Korva is a scroll of the internet’s best ideas.
Smallpox killed the Inca king first
Smallpox ahead of Spain
The disease ran like a wildfire ahead of the Spanish, hitting the king in the Andes before any European arrived. Their father had died of smallpox, and the empire was in disarray.
Thirteen diseases
The Americas were hit by 13 infectious diseases that Europe, after the Black Plague, had built up herd immunity to. In the Caribbean, on Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Cuba, almost everyone was dead within ten years, isolated on islands with nowhere to go, until there was no one left to enslave. Africans were hauled over in their place and brought yellow fever and malaria with them.
The toll
About ten years in, the Spanish began dying of the diseases on the islands too. On the mainland the spread was like a wildfire, and about 90 percent of people died in the first 50 years. One conservative estimate puts the toll across the Americas at 100 million people.
Why did smallpox spread so fast?
Smallpox passes through the air and by contact with an infected person or their belongings. A carrier can spread it for days before anyone notices a rash. Survivors become immune, so in a population that has never met it nearly everyone is at risk at once. Traders and travelers carried it far beyond the first contact.
How did Pizarro conquer the Inca so easily?
The Inca emperor Huayna Capac died around 1527, probably in an epidemic. His sons Huascar and Atahualpa then fought a civil war over the throne. Pizarro arrived with a small force in 1532 and captured Atahualpa at Cajamarca. The Inca state was already divided.
Where did yellow fever and malaria come from?
Both diseases are carried by mosquitoes. The mosquito Aedes aegypti, which spreads yellow fever, originated in Africa and reached the Americas on slave ships. Malaria parasites also arrived through the slave trade. Water barrels on the ships gave the mosquitoes places to breed during the crossing.
More from Shawn Ryan Show
