Ecological Imperialism

It is of interest that knowledge of germs is rather recent and that earlier people thought of epidemic diseases in terms of the supernatural. Because of this perspective, it is difficult to piece together the epidemiological history of the European colonies. It is known, biologically, that where isolation exists, there is the possibility of decimation when another culture moves in. This is apparently what happened with the Native Americans in North America. They did have their own diseases and germs alreadyùhepatitis, encephalitis, polio, and some varieties of tuberculosisùbut they were completely without defense to the Old World diseases of smallpox, measles, diphtheria, trachoma, whopping, cough, chicken pox, bubonic plague, malaria, typhoid fever, cholera, scarlet fever, and amebic dysentery.

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ims were less then ten years old, and 70 percent were under two years old. The European adults who had been exposed as children seemed to be immune, but the indigenous people of the colonies were leveled over the next four centuries, with smallpox having a role as important as gunpowder and warfare. Crosby's description of the disease makes it very real. It must have been quite terrifying for the original North American people to see themselves overcome with fever, pustules, and death, thinking it was their own gods that wished for them to do. It is quite sad that no one seemed to understand cause and effect in the matter. The ten to fourteen day incubation period meant that carriers could travel long distances, feeling quite healthy, exposing many people along the way, sometimes eradicating as much as 50 percent of the population, as in the case of the Huron and Iroquois. The disease spread so easily and quickly that it even went to locations not yet touched by the white people, as in the Puget Sound area during the 1780s. The Native American people were already pockmarked at that time, as if the breath of the white people brought germ messengers, portending of the destruction certain to follow. Smallpox seemed to jump
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Some common words found in the essay are:
American Indian, Frenchman Touching, North America, Australia People, Alfred Crosby, Poxe Lord, North American, World Political, Native American, Queen Isabella, white people, american people, european imperialism, ecological imperialism,
Approximate Word count = 1217
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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