This text outline omits illustrations.
Demographic catastrophe and its causes: viruses, Black Legend and the social context of epidemics
Alonso de Zorita (~1565): “...and it is certain that from the day that D. Hernando Cortes, the Marquis del Valle, entered this land...the natives suffered many deaths, and many terrible dealings, robberies and oppressions were inflicted on them, t
aking advantage of their persons and their lands, without order, weight nor measure; ...the people diminished in great number, as much due to excessive taxes and mistreatment, as to illness and smallpox, such that now a very great and notable fraction of
the people are gone, and especially in the hot country.”
Basin of Mexico: a long view
Three puzzles in the history of smallpox in Latin America
1. Smallpox and catastrophe: What was the role of smallpox in the demog. catastrophe? 2. Genes or exploitation and experience: Why did natives suffer so greatly from the disease?
3. Smallpox and recovery: Did smallpox become less virulent? What was the effect of public health campaigns (quarantine inoculation, and vaccination), versus population densities on smallpox mortality.
Not a puzzle:
1. First smallpox epidemic struck Mexico City in 1520, killing many of its inhabitants (1/5 - 1/2).
2. From 1803-06, the Balmis expedition carried vaccination around the world.
3. Smallpox is credited with population recovery in the 18th century and often blamed for slow growth in 19th century Latin America.
4. The last case of smallpox in Mexico occurred February, 1951 (and, in the world, in Somalia, 1977).
5. Evidence on genetic immunity and smallpox is rarely examined--and weak.
Demographic catastrophe in 16th century Mexico: 50%+ decline
1. Smallpox and catastrophe: What was the role of smallpox in the demog. catastrophe (Mexico)?
Epidemic of 1520 was devastating; 1538 less so
More severe was cocoliztli of 1545-6 and matlazahuatl of 1577-79
Most chroniclers list few smallpox epidemics
Exploitation weakened native population
Ethno-racial composition, New Spain
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagun’s General History (Florentine Codex, 1576), native voices: smallpox
“...Indeed many people died of them (pustules), and many just died of hunger. There was death from hunger; there was no one to take care of another; there was no one to attend to another.”
1520: Death of Montezuma’s successor, from smallpox
“…he governed only 80 days…”
corpse enshrouded in glyphs for smallpox
1538
“This year of seven rabbits of 1538 many people died of smallpox.” [note pustules on arms and legs.]
Rhetorical exaggeration vs. evidence
Smallpox epidemic of 1520 “raged across the continent”, but note how slowly it spread from Veracruz to Mexico City, 300 miles, 3 to 5 months (May to September or October).
“In Mexico, ever since 1520, the natives had suffered from severe smallpox epidemics recurring every seventeen or eighteen years.” --Stearn and Stearn, 42.
Yet, of 17 colonial epidemics to 1745 listed by the chronicler Cayetano Cabrera y Quintero only 3 are for smallpox.
9 other epidemics were probably as or more devastating than smallpox
tepitonzahuatl (measles), 1531.
matlazahuatl (typhus?), 1576-77
the great hunger, 1786-88
2. Genes or exploitation and experience: Why did natives suffer so greatly from the disease?
Genes: Stearn and Stearn (1945): “...even in the nineteenth century when some immunity had already been acquired by this race...”
Exploitation, the social context of epidemics: Audiencia Judge Alonso de Zorita (~1560) “So the Indian returns home from his toil [for Spaniards] ... famished, unhappy, distraught, and shattered in health. For these reasons pestilence always ra
ges among the Indians.”
Genes: Francis Jennings, The Invasion of America (1975:22)
“...the Europeans’ capacity to resist certain diseases made them superior, in the pure Darwinian sense, to the Indians who succumbed.”
“smallpox was smallpox...the Indians on the north [bank of the Rio Grande] had as little biological immunity to this epidemic scourge as the Aztecs had.”
Must differentiate genetic vs. lifetime immunity.
Science: F. Black (1994) and Peter J. Bianchine & Thomas A. Russo (1995)
Black: “Smallpox was clearly more virulent in the Americas than in Europe but the causes for this remain an open question.”
Bianchine & Russo: “given comparable care when ill and knowledge regarding the potential for surviving the illness, the death rates for virgin-soil Indian populations and repeatedly exposed Caucasian populations for measles were similar.”
Smallpox mortality in London: 10-20% of deaths 1720-1797
Evidence from chronologies and parish burial books
Recall 17 epidemics 1520-1745: 7 in 16th century; 6 in 17th c; 4 in 18th to 1746; only 3 of smallpox: 1520, 1538, 1733/34.
18th century was the century of smallpox epidemics in Mexico: 1733/4, 1761/62, 1779, 1797.
Evidence from parish burial books (Mexico): Center (Puebla), South (Chiapas), and North (Chihuahua).
Burials: Indian parishes, Center
Chiapas (South): after 1693, no recovery
Another parish in Chiapas: disaster in 1770
Epidemics Center, North and South
3. Smallpox and recovery: Did smallpox become less virulent? Yes, but only after 1797
Public health campaigns, 1797
Spain: inoculation introduced in 1768; and New Spain in 1797.
Opposed in Spain: Protomedicato feared increased frequency of epidemics and exposure of uninoculated to higher risks. Public health versus private practice.
New Spain, 1797: Mass campaign in various regions of Mexico was effective in checking the epidemic of 1797 (e.g., Chiapas, Durango) Durango ill died death rate Inoculated 3824 39 1% Not 478 63 12%
Mass Inoculation Worked for Indians
Public charity in Mexico City reduced deaths by one-third in 1797
First world-wide public health campaign: Balmis smallpox vaccination expedition, 1803-1806
Jenner's Inquiry (1798) immedidately captured the interest of the Spanish Crown. Nov. 30, 1798, Charles IV issued an order that vaccination be extended throughout the Spanish dominions.
Spain: the Royal Academy de Medicine approved publications on this topic quickly. “se ha propagado en España con indecible rapidez, …”
Spanish America: Francisco Xavier de Balmis (1803-6) extraordinary philanthropic odyssey from Spain to the Americas and the Phillipines.
Smallpox: not a big killer in 19th century Mexico City
Smallpox not a big killer in 19th century Northern Mexico
By 1900, smallpox was no longer a Big Killer in Mexico
Crude Death rate = 35 per thousand population
Smallpox death rate less than 3 per thousand
Conclusion: three puzzles require more research and careful analysis
1. Population catastrophe and care: smallpox probably less severe than other epidemics, although more frequent by 18th century.
2. Genes: role is probably exaggerated; ruthless exploitation and lack of experience with epidemics greatly increased mortality.
3. Public health: inoculation, charity and vaccination reduced smallpox mortality but only at the very end of the colonial period.