McKenna Bradshaw

Angelo Francis
FORM 6 History
Explain the reasons for high mortality among the Europeans, Amerindians and Africans up to
1600.

Contact with the Amerindians began as early as Columbus' voyage in 1493 (Kalinagos)
until the late 17th century with the end of the Conquest of the Mayas.
Spain's "discovery" of America was part of the remarkable European expansion in the
15th century. Spain came with the idea of winning social status as well as wealth.
Ferdinand and Isabella thought the wealth of the New World could strengthen their
hand in Europe. One conquistador said, "we came here to serve God and the King, and
also to get rich."
When the Europeans landed in the Americas, their thirst for gold and fortune prevented
them from having mercy on the indigenous people whom they had just encountered.
With the assistance of their possession of gun powder, they were able to wipe out the
masses, hundreds of thousands at the time. They also brought with them a weapon far
more deadly to the native inhabitants than any sword. The Spaniards carried microbes
in their bodies, to which they were immune to, but were deadly to the indigenous
people. Europeans had a long history of animal farming which allowed them to develop
resistance to diseases that first develops in animals like the flu, typhus, tuberculosis,
malaria, plague, measles and cholera. Over two centuries after Columbus' arrival,
smallpox, measles, influenza and typhus infected and killed 95% of the indigenous
population of the New World.
Population trend in Hispaniola among the Tainos taken from Eric Williams' "From
Columbus to Castro."

Year Approximate Population

1492 200,000-300,000
1508 60,000
1510 46,000
1512 20,000
1514 14,000
1548 There was doubt that even 500 Indians
remained
1570 2 villages

More tragic forms of mortality were that of suicide and infanticide. Some indigenous
people killed themselves and their children as opposed to submitting to the harsh hands
of the Spaniards. They believed in an afterlife that freed them from a place of torture.
Contact with the Amerindians (especially the Kalinagos) was usually violent and took the
form of ambushes. This led to casualties on both sides.
The Amerindians that did not die of disease, suicide or war were overworked (especially
in gold and silver mines) and poorly fed, leading to their rapid extinction.
McKenna Bradshaw
Angelo Francis
FORM 6 History
When the Spanish came to the Americas, the Maya civilization was already in decline
(Biological Theory). However, according to Demarest, "By the time of the first European
descriptions of Maya Kingdoms, they had already been greatly reduced...by ten to
twenty years of plague."
During the Spanish conquest (1524-1697) political leaders and most elites were killed by
genocidal war. Others were incorporated into Colonial tribute extraction systems. This
significantly lessened the population.
Prolonged conflict between the two groups disrupted agricultural production and
commerce among the Mayas. Hence, famine was widespread. There was also internal
conflict as some Maya and Mexico warriors formed alliances with the Spaniards to get
revenge.
There was a sickness called "Yacimil" or "easy death" which was characterized by great
pustules that "rotted their bodies with a great stench so that the limbs fell to pieces in
four or five days."
Robert J. Sharon and Loa P. Traxler in "The Ancient Maya" described Maya and
European contact as "a scourge marked by brutality, catastrophic epidemic diseases
introduced by the Europeans, and the determined intervention of the Catholic church."
They also argued that the wars of conquest were the immediate cause of Maya
destruction.
The Spaniards, after the decline of the Indigenous people, realized that the economy of
the New World was unable to survive without forced labor. It was then Las Casas
suggested the Africans to serve as an alternative labor force.
Thorton described the middle passage as, "at the very best extremely unpleasant, and
for many it was a slow and painful death." For example, in the 16 th century, the trip
from Kongo or Benin to So Tom was approximately 2 weeks, yet ship books revealed
that even this short trip for some, was fatal.
From the late 16th century onward the main route was from Angola to Cartagena or New
Netherlands (New York) due to the Dutch West India Company's policies. "The trip
pushed a significant number of the Kongo to the brink to death and routinely killed up
to 1/3 of them."
Many of the Africans were driven insane and others suffered psychological shock. Some,
out of depression or as a means of escape, would throw themselves into the sea. They
believed that after death their spirit returned to Africa. The Africans also had ways in
which they attempt to revolt against their enslavement. The Europeans killed the
enslaved basically by punishing them for any type of resistance or disobedience shown.
Joseph C. Miller described the slaves as "overcrowded and undernourished." This was
due to the fact that merchants packed as many slaves as possible into their ships. Jean
Barbot agreed that slow voyages and packed ships also made for higher mortality.
Thorton claims that it was the reduction of supplies of food and water that made the
greatest danger for the trip.
McKenna Bradshaw
Angelo Francis
FORM 6 History
After 1519, Portuguese regulations, "Regimento of So Tom trade" required that
adequate supplies of food and water be carried. However according to Alonso de
Sandoval (observed the slave trade and held interviews with the slaves themselves),
slaves were fed only once in every 24 hours a miserly meal of "no more than a medium-
sized bowl of corn or millet flour or raw millet gruel" with a "small jar of water."
Due to this dehydration increased. This was also so as a result of the frequent vomiting
due to sea sickness among the Africans and the fact that they were kept in poorly
ventilated quarters in a tropical climate.
Diarrhea was widespread due to poor diet making adequate hygiene impossible.
Waterborne diseases of the intestinal tract (measles, yellow fever, smallpox, typhoid
fever) would kill slaves and even the ships' crew as the diseases would be easily
transmitted between the groups.
Career availability for the Africans on the plantations included harsh plantation
agricultural systems. In most cases, the slaves were male, they rarely formed families
and they died quickly. For instance, in Venezuela, where there were Native Americans
and Africans performing the same job, 78% of the total labour force was male.
This imbalance in sex ratio, along with the high mortality rates cut back the number of
slaves that survived and reproduced.
More tragic forms were that of suicide. Some Africans killed themselves rather than
submit to enslavement. They believed that after death their spirit returned to Africa.
The people of the Igbo society were more prone to committing suicide. The African
slaves very much believed that death was the doorway to living a life that will
emancipate them from the life of enslavement and torture.
Mortality rates were high. Birth rates were low.