Contact Era Epidemics

Question 1

When did the contact era begin?

Answer 1

in 1492 when Europeans arrived in the Americas
Disease played a significant role in Colonization - biological warfare & lack of immunity spread disease rapidly

Question 2

What are some disease-causing agents?

Answer 2

Lots of people
poor sanitation
trade and expansion of people

Question 3

Disease reservoirs

Answer 3

the disease needs a body to reproduce
if half the population dies and half is immune, the disease dies out

diseases need a reservoir of the human population to stay alive and spread

Question 4

Book: plagues and peoples

Answer 4

published in 1976
the author argued that in 5000 BCE, diseases had seperate urban disease pools, did not cross over the world
after 500 BCE, disease pools began to exchange in a process of homogenization
(crossover due to trade)

Question 5

Animal origins of diseases

Answer 5

diseases that were originally from animals that crossed over to humans
when humans came in close contact with animals, often domestic animals (sheep, cattle)

Question 6

how does community size affect disease?

Answer 6

the amount of people needed in an isolated population for a disease to be continuously present.

spread more in Europe more than in the Americas because the population was denser

Question 7

disease Ecologies

Answer 7

large urban concentrations but outside of urban centres, not nearly as dense as in Europe

Question 8

how was disease found in the americas?

Answer 8

disease evidence: oral stories
archeological evidence: prior to 1492
shared life expereinces about diseases in the 19th century

Question 9

what books did alfred crosby write?

Answer 9

Ecological imperialism- portmanteau biota: when settlers transported their ecosystems with them to America

The Seams of Pangaea

virgin soil epidemics- Indigenous people were viewed as immunologically naive, uneducated, unprepared for diseases

he argues that geography matters when understanding the evolution of disease

demographic impacts
it is not just focused on the culture, but on the biology of the disease

Question 10

Ecological imperialism

Answer 10

a violent conquest
portmanteau biota - when settlers transported their ecosystems to the Americas - pigs, bees, plants, weeds, viruses, food