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A statue of Christopher Columbus stands at Columbus Circle in New York. The famous explorer brought measles and other diseases to the New World. (Bebeto Matthews / AP)
In 1492, Columbus sailed in the blue ocean, bringing to the New World a wealth of wonder: coffee, horses, turnips, grapes, wine.
But Columbus and his fellow explorers, in addition to importing crops and animals that we take for granted, were also the Typhoid Marys of their time.
The new world before Columbus: no typhoid, no flu, no smallpox, no measles.
The new world after Columbus: epidemics of death.
For Native Americans, the problem was a basic lesson in virology. Because these microbes were as new to society as horses and coffee, nobody had given them immunity. Without immunity, these virulent infections quickly infected and killed large numbers of people.
The effect – albeit of lesser magnitude and much less lethal – has been observed during recent measles outbreaks, one of the many diseases that Columbus has reported on land. Religious groups and other anti-vaccine groups are suddenly discovering a highly contagious disease that could be eradicated. quickly through their communities.
[The first measles vaccine was named after him. But he didn’t vaccinate his son.]
Modern medicine helps most people recover. Centuries ago, most cases ended in death.
"A European contact allowed the transmission of diseases to previously isolated communities, which caused much more devastation than that of the Black Death in 14th century Europe," according to a 2010 article in the Journal of Economic Perspectives entitled "The Columbian Exchange: A History of Diseases, Food and Ideas. "
Although the New World sent potatoes, tomatoes and tobacco to the Old World as part of the so-called Colombian exchange, it is the widespread immigration of microbes that has decimated indigenous communities – a neglected aspect , of European conquest by historians and other experts of the new world.
"Indigenous peoples have suffered from white brutality, alcoholism, killings and game hunts and expropriation of agricultural land, but all this is not enough to explain the degree of their defeat," he said. the late Alfred W. Crosby, University of Texas Historian considered the preeminent expert of the Colombian Stock Exchange. "The crucial factor was not people, plants or animals, but germs."
Crosby wrote that the result of all these germs was a "virgin soil epidemic".
[Christopher Columbus and the potato that changed the world]
In April, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a public health emergency in parts of Brooklyn in response to a measles outbreak. (Shannon Stapleton / Reuters)
The number of old word deaths due to measles, smallpox and other diseases is staggering and almost impossible to quantify, according to a research article from the World Health Organization. Economic Outlook Journal:
Although we may never know the exact extent of depopulation, it is estimated that more than 80 to 95% of the Native American population was decimated in the first 100 to 150 years after 1492 … In the 50 years after the contact with Columbus The crew, the indigenous Taino population of the island of Hispaniola, whose population was estimated at between 60,000 and 8 million, was virtually extinct … The population of central Mexico went from a little under 15 million in 1519 to about 1.5 million a century later. Nobel historian and demographer David Cook estimates that in the end, the least affected regions have lost 80% of their population. the most affected people have lost their entire population; and a typical society has lost 90% of its population.
Archaeologists, paleontologists and historians have not been able to identify the diseases that have most affected the Old World, mainly because of illiteracy and the lack of written documentation of this time.
As for the factor of revenge, wheelchair paleontologists have been saying for centuries that Columbus had brought home not only potatoes, but also syphilis, a nasty sexually transmitted disease.
In 2004, the Organization of American Historians conducted a factual check of syphilis. Like most stories, it's complicated.
"Some historians now think that syphilis was present in Europe before 1492," writes the organization. "The tension resulting from sexual contact between Europeans and Native Americans, however, was much stronger than the non-venereal version of a few isolated European regions. This new version has been reported in Europe and distributed among the population. "
And that turned out to be deadly, too.
Learn more Retropolis:
The first measles vaccine was named after him. But he did not vaccinate his son.
The journey of a stolen letter from Christopher Columbus recounting his trip to the Americas
Ketamine, a new antidepressant, has been impressing for decades
"You have bad faith": the horror of the Tuskegee experiment on syphilis
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