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The Role Of Disease In The Destruction Of Indian Society

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Disease played a major role in the destruction of Indian life. Early settlers brought a plethora of diseases that attacked and easily destroyed the unadapted immune systems of the Native Americans. These diseases killed many Native Americans and had severe impacts on their population. An example can be observed in the article when it describes how the Caddoan population lost around ninety-six percent of its population due to disease. Another example of how disease devastated the natives can be seen in the article when it describes how a single Spanish soldier that suffered from smallpox spread the disease to the Incas which eliminated half of their population. Disease significantly lowered the population of the Native Americans which caused misconceptions regarding their actual population. …show more content…

Chaos probably ran rampant among Indian villages as many of its inhabitants suffered from disease. Native American society was probably more tranquil before it suffered from disease. A specific example of how disease impacted society can be seen when it killed over half of the Inca population and killed their dictator, Huayna Capac. This caused a war of succession to start and allowed for Pizarro and his small group of soldiers to to defeat the Inca. Spanish forces were able to capture the Inca capital of Cuzco which pretty much symbolized the defeat of a civilization that had around one hundred years of history. In other words, disease heavily assisted in the fall of a whole empire. These are a few of multiple examples of how disease played a major role in the destruction of Indian

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