Editing Pandemic (section)

=== Pandemics in indigenous populations ===
{{See also|Native American disease and epidemics|Smallpox in Australia|History of smallpox in Mexico}}
[[File:FlorentineCodex BK12 F54 smallpox.jpg|thumb|Aztecs dying of smallpox, ''[[Florentine Codex]]'' (compiled 1540–1585)]]

Beginning from the Middle Ages, encounters between European settlers and native populations in the rest of the world often introduced epidemics of extraordinary virulence. Settlers introduced novel diseases which were endemic in Europe, such as [[smallpox]], [[measles]], [[pertussis]] and [[influenza]], to which the [[indigenous peoples]] had no immunity.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Story Of ... Smallpox—and other Deadly Eurasian Germs |url=https://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/variables/smallpox.html |access-date=26 August 2010 |publisher=Pbs.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Stacy Goodling, "Effects of European Diseases on the Inhabitants of the New World" |url=http://www.millersville.edu/~columbus/papers/goodling.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080510163413/http://www.millersville.edu/~columbus/papers/goodling.html |archive-date=10 May 2008}}</ref> The Europeans infected with such diseases typically carried them in a [[Dormancy|dormant state]], were actively infected but [[asymptomatic]], or had only mild symptoms.<ref name="Francis 2005">{{cite book | vauthors = Francis JM |title=Iberia and the Americas culture, politics, and history: A Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2005 |isbn=1851094210 |location=Santa Barbara, California}}</ref>

Smallpox was the most destructive disease that was brought by Europeans to the Native Americans, both in terms of [[morbidity]] and mortality. The first well-documented smallpox epidemic in the Americas began in [[Hispaniola]] in late 1518 and soon spread to Mexico.<ref name="Francis 2005" /> Estimates of mortality range from one-quarter to one-half of the population of central Mexico.<ref name=":04">{{cite book | vauthors = Hays J |title=Epidemics and Pandemics: Their Impacts on Human History. |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2005 |isbn=9781851096589}}</ref> It is estimated that over the 100 years after European arrival in 1492, the indigenous population of the Americas dropped from 60 million to only 6 million, due to a combination of disease, war, and famine. The majority these deaths are attributed to successive waves of introduced diseases such as smallpox, measles, and typhoid fever.<ref>{{cite web | vauthors = Gunderman R |title=How smallpox devastated the Aztecs – and helped Spain conquer an American civilization 500 years ago |url=http://theconversation.com/how-smallpox-devastated-the-aztecs-and-helped-spain-conquer-an-american-civilization-500-years-ago-111579 |access-date=1 December 2022 |website=The Conversation |date=19 February 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | vauthors = Koch A |date=1 December 2019 |title='Great Dying' in Americas disturbed Earth's climate |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2019/feb/great-dying-americas-disturbed-earths-climate |access-date=26 July 2023 |website=University College London – News }}</ref><ref name="Agence France-Presse">{{cite news |date=18 January 2018 |title=500 years later, scientists discover what probably killed the Aztecs |work=The Guardian |agency=[[Agence France-Presse|AFP]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/16/mexico-500-years-later-scientists-discover-what-killed-the-aztecs |access-date=16 January 2018}}</ref>

In [[Australia]], smallpox was introduced by European settlers in 1789 devastating the [[Aboriginal Australians|Australian Aboriginal]] population, killing an estimated 50% of those infected with the disease during the first decades of colonisation.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Dowling P |title=Fatal contact: How epidemics nearly wiped out Australia's first peoples |publisher=Clayton, Victoria: Monash University Publishing |year=2021 |isbn=9781922464460 |pages=30–31, 60–63}}</ref> In the early 1800s, measles, smallpox and intertribal warfare killed an estimated 20,000 New Zealand [[Māori people|Māori]].<ref>{{cite web |date=31 March 1998 |title=New Zealand Historical Perspective |url=http://www.canr.msu.edu/overseas/nzenvironsci/infopart2.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612021507/http://www.canr.msu.edu/overseas/nzenvironsci/infopart2.htm |archive-date=12 June 2010 |access-date=26 August 2010 |publisher=Canr.msu.edu}}</ref>

In 1848–49, as many as 40,000 out of 150,000 [[Hawaii]]ans are estimated to have died of [[measles]], [[whooping cough]] and [[influenza]]. Measles killed more than 40,000 [[Fiji]]ans, approximately one-third of the population, in 1875,<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Derrick RA |date=18 April 1955 |title=Fiji's darkest hour – an account of the Measles Epidemic of 1875 |url=http://www.justpacific.com/fiji/full-text/Derrick%E2%80%94Measles.pdf |journal=Transactions and Proceedings of the Fiji Society |volume=for the years 1955–1957 |pages=6(1): 3–16}}</ref> and in the early 19th century devastated the [[Great Andamanese]] population.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4987406.stm | title = Measles hits rare Andaman tribe | work = BBC News | date = 16 May 2006 }}</ref> In [[Hokkaido]], an epidemic of smallpox introduced by Japanese settlers is estimated to have killed 34% of the native [[Ainu people|Ainu]] population in 1845.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Walker BL |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D5iOcHB3h5AC |title=The Conquest of Ainu Lands: Ecology and Culture in Japanese Expansion, 1590–1800 |date=2001 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-93299-9 }}</ref>