1566) originated the idea of the Black Legend, conceiving that Spanish cruelty against the Amerindians led to their demise. Secondly, the counter argument of the Catholic Church that God’s plan included the slaughter as punishment for the Amerindians’ pagan ways, and continual rejection of the Bible.[2]

For generations, the Black Legend became the primary reason for population decline, supported by the writings of Las Casas, and reports by other eyewitnesses. Las Casas used as evidence the virtual extinction of the Taino in the Caribbean within fifty years of initial contact with Columbus, in 1492. The Black Legend revolved around Spanish cruelty, yet they were not the only Europeans that observed the Amerindian population decline. The Portuguese, English, French, and Dutch also saw this phenomenon in other parts of Colonial Latin America. Las Casas noted that wherever Europeans stepped, disease spread among the native peoples.[3]

Re-examination of the Black Legend[edit]

The Black Legend has been re-examined. Too many Amerindians died too quickly, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for cruelty and conquest, by such a small number of Europeans, to be the lone cause.[4] Reports of disease started as early as Columbus’s Second Expedition. The voyage consisted of seventeen ships, 1,500 colonists, and European plants and animals including pigs, cows, horses, sheep and goats. According to medical historian, Francisco Guerra, there is evidence that within a few months disease spread from pigs, to horses, to humans. Guerra notes that both Columbus and Las Casas blamed the reason for the quick spread of illness among the Spaniards as due to lack of familiar provisions, not understanding the process in which illness spreads. Once the ships landed at their destination, the disease spread rapidly amongst the native peoples that the Europeans met. More Amerindians died from the diseases brought by the Europeans, and the Old-World animals that spread zoonotic infections, than conflict.[5]

Zoonotic Infections in the Caribbean[edit]

The reason for the quick rate of infection of these epidemics includes four features: diseases can spread efficiently from the infected, to healthy people, in a short amount of time; infected hosts either die or recover quickly; those that recover develop resistance to the diseases; and the diseases prefer human hosts.[6] Amerindians had no immunity resistance to the germs that the Europeans, who had already been exposed to the Old-World diseases, brought with them.[7] Disease also meets the same requirements regarding animal populations, needing social and domesticated animals near people for transference. Those germs that do transfer, evolve to attack the human immune system.[8] The diseases that transferred from Europe, such as smallpox, measles, and flu evolved from animal diseases.[9]

Though animals were an important part of Amerindian existence, for use as food and commodities, there were only a few tamed animals such as dogs, or ducks, for pets. The natives were essentially a Stone Age culture using a slash-and-burn farming method rather than draft animals, thus there was no need for domesticated livestock and no need for the people to live near the animals.[10] During the sixteenth century, however, Europeans imported a large number of livestock to the Caribbean. Many animals died of malnutrition during the voyage, and due to the physical closeness to the sailors on board, zoonotic diseases passed between animals and men, and subsequently from the European to the Caribbean peoples.[11]

Latin American historians have divided the ill-affected demographics into three groups: those that had a rapid decline, but quick recovery; those that declined gradually during the colonial period; and those annihilated within a few generations.[12] Factors for the decline vary, including disease, the Black Legend, and the disruption of the Amerindian civilization. The most notable diseases, such as smallpox, cut populations by one-third, to one-half, quickly acclimating to the new warmer environment of the tropics. Other factors involved are the large populations, and peoples’ proximity to one another; provisional means; hygiene and sanitation; natural immunity; and vectors.[13] Carriers often took the form of pests such as mosquitoes, lice, and fleas from rodents on ships.[14] The environments on the sea vessels contributed to the explosion of the diseases in the Caribbean. A rampant lack of sanitation left sewage and polluted, standing water aboard ships creating the perfect setting for vermin to thrive, transferring easily to the new population once the ships made landfall.[15]

Conclusion[edit]

Though the native societies did have medicinal practices, shamans using the old cures and methods could not combat the diseases that the Europeans brought with them.[16] The emphasis of this turmoil eventually led to the breakdown of indigenous societies, undermining Amerindian resistance to European conquest by exterminating indigenous leaders. The loss of their leaders destroyed morale within the native populace, allowing the relatively low number of Europeans to conquer the withering New World populations.[17]

  1. ^ Diamond, Jared (1997). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. W.W. Norton & Company. p. 214.
  2. ^ Cook, Noble David (1998). Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492-1650. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–2.
  3. ^ Cook, Noble David (1998). Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492-1650. Cambridge University Press. pp. 4–5, 7.
  4. ^ Cook, Noble David (1998). Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492-1650. Cambridge University Press. p. 9.
  5. ^ Cook, Noble David (1998). Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492-1650. Cambridge University Press. pp. 28–29.
  6. ^ Diamond, Jared (1997). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. W.W. Norton & Company. p. 202.
  7. ^ Diamond, Jared (1997). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. W.W. Norton & Company. pp. 210–211.
  8. ^ Diamond, Jared (1997). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. W.W. Norton & Company. pp. 206–207, 209.
  9. ^ Diamond, Jared (1997). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. W.W. Norton & Company. pp. 196–197.
  10. ^ Benson, Elizabeth P. (1997). Birds and Beasts of Ancient Latin America. University Press of Florida. pp. 1–2, 6, 12.
  11. ^ Cook, Noble David (1998). Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492-1650. Cambridge University Press. p. 106.
  12. ^ Newson, Linda A. (1985). "Indian Population Patterns in Colonial Spanish America". Latin American Research Review. 20 No. 3: 42 – via JSTOR.
  13. ^ Newson, Linda A. (1985). "Indian Population Patterns in Colonial Spanish America". Latin American Research Review. 20 No. 3: 47–48 – via JSTOR.
  14. ^ Cook, Noble David and W. George Lovell (1992). “Secret Judgments of God”: Old World Disease in Colonial Spanish America. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 18–19.
  15. ^ Cook, Noble David and W. George Lovell (1992). “Secret Judgments of God”: Old World Disease in Colonial Spanish America. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 224, 236.
  16. ^ Cook, Noble David and W. George Lovell (1992). “Secret Judgments of God”: Old World Disease in Colonial Spanish America. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 237–238.
  17. ^ Diamond, Jared (1997). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. W.W. Norton & Company. p. 210.
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