The Germ Apocalypse's Massive Impact on Indigenous Peoples in the Americas

In the Americas, the introduction of diseases from Europe caused immense suffering and death among the indigenous population. Diseases such as smallpox, malaria, yellow fever, and the plague devastated the Amerindians who had little resistance to these imported diseases. Even the European colonists faced heavy mortality. The population loss in the Americas during this time is considered the greatest in human history, with estimates suggesting a 90% decline in central Mexico within 75 years. The death rate was even worse in the Caribbean, where pestilence and mass slaughter occurred. The impact of these diseases was so severe that the population of Hispaniola, for example, fell from hundreds of thousands to fewer than 500 survivors.