USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -With the arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere, Native American populations were exposed to new infectious diseases, diseases for which they lacked immunity. These communicable diseases, including smallpox and measles, devastated entire native populations.

Detailed explanation-2: -Diseases such as treponemiasis and tuberculosis were already present in the New World, along with diseases such as tularemia, giardia, rabies, amebic dysentery, hepatitis, herpes, pertussis, and poliomyelitis, although the prevalence of almost all of these was probably low in any given group.

Detailed explanation-3: -Smallpox is believed to have arrived in the Americas in 1520 on a Spanish ship sailing from Cuba, carried by an infected African slave. As soon as the party landed in Mexico, the infection began its deadly voyage through the continent.

Detailed explanation-4: -If smallpox was severe among the whites, it was devastating to the Native American. Smallpox ultimately killed more Native Americans in the early centuries than any other disease or conflict. 2 It was not unusual for half a tribe to be wiped out; on some occasions, the entire tribe was lost.

Detailed explanation-5: -Along with measles, influenza, chickenpox, bubonic plague, typhus, scarlet fever, pneumonia and malaria, smallpox spelled disaster for Native Americans, who lacked immunity to such diseases.