I always hear about how when the europeans came to the americas, they brought diseases which killed many native americans. Why were the european diseases so deadly to the natives. Why wasnt it the other way around? Why didn't the native americans have crazy killer diseases that would only affect europeans?

Europe had larger populations which were all in proximity of each other making the spread of diseases much easier.

Native Americans were all fairly healthy and deadly diseases did not spread throughout the land. If there were severe cases of deadly diseases inside a tribe they would put the person aside from the group or perhaps they would all die out.


They had never been subjected to European diseases and did not have appropriate immune defenses against the diseases brought by the invaders.

So the natives just never had any diseases... weird

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Originally posted by Sunsnail So the natives just never had any diseases... weird

Oh they did ... if and when they did the diseases died out and didn't spread out throughout the land and last "forever" like in Europe

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Originally posted by Sunsnail So the natives just never had any diseases... weird

uh they prolly did, but the euros brought new ones...like sunsnail said, diseases that developed from humans being in close proximity to each other(dense urban areas).

Think of it as survival of the fittest in its simplest sense, in any country theres diseases but they basically kill off anyone who isnt resistant to them and the survivors offspring inherit their parents resistance, hence it takes a few generations amongst an indigenous population to reach that stage where it becomes nothing more than a sniffle for a week or two.

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Originally posted by Lilith Think of it as survival of the fittest in its simplest sense, in any country theres diseases but they basically kill off anyone who isnt resistant to them and the survivors offspring inherit their parents resistance, hence it takes a few generations amongst an indigenous population to reach that stage where it becomes nothing more than a sniffle for a week or two.

Right. I was just wondering why the natives didn't have anything that would kill off europeans.

they had bows and arrows to kill the europeans.

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Originally posted by Sunsnail Right. I was just wondering why the natives didn't have anything that would kill off europeans.

Oh they did, couple of endemic diseases to the northern americas like blastomycosis, syphilis, few encephalytis varieties, rabies, wide variety of pulmonary diseases and hepatitis, hantavirus and rocky mountain spotted fevers. Last two are really nasty!
So, it wasnt exactly a walk in the park for early settlers.

its why sewer rats are untouchable and we are now worried about viral infections so much. The more sterile your environment, the less immunity you have. They also did studies and large populations have large variety in immune systems. mates choose one another based on difference in immune systems so their offspring have the most complete immune systems.

Small populations, breeding for specific traits, breeds in weakness. Nature!

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Originally posted by Lilith Oh they did, couple of endemic diseases to the northern americas like blastomycosis, syphilis, few encephalytis varieties, rabies, wide variety of pulmonary diseases and hepatitis, hantavirus and rocky mountain spotted fevers. Last two are really nasty! So, it wasnt exactly a walk in the park for early settlers.

I heard about the same when Cortez invaded the Andes...it is thought that there was an form of Syphilis native to the Andean region which many of the invading Spanish contracted and died from but also a form of syphilis the Spanish brought with them killing many of the Incas.

Makes you wonder if extra-terrestrials ever came to this planet, would they bring some crazy diseases so foreign to human beings they would wipe us out or vice versa.