WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The people already living in the Americas suffered many epidemics following contact with Europeans, and the death toll was massive. Large cities were nearly wiped out. Some communities on the Caribbean islands lost most of their people. Between 1492 and 1650, the population of indigenous Americans decreased rapidly.

Detailed explanation-2: -Our new study clarifies the size of pre-Columbian populations and their impact on their environment. By combining all published estimates from populations throughout the Americas, we find a probable Indigenous population of 60 million in 1492.

Detailed explanation-3: -New World crops helped create a food revolution in Europe and most of the rest of the Old World. This helped set off a population explosion. Europe’s population went from about 70 million in 1492 to 90 million in 1600 and 180 million by 1800. The world’s population doubled between 1650 and 1850.

Detailed explanation-4: -The travel between the Old and the New World was a huge environmental turning point, called the Columbian Exchange. It was important because it resulted in the mixing of people, deadly diseases that devastated the Native American population, crops, animals, goods, and trade flows.

Detailed explanation-5: -The most devastating component of the Columbian exchange was the transfer of Old World diseases to the Americas. Among the lethal germs were smallpox, measles, mumps, whooping cough, chickenpox, typhus, and influenza.