A Pest in the Land: New World Epidemics in a Global PerspectiveThis study of disease among the native peoples of the New World before and after 1492 challenges many widely held notions about encounters between European and native peoples. Whereas many late twentieth century scholars blamed the catastrophic decline of postconquest native populations on the introduction of previously unknown infections from the Old World, Alchon argues that the experiences of native peoples in the New World closely resembled those of other human populations. Exposure to lethal new infections resulted in rates of morbidity and mortality among native Americans comparable to tose found among Old World populations. Why then did native American populations decline by 75 to 90 percent in the century following contact with Europeans? Why did these populations fail to recover, in contrast to those of Africa, Asia, and Europe? Alchon points to the practices of European colonialism. Warfare and slavery increased mortality, and forced migrations undermined social, political, and economic institutions. This timely study effectively overturns the notion of New World exceptionalism. By showing that native Americans were not uniquely affected by European diseases, Alchon also undercuts the stereotypical notion of the Americas as a new Eden, free of disease and violence until the intrusion of germ-laden, rapacious Europeans. |
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... Hope in 1487. A decade later , the Portuguese nobleman Vasco da Gama reached India , and in 1500 , Pedro Alvares Cabral , also on his way to India , accidentally landed on the coast of Brazil . Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabelle of ...
... hope- lessness led some individuals to commit suicide . In recounting the hor- rors of the Spanish conquest of Cuba , Las Casas claimed that " some began to flee into the hills while others were in such despair that they took their own ...
... hope for a better future , a future in which they would regain dominance of the Andean world . By the beginning of the seventeenth century , however , divisions within native society and increased colonial control combined to undermine ...
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A Pest in the Land: New World Epidemics in a Global Perspective Suzanne Austin Alchon Limited preview - 2003 |
A Pest in the Land: New World Epidemics in a Global Perspective Suzanne Austin Alchon Limited preview - 2003 |
A Pest in the Land: New World Epidemics in a Global Perspective Suzanne Austin Alchon Limited preview - 2003 |