WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -There were infections in the New World before 1492 that were not present in the Old (Chargas’ disease, for instance). There were those it shared with the Old World, certainly one or more of the treponematoses (a category including syphilis) and possibly tuberculosis; but the list is short, very short.

Detailed explanation-2: -North American colonists’ warfare against Native Americans often was horrifyingly brutal. But one method they appear to have used-perhaps just once-shocks even more than all the bloody slaughter: The gifting of blankets and linens contaminated with smallpox.

Detailed explanation-3: -Smallpox was brought to Mexico by the Spaniards in 1520. On each occasion it occurred in epidemic form, with extremely high mortality among Aboriginal peoples who, in epidemiological terms, were ‘virgin soil’. Smallpox reached Massachusetts in 1633 and the St Lawrence River in both 1635, and 1669 to 1670.

Detailed explanation-4: -Unknown in the New World, smallpox was introduced by the Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors. The disease decimated the local population and was instrumental in the fall of the empires of the Aztecs and the Incas.