Diamond explain in his book that that microbes have been evolved to make humans sick in bizarre ways such as genital sores or diarrhea. This is because the most effect way to spread germs is by waiting inside the host to transmitted passively to the next victim. In this case genital sores can be tranmitted through sexsual contact. Over time when a population died of a certain disease some humans survived, this was because they had a higher resistance to the disease. Those who survived pass on their immunity to their offspring. The four characteristics of “epidemic” diseases that cause them to die out and not reappear for a long period of time is, first, they spread quickly and efficiently throughout the population in an area meaning everyone …show more content…
People that survived developed a higher resistance to the diseases that's why they are slow developing and spreading. Farming civilizations are more adept at sustaining the development of infectious crowd diseases. This is because agriculture sustains a higher population densities therefore disease can evolve more. In addition most microbes can be spread if feces are left behind, but farmers are sedentary and they live amid their own sewage sometimes using them as fertilizers allowing the microbes not to spread. Farmers also trade with other societies which allows diseases to spread to new populations. The exchange of diseased from the old world (Europe) and the new world (America) was so one-sided in that America's got killed off, not Europeans. This was because the old world had a resistance to their diseases compared to the native americans how were never exposed to such deadly diseases like smallpox and measles. Social animals are domesticated animals that live together for example pigs,cows, horses etc. They are the ones that carry the epidemic diseases. The old world had a domesticated these animals and were less vulnerable to them but the new world was off by its
The Columbian Exchange impacted Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans in many ways. Some of the major components of this exchange were plants, animals, and diseases. The Native Americans was impacted because they did not have immune systems capable of handling diseases such as; small pox, the plague, and yellow fever. This resulted in the population of Native Americans being cut by at least 90% over the course of a couple hundred years and making it easier for foreigners to come in and take over. The animal that helped the Native Americans was the horse. It helped them expand and explore places other than agricultural plains like mountains. The Europeans brought back tobacco. Tabaco then lead to many deaths because of its health issues involved with the use. They also got introduced to tomatoes which people thought for a long time was not edible. Africans acquired potatoes and maize, which became a main staple in Africa.
Human mobility, in terms of European transcontinental exploration and colonization, began to truly flourish after the 1400s. This travel, inspired by financial motives and justified by religious goals, resulted in the European dominance and decimation of countless cultures in both the Americas and Eurasia. While at first glance it seems as though this dominance was achieved through mainly military means - European militias, like Spanish conquistadors, rolling over native tribes with their technologically advanced weapons - the reality is significantly more complex. The Europeans, most likely unknowingly, employed another, equally deadly weapon during their exploits. With their travel, they brought with them the infectious diseases of their homelands, exposing the defenseless natives to foreign malady that their bodies had no hope of developing immunities against. Because of the nature of disease and their limited knowledge about its modes of infection, the Europeans were able to dispense highly contagious and mortal illnesses while limiting their contraction of any native ones to the new territories. In short, they were able to kill without being killed. In this way, the travel of disease in conjunction with the travel of humans in a search for exotic commodities was able to limit or even halt the development of some cultures while allowing others to flourish at exponential rates.
The outburst spread of diseases in a population causes people to panic and become hopeless. The main reason diseases spread is due to unsanitary living styles. Also when a disease first begins, it is really hard to find a cure right away. A very deadly, infectious disease known as Typhus spread during the Holocaust. Typhus is caused by rickettsia and is spread by lice and flees.
The outbreak of diseases ravages the Native population. Due to geographic regions and limitations, the Natives never suffered from such strong illnesses as smallpox, measles and the black plague. Some of the European colonies gave the Natives diseased infested animals and clothing. The English and the Natives did cooperate with each other due to it being in the best of their interests. Their mutual trust would later erode due to the English going back to their old habits and started to steal from the Natives.
“As European adventurers traversed the world in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries they initiated the “Columbian Exchange” of plants, animals, and diseases.”(P. 26). The Columbian Exchange refers to a period of exchanges between the New and Old Worlds. The exchange of plants, animals, diseases and more modernized technology, beginning after Columbus landing in the Americas in 1492. It lasted through the fifteenth and sixteenth century. Domesticated animals such as cattle, horses, sheep and pigs were introduced to the Americas. The Americas introduced to Europe many new crops such as potatoes, beans, squash, and maize. In time Native people learned to raise European livestock and European and Africans planted American crops. This was the positive effect of the encounter and it was largely responsible for the doubling of the world’s population in the next three hundred years. There were also many negative effects to the “Columbian Exchange” A major consequence was the spread of disease in the New World. Diseases carried by Europeans and Africans devastated the population of the Americas. As Europeans traveled through the Americas epidemics came with them. Typhus, diphtheria, malaria, influenza, cholera, and smallpox killed many of the native people. One example was
The Columbian exchange was the widespread transfer of various products such as animals, plants, and culture between the Americas and Europe. Though most likely unintentional, the byproduct that had the largest impact from this exchange between the old and new world was communicable diseases. Europeans and other immigrants brought a host of diseases with them to America, which killed as much as ninety percent of the native population. Epidemics ravaged both native and nonnative populations of the new world destroying civilizations. The source of these epidemics were due to low resistance, poor sanitation, and inadequate medical knowledge- “more die of the practitioner than of the natural course of the disease (Duffy).” These diseases of the new world posed a serious
The Spread of Disease In the New World The extraordinary good health of the natives prior to the coming of the Europeans would become a key ingredient in their disastrous undoing. The greatest cause of disease in America was epidemic diseases imported from Europe. Epidemic diseases killed with added virulence in the " virgin soil" populations of the Americas. The great plague that arose in the Old World never emerged on their own in the western hemisphere and did not spread across oceans until Columbus' discovery.
While the Europeans were traveling to the New World, they often brought domesticated animals with them for sources of food and livestock. When animals and humans are living in close quarters together, it is very likely for exposure to germs to occur. New diseases were brought over by foreigners looking for fame and gold that killed off many of the natives in the new lands. The natives did not stand a chance against these new threats because of a lack of knowledge and supplies to cure themselves. Once the Europeans established diseases as they made land in the New World, their journey had only become easier as their competition were being wiped out from the rapid spread.
unable to farm their lands because they were sick. This plague did not attack only the humans but also
Native Americans never came in contact with diseases that developed in the Old World because they were separated from Asia, Africa, and Europe when ocean levels rose following the end of the last Ice Age. Diseases like smallpox, measles, pneumonia, influenza, and malaria were unknown to the Native Americans until the Europeans brought these diseases over time to them. This triggered the largest population decline in all recorded history. Fifty percent of the Native American population had died of disease within twenty years. Soon after, Native Americans began to question their religion and doubted the ability of shamen to heal. This was the first step towards the destruction of Native cultures. The Native Americans had never experienced anything like these deadly diseases before and they came to believe that Europeans had the power to kill or give life.
The highly contagious epidemic was responsible for the death of thirty-three percent of the European population (Knox). The period of demolition of the Black Death is characterized by the expanding opportunities for social mobility, demographic loss, labor shortages, and political turmoil. This epidemic was a historical episode that supported the pathway to human evolution and future progression. Ultimately, the Black Death was one of the most important phenomena in history that has forged a legacy centered around destruction and
contagious and some arise in weak immune systems. Diseases are the leading cause of death
To begin, there are many diseases that go about in this world that we come in contact with every day. For many people, immunnity to these diseases has became a monthly struggle as they themselves do not have the immunity they need. Many doctors offer vaccines varrying from flu shots, to the polio vaccination to help aid those who need it.
It is quite certain that, if not for the European diseases brought to the New World by Spanish conquistadors, the Americas would not have been conquered with such relative ease. The New World was isolated from Eurasia and Africa until the end of the 1400s, and diseases that were endemic in Eurasia had not yet arrived in the Americas (Ponting 230). The Americas likely did not experience disease such as measles and smallpox due their lack of domesticated animals. Other continents, such as Eurasia and Africa, often received infections from animal-human contact; herd animals, living in large groups, were more susceptible to contracting diseases and they, in turn, passed them to humans. Once Europeans carrying diseases unknown to the New World arrived on its soil, calamity, at least for people of the Americas, ensued (Ponting 226).
...of this type of environmental hazard that have plagued the every society and person in some way. Disease in humans can come from biological hazards in the form of infection by bacteria such as viruses,or parasites. Major infectious diseases like AIDS, acute respiratory infections, diarrhea disease and tuberculosis are both bacterial and viral infections that are the leading cause of human death to date. Examples of these infections include pneumonia, influenza, diphtheria, and streptococcal infections. The hazards from these bacterias can be avoided through prevention steps such as health care as well as the proper handling, storing, and cooking of food.