was not a conventional military weapon at all. It was the germs such as those of smallpox that they carried on their person. Because of their long isolation, America’s original inhabitants had no immunity against these diseases that came from Europe. Smallpox in particular proved a deadly killer.
Once introduced, it spread deep into the continent, ahead even of any Europeans reaching there. It killed and decimated whole communities, paving the way for conquest. Fig. – The Irish Potato Famine, Illustrated London News , .
Hungry children digging for potatoes in a field that has already been harvested, hoping to discover some leftovers. During the Great Irish Potato Famine ( to ), around , , people died of starvation in Ireland, and double the number emigrated in search of work. ‘Biological’ warfare? John Winthorp, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony in New England, wrote in May that smallpox signalled God’s blessing for the colonists: ‘… the natives … were neere (near) all dead of small Poxe (pox), so as the Lord hathe (had) cleared our title to what we possess’.
Alfred Crosby, Ecological Imperialism . Box Explain what we mean when we say that the world ‘shrank’ in the 1500s.