Historical Review: Megadrought And Megadeath In 16th Century Mexico (Hemorrhagic Fever)

CDC ^ | March 28, 2002 | R. Acuna-Soto, D. Stahle, M. Cleaveland and M. Therrell

[Tinman73]

High disease mortality rates are not uncommon among slave populations through history.

The amount of care given to a slave populations are rare.

They were denied the basics of life enhancing factors (food, water, shelter, immune strengthening rest) and were generally held in concentrated living quarters, Be that a single compound or the slum section of cities. Also pest controls in these areas were not a concern to the masters.

[muawiyah]

Dendrochronology, and, where possible, local records.

I'm very suspicious of the claim that only 8 million people died in the initial smallpox epidemic. After all, elsewhere in the Americas, it's known that the death rate among native Americans was ordinarily over 90% for smallpox ~ which is roughly double that found in native African, European or Asiatic populations.

Or, alternatively, there were several tens of millions more people in Mexico that no one knew about until the mid 1500s. Another alternative is that the Spaniards had only the slightest idea how many people lived in Mexico at any time, and even less idea how many died.

The encomienda system mentioned in the article didn't really get set up until almost everyone had died. This was more of a "Works Progress Administration" type labor program than slavery, the idea being that the Mexican population had been so diminished drastic action had to be taken to save society (as well as the recently Christianized native peoples). The Spanish get a bad rap on this.

[Wiseghy]

"I immediately wondered if this disease was connected to other 'lost civilizations' there and in South America"

That is a great point. It is believed now that the Inca and Maya both vanished with out European intervention after extended periods of drought and war. I don't doubt that pandemics played a large roll. This would parallel the rodent spread illnesses that killed large portions of Europe in similar over-crowed urban centers.

[UglyinLA]

Onelifetogive wrote:
How is this Bush's fault?


According to fokelore, Cuautemoc Bush realized the deadly threat imposed by Quetzlcoatl bin Laden and his ruthless followers who arrived uninvited from a land far away. He sent his "guarding of the people" to spy on these hostile invaders.

However, several of the Bush hating clansmen, specifically Cacama Kerry, Chalchiutinenetzin Boxer, and Picachu Reed protested vehemently and along with their Aztec hating cohorts were able to send the correct smoke signals to the enemy to warn them of the spies.

As a result, the invaders were able to launch their biological arsenal against the Aztec and pretty much wipe them out before they new what hit them.

Because all the men were dead, Xiloxochitlery became the first woman chieftain. Shortly thereafter, the entire tribe became extinct.

[davisfh]

"How is this Bush's fault?"

It just is. Accept it and moveon(.org).

[Onelifetogive]

Because all the men were dead, Xiloxochitlery became the first woman chieftain. Shortly thereafter, the entire tribe became extinct.

They all aborted themselves, I imagine...

[TEXOKIE]

bttt

[MillerCreek]

Ha, no, the census data they garner from historical records, mostly. That and piecing together information from the archeaological record.

But, actually, tree rings do identify sunlight and moisture and that then identifies where to focus for animal/human life changes accordingly.

[lepton]

After all, elsewhere in the Americas, it's known that the death rate among native Americans was ordinarily over 90% for smallpox.

Wasn't that very highly dependent upon family structure too?

[MillerCreek]

It was, from what I've read, due to drought and wars that ensued when competition began to heat up due to deprived resources -- to state the obvious.

The devastating drought in the South and Southwest of North America was the cause of, worse yet, even cannibalism in the Southwest and loss of forests/plant life across much of the Southwest.

It was probably a drought of such proportions that we can only imagine nowadays, extensive and global even, because the Mediterranean shows evidence of similar human populations struggles from about the same time.

[blam]

"It is believed now that the Inca and Maya both vanished with out European intervention after extended periods of drought and war. "

Even the Inca don't know who built Tihuanaco, it was there as long as they can remember.

[muawiyah]

There were a wide variety of "family" structures among the Indians along the East Coast of what is now the United States back in the 1640s when over 90% of them died of disease.

It's actually pretty easy to find references based on secondary sources to a 95% death rate.

I think the problem isn't with the death rate, it's with the estimates of how many people lived in Mexico and how many died.

Whatever it was, the death rate was sufficient to destroy society and actually bring down Earth's mean temperature because of the loss of agriculture and the methane that goes with it.

[Little Bill]

The symptoms included high fever, severe headache, vertigo, black tongue, dark urine, dysentery, severe abdominal and thoracic pain, large nodules behind the ears that often invaded the neck and face, acute neurological disorders, and profuse bleeding from the nose, eyes, and mouth with death frequently occurring in 3 to 4 days.

Sounds like Black Plague to me. Similar symptom's

[blam]

"The devastating drought in the South and Southwest of North America was the cause of, worse yet, even cannibalism in the Southwest and loss of forests/plant life across much of the Southwest. "

The Anasazi And Cannibalism, good work by Christy Turner.

[MillerCreek]

I've always thought that the descriptions of the "lost (land) of Atlantis" is best fulfilled by Central South America. Seems to fit in with Tihuanaco...Atlantis being "beyond the world's oceans" or thereabouts, as described, "past the Pillars of Hercules" (something close to those descriptions)...I regard that as being outside the Mediterranean Sea and across the "world's ocean" which was the Atlantic at that time and/or from the East across the Pacific, both would result in arriving in Central South America.

[MillerCreek]

Yes, thanks for that link!

[blam]

"I've always thought that the descriptions of the "lost (land) of Atlantis" is best fulfilled by Central South America. Seems to fit in with Tihuanaco...Atlantis being "beyond the world's oceans" or thereabouts, as described, "past the Pillars of Hercules" "

You're not alone in your belief about South America.

Jim Allen's Historic Atlantis In Bolivia

[MillerCreek]

Very, very interesting! Thanks for that link, too. Now I have my reading all waiting for me for when I again wake up, being now too sleepy to read and concentrate on such intense content! But, thanks, looking forward to reading...

~:-D

[SwinneySwitch]

First U.S. dengue cases found here [Possibly Hemorrhagic, South Texas]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1510888/posts

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam. There were a series of population peaks, each one followed by a crash, prior to the 1520s (beginning of the Spanish conquest of the mainland), which isn't dissimilar to the pattern elsewhere in the world. I'd be surprised if it weren't related to climate cycles, but wouldn't be surprised if it hadn't been due to the intermittent and continual rediscovery of the Americas during PreColumbian times.

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