Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

jezreelite t1_iysn92i wrote

Reply to comment by getBusyChild in Simple/Short/Silly History Questions Saturday! by AutoModerator

One reason is that the disease most responsible for decimating Native American populations was smallpox and smallpox does not seem to have been nearly as common in Early Medieval Europe as was in the Early Modern Europe.

Among Eurasians and Africans, the mortality rate of smallpox was 30%, but among Native Americans and indigenous Australians, it was more like 90%.

6

[deleted] t1_iyv6vlm wrote

Is that based on genetics that the survival rate was so different? More natural immunity from a time before statistics were able to accurately record deaths? Unknown why Eurasians and Africans fared better?

1