Editing Christopher Columbus (section)

==== Depopulation ====
{{Further|Taino#Depopulation}}
{{See also|Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas}}
Around the turn of the 21st century, estimates for the {{nowrap|pre-Columbian}} population of Hispaniola ranged between 250,000 and two million,{{sfn|Dyson|1991|pp=183, 190}}{{Sfn|Zinn|2003|p=5}}<ref name=Keegan>Keegan, William F., "Destruction of the Taino" in ''Archaeology''. January/February 1992, pp. 51–56.</ref>{{efn|[[Bartolomé de las Casas]] estimated that there were three to four million Taínos in Hispaniola, and said 500,000 Lucayans were killed in the Bahamas. Most modern historians reject his figures.<ref name=Keegan />}} but [[genetic analysis]] published in late 2020 suggests that smaller figures are more likely, perhaps as low as 10,000–50,000 for Hispaniola and Puerto Rico combined.<ref name="Fernandes">{{cite journal |last1=Fernandes |first1=D. M. |last2=Sirak |first2=K. A. |last3=Ringbauer |first3=H. |date=23 December 2020 |display-authors=etal |title=A genetic history of the pre-contact Caribbean |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=590 |issue=7844 |pages=103–110 |doi=10.1038/s41586-020-03053-2 |pmid=33361817 |pmc=7864882 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Dutchen |first=Stephanie |date=23 December 2020 |title=Ancient DNA shines light on Caribbean history, prehistory |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/12/ancient-dna-shines-light-on-caribbean-history-prehistory/ |url-status=live |access-date=27 May 2021 |website=[[Harvard Gazette]]-US |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201223163004/https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/12/ancient-dna-shines-light-on-caribbean-history-prehistory/ |archive-date=23 December 2020}}</ref> Based on the previous figures of a few hundred thousand, some have estimated that a third or more of the natives in Haiti were dead within the first two years of Columbus's governorship.<ref name="Zinn" />{{sfn|Dyson|1991|pp=183, 190}} Contributors to depopulation included disease, warfare, and harsh enslavement.{{sfn|Horwitz|2008|p=}}<ref>{{cite book |first=Alfred W. |last=Crosby |author-link=Arthur W. Crosby |title=The Columbian Exchange |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |location=Westport, Connecticut |date=1972 |isbn=978-0-8371-7228-6 |page=47}}</ref> Indirect evidence suggests that some serious illness may have arrived with the 1,500 colonists who accompanied Columbus' second expedition in 1493.{{sfn|Horwitz|2008|p=}} [[Charles C. Mann]] writes that "It was as if the suffering these diseases had caused in [[Eurasia]] over the past millennia were concentrated into the span of decades."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mann |first=Charles C. |title=1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created |publisher=[[Alfred A. Knopf]] |date=2011 |location=New York |isbn=978-0-307-27824-1 |page=12}}</ref> A third of the natives forced to work in gold and silver mines died every six months.<ref name="Hickel">{{cite book |last=Hickel |first=Jason |title=The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions |date=2018 |publisher=Windmill Books |location=London, England |isbn=978-1-78609-003-4 |page=70 |author-link=Jason Hickel}}</ref><ref name=":4" /> Within three to six decades, the surviving Arawak population numbered only in the hundreds.<ref name="Hickel" />{{sfn|Dyson|1991|pp=183, 190}}<ref>Crosby (1972) p. 45.</ref> The indigenous population of the Americas overall is thought to have been reduced by about 90% in the century after Columbus's arrival.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Koch |first1=Alexander |last2=Brierley |first2=Chris |last3=Maslin |first3=Mark |last4=Lewis |first4=Simon |date=1 March 2019 |title=Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492 |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=207 |pages=13–36 |bibcode=2019QSRv..207...13K |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.12.004 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Among indigenous peoples, Columbus is often viewed as a key agent of genocide.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schuman |first1=H. |last2=Schwartz |first2=B. |last3=D'Arcy |first3=H. |date=28 February 2005 |title=Elite Revisionists and Popular Beliefs: Christopher Columbus, Hero or Villain? |url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c45b/6dae70b6f92891b09a99a0337cbf0235eb97.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200226064041/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c45b/6dae70b6f92891b09a99a0337cbf0235eb97.pdf |archive-date=26 February 2020 |journal=Public Opinion Quarterly |volume=69 |issue=1 |pages=2–29 |doi=10.1093/poq/nfi001 |s2cid=145447081}}</ref> [[Samuel Eliot Morison]], a [[Harvard University]] historian and author of a multivolume biography on Columbus, writes, "The cruel policy initiated by Columbus and pursued by his successors resulted in complete genocide."<ref name="Morison">{{cite book |last1=Morison |first1=Samuel Eliot |url=https://archive.org/details/christophercolum00mori |title=Christopher Columbus, Mariner |publisher=Little Brown & Co. |location=New York |year=1955 |isbn=978-0-316-58356-5 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

According to Noble David Cook, "There were too few Spaniards to have killed the millions who were reported to have died in the first century after Old and New World contact." He instead estimates that the death toll was caused by [[smallpox]],<ref name="Cook1998">{{cite book |last=Cook |first=Noble David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dvjNyZTFrS4C&pg=PA9 |title=Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492–1650 |year=1998 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge, England |isbn=978-0-521-62730-6 |pages=9–14}}</ref> which may have caused a pandemic only after the arrival of [[Hernán Cortés]] in 1519.<ref>{{cite book |title=Smallpox and its eradication |vauthors=Fenner F, Henderson DA, Arita I, Ježek Z, Ladnyi ID |date=1988 |publisher=World Health Organization |isbn=978-92-4-156110-5 |series=History of International Public Health |volume=6 |location=Geneva |page=236 |chapter=The History of Smallpox and its Spread Around the World |hdl=10665/39485 |access-date=29 April 2021 |chapter-url=https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/blaw/bt/smallpox/who/red-book/9241561106_chp5.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/blaw/bt/smallpox/who/red-book/9241561106_chp5.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Oliver |first1=José R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nkYAMSusYKkC&q=hispaniola+pandemic+1519&pg=PA192 |title=Caciques and Cemí idols: the web spun by Taíno rulers between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico |date=2009 |publisher=[[University of Alabama Press]] |isbn=978-0-8173-5515-9 |edition=[Online-Ausg.]. |location=Tuscaloosa |page=192 |access-date=25 December 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Deadly Diseases: Epidemics throughout history |website=CNN |url=https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2014/10/health/epidemics-through-history/ |access-date=25 December 2017}}</ref> According to some estimates, smallpox had an 80–90% fatality rate in Native American populations.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Arthur C. |last1=Aufderheide |first2=Conrado |last2=Rodríguez-Martín |first3=Odin |last3=Langsjoen |date=1998 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qubTdDk1H3IC&pg=PA205 |title=The Cambridge encyclopedia of human paleopathology |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge, England |page=205 |isbn=0-521-55203-6}}</ref> The natives had no [[acquired immunity]] to these new diseases and suffered high fatalities. There is also evidence that they had poor diets and were overworked.<ref name="Austin-Alchon2003" /><ref>Crosby (1972) pp. 39, 47</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Martin |first1=Debra L. |last2=Goodman |first2=Alan H. |date=2002 |title=Health conditions before Columbus: paleopathology of native North Americans |journal=[[Western Journal of Medicine]] |publisher=[[BMJ (company)|BMJ]] |location=London, England |volume=176 |issue=1 |pages=65–68 |doi=10.1136/ewjm.176.1.65 |pmc=1071659 |pmid=11788545}}</ref> Historian [[Andrés Reséndez]] of [[University of California, Davis]], says the available evidence suggests "slavery has emerged as major killer" of the indigenous populations of the Caribbean between 1492 and 1550 more so than diseases such as smallpox, influenza and malaria.<ref>{{cite book |last=Reséndez |first=Andrés |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2gpCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA17 |title=The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America |date=2016 |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]] |isbn=978-0-547-64098-3 |page=17 |author-link=Andrés Reséndez}}</ref> He says that indigenous populations did not experience a rebound like European populations did following the [[Black Death]] because unlike the latter, a large portion of the former were subjected to deadly forced labor in the mines.<ref name=":4">{{cite news |last=Treuer |first=David |date=13 May 2016 |title=The new book 'The Other Slavery' will make you rethink American history |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |url=https://latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-native-american-slavery-20160505-snap-story.html |access-date=21 June 2019}}</ref>

The diseases that devastated the Native Americans came in multiple waves at different times, sometimes as much as centuries apart, which would mean that survivors of one disease may have been killed by others, preventing the population from recovering.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Koch |first1=Alexander |last2=Brierley |first2=Chris |last3=Maslin |first3=Mark |last4=Lewis |first4=Simon |title=Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492 |journal=[[Quaternary Science Reviews]] |publisher=[[Elsevier]] |location=Wollongong, New South Wales |date=1 March 2019 |volume=207 |pages=13–36 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.12.004 |bibcode=2019QSRv..207...13K |quote=While most of the other epidemics in history however were confined to a single pathogen and typically lasted for less than a decade, the Americas differed in that multiple pathogens caused multiple waves of virgin soil epidemics over more than a century. Those who survived influenza, may later have succumbed to smallpox, while those who survived both, may then have caught a later wave of measles. Hence, there were documented disease outbreaks in the Americas that killed 30% of the remaining indigenous population over 50 years after initial contact, i.e. between 1568 CE and 1605 CE |doi-access=free}}</ref> Historian [[David Stannard]] describes the depopulation of the indigenous Americans as "neither inadvertent nor inevitable", saying it was the result of both disease and intentional genocide.<ref name="Stannard1993xii">{{cite book |last1=Stannard |first1=David E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RzFsODcGjfcC&pg=PR12 |title=American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-19-983898-1 |location=Oxford, England |page=xii |author-link=David Stannard}}</ref>