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Chapter Reference: The Encounter; Colonial Crucible; Conclusion
Disease has often intervened powerfully in Latin American history. European diseases decimated indigenous populations in the 1500s. Tropical diseases plagued Europeans who took up residence in lowland regions of Latin America. The historical study of disease has gained momentum in recent years, partly because of new microbiological analysis of human remains. The spread of micro-organisms to environments where they were previously unknown, by migrating peoples and animals, has attracted scholars from the fields of history to biology, epidemiology, and medical anthropology. Disease in Latin America, today, is likewise garnering attention. AIDS has reached alarmingly high percentages of the population in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Brazil. Other infectious diseases, such as cholera and dengue fever, have also mobilized health care officials and scholars. A paper on the history of disease in Latin America could look at the colonial period and how diseases decimated indigenous and European populations, or it could focus on more recent problems: the outbreak of yellow fever in Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, and Havana in the 1800s; the way malaria and yellow fever put a stop to the French attempt to construct the Panama Canal; or the AIDS epidemic today and measures that are being taken to combat it.
Questions for Analysis and Further Reflection:
- Disease is one of the more silent actors in human history, though it has the power to reshape demographics. Of course, disease was coupled with forced labor during the early colonial period, which also decimated indigenous populations in Latin America. What are the statistics that help to understand the magnitude of changing demographics during the colonial period?
- How did disease accompany urbanization and the rise of Latin America's future mega-cities around the turn of the twentieth century? That is, what diseases emerged in urban environments, and how did disease play into city planning?
- Treating epidemics of today is a challenge, especially for countries with limited financial resources. What measures are being taken in places like Haiti and Brazil to combat AIDS?
Bibliography: (Titles with ** are good starting places.)
** Alchon, Suzanne Austin. A Pest in the Land: New World Epidemics in a Global
Perspective. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2003.
This recent study is one of the most complete overviews of the history of disease in the Americas. Alchon situates the effects of disease within in the larger historical picture of colonization, challenging arguments advanced by Diamond and others. Students interested in the topic should start with this book.
________. Native Society and Disease in Colonial Ecuador. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1991.
Alchon's earlier study of disease in Latin America provides a short case study, focusing on the indigenous inhabitants on the northern edge of the Inca empire.
** Diamond, Jared M. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York:
Norton, 1997.
In this engaging tour of how guns, germs, and steel have helped shaped the course of human history, students will find several chapters that introduce the role of disease in America during the colonial period.
Ward, James S. Yellow Fever in Latin America: A Geographical Study. Liverpool: University
of Liverpool, Centre for Latin-American Studies, 1972.
Other Resources:
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