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Diseases.
A consequence, also, of the accidents of geography and topography, the
spread of diseases from domesticated animals was, for the Fertile Crescent and
its inheritors, a mixed blessing. Because
of the proximity of domesticated animals to human living groups, diseases
flowed from them to us. But over
long periods of time, the humans in close contact with these animals built up
partial resistances. While still
deadly diseases, their virulence was curtailed by the hundreds of thousands of
years of close contact, an advantage not shared by those peoples who had been
given by the accidents of geography and topography and climate, only one or
two of the Big Five or one or two of the Minor Nine.
Diamond’s
Chapter 11, “Lethal Gift of Livestock” (pp. 195-214) discusses in detail
why the deadly transfer of germs was primarily one-way (from Europe outward),
why the New World didn’t develop herd diseases as did Europe, why population
size is critical in understanding epidemic diseases, why geography is again
important in keeping isolated the three most densely populated American
centers (the Andes, Mesoamerica, and the Mississippi Valley) whereas the
latitudinal connections between Europe, North Africa, India and China by Roman
times (or 1500 years before Europeans came to the Americas) made those
population centers a dense breeding ground for microbes, and why tropical
diseases (such as yellow fever, cholera, malaria) elsewhere (Asia, Africa,
Indonesia, New Guinea) frustrated and weakened European success in colonizing
tropical areas.
Diamond’s
Table 11.1 shows the famous European diseases and their domesticated animal
sources.
|
Human
Disease |
Animal
with most closely related pathogen |
|
|
|
|
Measles |
cattle
(rinderpest) |
|
Tuberculosis |
cattle |
|
Smallpox |
cattle
(cowpox) or other livestock with related pox virus |
|
Flu |
pigs
and ducks |
|
Pertussis |
pigs,
dogs |
|
Falciparum
malaria |
birds
(chickens and ducks?) |
The
devastating effect of disease in the Americas is well known.
Although figures range somewhat, Diamond’s statistics are also those
of others. Estimates of death
from initial microbes in the Mississippi Valley suggest a decline of 95% from
20 million. Cortes' victory over
the Aztecs and Pizarro’s over the Inca were also largely because smallpox
came in advance, killed leaders and huge segments of the population.
The conquistadors were able to exploit vacuums of leadership and civil
war caused by germs as well as benefit from guns and steel.