Columbian Diseases Exchange with Incas

Diseases was a major part of the Columbian Exchange for numerous reasons. Diseases spread through many regions across the world. It affected the Native American population and many others. People today, have stronger immune systems because of the spread of diseases, during the Columbian Exchange. It has made a huge impact to the world over the centuries. Europeans had been living in condensed communities for many years which developed immunities, such as smallpox, malaria, and diphtheria within the people.

When the Europeans came to the Americas they brought along many diseases, which soon started to spread quickly. The Native Americans’ immune systems had never come in contact with the diseases that the Europeans brought, which lead to the death of many of these indigenous people. Fifty percent of them were affected, and out of them ninety percent died which led to a decrease of the population in the Americas. The Europeans did not know about the diseases that they had brought with them because they were immune to them. This was not a purposeful genocide, but it was simply the Europeans coming in contact with the Natives.

In the ancient civilization of Peru, known as the Inca Empire, was a king called Huayna Capac. The Inca built a strong army around their empire. The empire was so large it filled up Peru, Bolivia, modern Ecuador, and the northern half of what is now Chili. This immense empire extended 2,000 miles down the Western Coast of South America with a very large population. The Inca Empire was well known for their powerful army during war.

The Europeans came to the New World through the voyage of Christopher Columbus conquering many places. One of their most powerful tool to conquer these places were their diseases. As they came to the New World, to the Inca Empire, one of the diseases they spread was smallpox. Smallpox was first located in Mexico, where it spread all the way down to the Inca Empire. Diseases at the time, were not curable and were an illness that was unpreventable. Although the Incan Empire was powerful, their immune system was not able to fight this tragic disease. This lead the Inca Empire to decrease and the ruler, Huayna Capac to die. The Inca Empire no longer had a ruler nor a successor which lead to a civil war between the Incas.

After the civil war, the Inca Empire was split in two and was ununified, which made it easy for the Spanish to conquer the Empire. Smallpox devastated the Inca and their empire. It lead to the death of their ruler and their empire to be conquered. The Incas suffered greatly because of this disease, smallpox.