Effect of Disease on Native Americans Essay

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Introduction

As America was going through salutary neglect, just before the onset of European rule, the population was subject to a simple system of rule. In the 18th century, at around 1763, the British realized that there was a lot of potential in America, both through natural resources and human resources. Since they were going through periods of war in their conquests, they concluded quickly that if they taxed the subjects in America they would gain some form of rule over them. The British imposed cunning laws to restrict their native Indian colonies, to have a close watch on them as put by Lange 1.

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Bruce2 explains that when explorer George Vancouver arrived at the coast of Puget Sound, he suddenly noticed the corps of hundreds of natives with signs of death from disease. Not only did he notice it on the coast he had arrived on but also realized that the case was similar in every other point along the American coast from north to south. It was clear that epidemics had stricken the area due to the natives’ attachment to some foreign influence.

It later became clear that the contact between the natives and European explorers contributed heavily to the onset of the epidemics, but unfortunately, they had very low resistance towards these diseases. Even their indigenous medicines had little or no effect on the new wave of disease that had hit their people (2). Consequently, the amount of destruction that this left was humongous, and some of the major ones can be given in brief.

Effect of Disease in Native America

Major killer diseases at that time like measles, smallpox, influenza, and scarlet fever wiped out the natives in their thousands by the turn of the 19th century. As any serious epidemic would do, the birth rate of the natives was heavily reduced, caused by a lack of proper health due to the prevailing diseases especially in the childbearing stage of life. Children too, who usually are sensitive to disease were exposed to such environments and would not survive for long.

Secondly, economic productivity went on the decline. With a lack of proper human resources to take care of the up and coming industries, hunger and famine slowly found their way in and eventually causing vast amounts of deaths. Consequently, many of the natives indulged further and further into alcoholism due to the prevalent situation at hand and this had a deeper effect on the economic productivity of native America. For the traditional medicine men, their services were rendered useless since their forms of medication were powerless against these new forms of diseases from the European countries.

If that was not all, migratory groups split their families further and further to curb the spread of contagious diseases such as influenza. The Cheyenne spread all over a migratory region so that if one infected group would not contaminate another. With the wiping out of whole families, native settlers who had survived found it hard to maintain cultural and traditional balance. A degradation of morals in the society followed suit due to the lack of the few enlightened elders, killed by this wave of disease.

The political environment of the native people also got a negative impact due to these epidemics. There was little or no form of government, mainly caused by the migration of more and more people from one place to the other in the search for none contaminated fields and waters for their horses and livestock. In this light, the Europeans were further able to place conquest, firmly establishing themselves for rule since the natives had weakened and generally reduced in number and organization.

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If that was not all, huge numbers of livestock previously owned were lost. The Europeans introduced domesticated breeds (breeds that were closer to the people) which when met the other animals further contaminated them. These diseases would later mutate and settle on the human population and caused serious harm to the natives. All in all, it seemed like for the moment, the British did more harm than good when they decided to explore America.

Conclusion

As much as new! America was conceived from its colonization as a European conquest, the damage caused by these diseases mentioned above was utterly devastating. With populations wiped out at the very beginning, the effects were still felt even in the 1950s when around 15% of every 100, 000 Native Americans were found to die due to the diseases that were brought about in the 18th century by Europeans. America did profit eventually from colonial rule, as every other independent state would after receiving freedom from colonial rule. However, for the natives, it was to the expense of many of whom fought through the war, famine, and the greater number who fell in the hands of a series of diseases imported from the colonialist.

Reference List

Greg, Lange. 2004. Smallpox epidemic ravages Native Americans on the Northwest coast of North America in the 1770s. Seattle, Washington. Web.

Johansen, Bruce. 1927. The Native peoples of North America: a history. Toronto: Rutgers University Press. Web.

Footnotes

  1. Lange, Greg. Smallpox epidemic ravages Native Americans on the northwest coast of North America in the 1770s: Seattle, Washington. Web.
  2. Bruce Johansen. The Native peoples of North America: a history. Toronto: Rutgers University Press.
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IvyPanda. 2021. "Effect of Disease on Native Americans." December 20, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/effect-of-disease-on-native-americans/.

1. IvyPanda. "Effect of Disease on Native Americans." December 20, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/effect-of-disease-on-native-americans/.


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