What was the most devastating effect of European exploration on Native Americans?

While Europe was in the early days of the Renaissance, there were empires in the Americas sustaining more than 60 million people. But the first European contact in 1492 brought diseases to the Americas which devastated the native population, and the resultant collapse of farming in the Americas was so significant that it may have even cooled the global climate.

The number of people living in North, Central and South America when Christopher Columbus arrived is a question that researchers have been trying to answer for decades. Unlike in Europe and China, no records on the size of Indigenous societies in the Americas before 1492 are preserved. To reconstruct population numbers, researchers rely on the first accounts from European eyewitnesses and, in records from after colonial rule was established, tribute payments known as “encomiendas.” This taxation system was only established after European epidemics had ravaged the Americas, so it tells us nothing about the size of pre-colonial populations.

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Early accounts by European colonists are likely to have overestimated settlement sizes and population to advertise the riches of their newly discovered lands to their feudal sponsors in Europe. But by rejecting these claims and focusing on colonial records instead, extremely low population estimates were published in the early 20th century which counted the population after disease had ravaged it.

On the other hand, liberal assumptions on, for example, the proportion of the Indigenous population that was required to pay tributes or the rates at which people had died led to extraordinarily high estimates.

Our new study clarifies the size of pre-Columbian populations and their impact on their environment. By combining all published estimates from populations throughout the Americas, we find a probable Indigenous population of 60 million in 1492. For comparison, Europe’s population at the time was 70 to 88 million spread over less than half the area.

The Great Dying

The large pre-Columbian population sustained itself through farming — there is extensive archaeological evidence for slash-and-burn agriculture, terraced fields, large earthen mounds and home gardens.

By knowing how much agricultural land is required to sustain one person, population numbers can be translated from the area known to be under human land use. We found that 62 million hectares of land, or about 10 percent of the landmass of the Americas, had been farmed or under another human use when Columbus arrived. For comparison, in Europe 23 percent and in China 20 percent of land had been used by humans at the time.

This changed in the decades after Europeans first set foot on the island of Hispaniola in 1497 — now Haiti and the Dominican Republic — and the mainland in 1517. Europeans brought measles, smallpox, influenza and the bubonic plague across the Atlantic, with devastating consequences for the Indigenous populations.

Our new data-driven best estimate is a death toll of 56 million by the beginning of the 1600s — 90 percent of the pre-Columbian Indigenous population and around 10 percent of the global population at the time. This makes the “Great Dying” the largest human mortality event in proportion to the global population, putting it second in absolute terms only to World War II, in which 80 million people died — 3% of the world’s population at the time.

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A figure of 90 percent mortality in post-contact America is extraordinary and exceeds similar epidemics, including the Black Death in Europe — which resulted in a 30 percent population loss in Europe. One explanation is that multiple waves of epidemics hit Indigenous immune systems that had evolved in isolation from Eurasian and African populations for 13,000 years.

Native Americas at that time had never been in contact with the pathogens the colonists brought, creating so-called “virgin soil” epidemics. People who didn’t die from smallpox, died from the following wave of influenza. Those who survived that succumbed to measles. Warfare, famine and colonial atrocities did the rest in the Great Dying.

Global consequences

This human tragedy meant that there were simply not enough workers left to manage the fields and forests. Without human intervention, previously managed landscapes returned to their natural states, thereby absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. The extent of this regrowth of the natural habitat was so vast that it removed enough CO₂ to cool the planet.

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The lower temperatures prompted feedbacks in the carbon cycle which eliminated even more CO₂ from the atmosphere — such as less CO₂ being released from the soil. This explains the drop in CO₂ at 1610 seen in Antarctic ice cores, solving an enigma of why the whole planet cooled briefly in the 1600s. During this period, severe winters and cold summers caused famines and rebellions from Europe to Japan.

The modern world began with a catastrophe of near-unimaginable proportions. Yet it is the first time the Americas were linked to the rest of the world, marking the beginning of a new era.

We now know more about the scale of pre-European American populations and the Great Dying that erased so many of them. Human actions at that time caused a drop in atmospheric CO₂ that cooled the planet long before human civilization was concerned with the idea of climate change.

Such a dramatic event would not contribute much to easing the rate of modern global warming, however. The unprecedented reforestation event in the Americas led to a reduction of 5 parts per million CO₂ from the atmosphere — only about three years’ worth of fossil fuel emissions today.

The Indian peoples sometimes greeted Europeans warmly, provided them with food, and taught them important new survival skills. In some cases, they perceived them as being divine, or at least spiritually powerful. Some used the newcomers as allies against old enemies. Others saw them as new enemies, to be grudgingly tolerated or strongly resisted. However, native peoples were quickly disillusioned by treachery or mistreatment at European hands.

The Europeans brought technologies, ideas, plants, and animals that were new to America and would transform peoples' lives: guns, iron tools, and weapons; Christianity and Roman law; sugarcane and wheat; horses and cattle. They also carried diseases against which the Indian peoples had no defenses.

The interaction among groups produced a complex mosaic of relationships. Varying forms of resistance and adaptation among Indian, African, and European peoples occurred throughout the region.

The arrival of Europeans proved disastrous for the people of the Caribbean. Within 20 years, it is estimated that native population of Hispaniola dropped from one million to 30,000.

The Spaniards settled first on the island of Hispaniola and later moved on to Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica, forcing the Taínos to mine for gold. The local population quickly declined as a result of mistreatment, flight, disruption of agriculture, and disease. African slaves were imported as early as 1502 to replace the dwindling labor supply.

As mining decreased, the Spanish introduced livestock, crops, and fruit trees. Cattle ranching and sugarcane became important as a stable Spanish society took hold in the large islands. The Caribbean played a crucial role as a staging ground for further exploration and conquest, and as a strategic defensive point for the Spanish empire.

After having organized the expedition in Cuba, Hernando Cortés led the conquest of the Mexica (Aztec) empire from 1519-1521. Tenochtitlán, the capital city, was razed and rebuilt as Mexico, the capital of the viceroyalty of New Spain.

Within thirty years, it had the first printing press in the Americas, a cathedral, and a university. Indian residents far outnumbered the 8,000 or so Spaniards, and perhaps the 5,000 Africans of diverse origins living there by 1550. From the capital, the Spanish spread out to adjoining areas and eventually into today's New Mexico and Guatemala.

Silver mining assured that the economy would flourish. Spaniards used Indian laborers to establish their farms, ranches, and towns, and religious orders mounted intensive missionary campaigns. Despite a great reduction in population, native cultures and communities nonetheless survived, adapting to the new circumstances of Spanish rule.

A hand-painted document, presented as testimony in a court case against the Spanish crown, provides a record of a people whose vibrant culture was beginning to reflect the influence of a new political and religious system. Ten years after allying with Cortés in the siege of Tenochtitlán, the people of Huejotzingo asked him for help in a legal battle - this time against the extremely burdensome tributes exacted by Spanish administrators sent to rule New Spain.

The paintings are on native amatl, a pre-European paper made of fig tree bark or maguey. They describe tributes paid, including loads of stones, bricks, foodstuffs, and bolts of woven cloth. One sheet depicts a banner made of gold and feathers, bearing an image of the Madonna and Child. According to the painting, eight male slaves and twelve female slaves were sold in order to pay for the gold.

By 1531, the conqueror Hernando Cortés had acquired dominion over far-reaching properties in Mexico and the title of Governor of New Spain. After a lengthy absence from the region, he was asked by the people of the town of Huejotzingo (located in the current state of Puebla) to initiate a lawsuit against certain members of the high court of New Spain, concerning their burdensome utilization of the people and the unjust use of the incomes and profits secured from the town during his absence. The written legal document that ensued and the accompanying testimony—eight sheets of handsome indigenous drawings on native paper of maguey and amatl—are known today as the Huejotzingo Codex of 1531.

This poignant and visually stimulating document reveals a highly stratified Nahuatl Indian social structure, with a complex and precise accounting system and an impressive diversity of crops, products, and professions. It contains one of the earliest known images of the Madonna and Child in these types of documents, a representation of a costly banner made of precious feathers and gold. The use of this highly revered form of indigenous artwork to display a Christian symbol introduced by the Iberian religious missionaries is striking testimony to the confluence of Spanish and Indian cultures and belief systems that was to occur later throughout America.

Rendering of the national symbol of Mexico (eagle, snake, and cactus).

National Symbol of Mexico. De como el Rey de Tezcuco aviso a Montezumo de como se acercaba los Espanoles. Photoreproduction from Fray Diego Durn, La Historia Antigua de la Nueva España [19th century manuscript facsimile of the 1585 original]. Peter Force Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

The conquest of Peru was similar to that of Mexico in many ways. Inspired by rumors of a rich empire, Francisco Pizarro and other Spaniards reconnoitered the western coast of South America in the 1520s. In 1532, in the midst of a civil war, the Spaniards seized the Inca emperor Atahaullpa. After exacting a huge ransom in gold and silver, they executed him, but it was some time before they consolidated their conquest.

The Spaniards conquered the Inca capital of Cuzco, but found the imperial city too high and remote. Instead, they established a new capital, Lima, near the coast. Highland communities, therefore, experienced less contact with Spanish culture than did lowland communities. However, all Indian communities were subject to Spanish tribute and labor demands, adapted from the Incan mita system. These often onerous obligations brought disruption, change, and hardship.

According to legend, Santiago (St. James) converted Spain to Christianity and after his death his remains were moved to Santiago de Compostela. A later addition to the legend has Santiago riding a white steed and carrying a white banner, appearing in a radiant cloud above Christian troops battling Muslim forces. The notion of Santiago symbolizing Christian triumph over non-Christians was part of the mental world that the conquistadores brought with them to America. Chroniclers report that Santiago was invoked numerous times in battles against indigenous peoples. This illustration shows such a scene.

Conquista. Milagro del Santiago Photoreproduction from Guaman Poma de Ayala, Nueva Coronica y Buen Gobierno [facsimile of early 17th century manuscript (Paris, 1936)]. General Collections, Library of Congress

Portugal's claim to Brazil resulted not only from Cabral's 1500 landing, but also from the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas. French efforts to exploit the resources and to establish settlements in the area persisted through much of the 16th century. The Spanish concentrated on the Rio de la Plata region and established the cities of Buenos Aires in 1536 and Asuncion in 1537.

Intense Portuguese colonization of Brazil began in the same decade. The capital, Salvador, was established in 1549 at the Bay of All Saints. The first Jesuits, who would play a crucial role in Brazilian society, arrived the same year. They established missionary settlements called aldeas in which they hoped to bring Tupinambas and other groups into “civilized” society by subjecting them to a disciplined routine and making them full-time farmers. Portuguese efforts to use indigenous labor were never very successful. Gradually they began to import African slaves as sugarcane cultivation got underway in the northeast.

The Portuguese, after first attempting to develop the brazilwood trade, changed, in the mid-16th century to sugarcane production and the importation of African slaves to work in that industry.

Moulin a sucre. Photoreproduction from Joao Rugendas, Viagem pitoresca atraves do Brasil [facsimile of 1835 French original (Rio de Janeiro, 1972)]. General Collections, Library of Congress

The French, Spanish, Portuguese, and English arrived in North America in the 16th century, sporadically and in small numbers. Fishermen plied their trade off the Newfoundland coast from around 1500. Some Europeans hoped to find an alternative route to Asia (the Northwest Passage), wealthy civilizations, or precious metals, but few found what they sought. They did not, however, confront an untamed wilderness, but rather people who often lived in villages and towns.

The European intruders depended almost entirely on the indigenous people, who provided them food and guides, sometimes under duress. They made few serious attempts to settle in the early years. Frequently, the most enduring impact of their expeditions was negative. Their diseases devastated native populations, and violence and wholesale commandeering of food supplies left a legacy of fear and hostility.

Almost from the outset, European arrivals in the Florida peninsula produced violent confrontations. The Spanish came first, presumably as an extension of slave raiding in the Caribbean islands. Ponce de Leon's expeditions, in 1513 and 1521, failed because of Timucua and Calusa resistance. Subsequent Spanish expeditions moved on without founding any permanent settlements until St. Augustine was established in 1565.

In the early 1560s, French Huguenots established a colony at the mouth of the Saint Johns River. Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, who mapped the area and wrote an account of his experiences, survived the 1565 Spanish attack that destroyed the French colony. Engravings based on his drawings show the site in Florida where the French first landed; Timucua men and women carrying fruit; and a battle scene in which French soldiers aided their ally Outina against his enemy Potanou.

The French initially touched the Florida coast near the St. Mary's River in the early 1560s, attempted settlements in the region, created alliances with the various Indian settlements, and eventually were annihilated by the Spanish in 1565.

Promontory of Florida. Photoreproduction from Theodor de Bry and Charles de la Roncière, La Floride Française: Scènes de la vie Indiennes, peintes en 1564 [facsimile of the 1564 original (Paris, 1928)]. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress

The contacts of the French with the Timucua peoples of what is now northern Florida were documented by Jacques Le Moyne. In this view, the alliance of the French with the Chief Outina is used to overwhelm his arch-enemy Potanou.

Outina over Potanou. Photoreproduction from Theodor de Bry and Charles de la Roncière, La Floride Française: Scènes de la vie Indiennes, peintes en 1564 [facsimile of the 1564 original (Paris, 1928)]. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress

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