The craziest thing is that this disease holocaust was entirely accidental. The Europeans had as little clue as the Americans what happened, 300 years before germ theory. I imagine both sides saw it as acts of God(s).
I count it as the biggest "random" event in all of world history. Had the immunology lottery turned out otherwise, the world would be a completely different place.
Europe has been a brewing pot for disease for a really long time. Lots of people and animals crammed together in big cities, without much sanitation. Lots of opportunities for diseases to jump from animals to humans, and to also evolve with the populations.
>The craziest thing is that this disease holocaust was entirely accidental.
Why is that crazy? I've never thought myself, or heard anyone imply, that the "disease holocaust" was intentional. As neither nation had the knowledge/science to understand diseases/germs at that time it seems straightforward to assume it was accidental
I see a lot of people claiming the Spanish conquistadors exterminated almost everyone.
And it's certainly true they killed a lot of the survivors, but most people just died of "natural" causes. Many before the Spanish even got to their areas.
Had the immunological playing field been even, there is no way the Europeans conquer the Americas in the 1500s. It took until the late 1800s until they could overpower the less developed Africa.
So think about what that world history could have looked like!!
I've heard stories of smallpox riddled blankets being gifted on purpose. But I suspect if there's something to that, it came later when we had a better idea of how disease spread.
While the small pox/disease ridden blankets may or may not be factual, there is plenty of historical records predating Europeans landing in the Americas of using disease in warfare.
When sieging cities in antiquity water supplies would be contaminated. Arrow heads be smeared with poison and otherwise feces to cause infections. In Europe during Middle Ages corpses and feces of diseased would be catipulted into cities to cause infection, notably this this even happened with corpses that died of the bubonic plague.
There are well documented instances and for example vaccination against smallpox was found a mere 35 years in 1798 after smallpox ridden blankets were intentionally used at the siege of Fort Pitt in 1763. And inoculation predates that so the disease itself was reasonably understood if not in a particularly accurate to reality manner.
I count it as the biggest "random" event in all of world history. Had the immunology lottery turned out otherwise, the world would be a completely different place.