Quote Originally Posted by podoh View Post
If you're interested in this whole exchange-of-diseases thing, I can strongly recommend the book "Guns, germs and steel" by Jared Diamond to you. Most of my argument here are taken from there.
I can heartily recommend that book. It sets out to investigate why it was the Europeans rather than the Africans or Native Americans that came to dominate the globe. Instead of assuming a racial or cultural basis, it looks at how geography has affected the development of technology, society and infectious diseases (hence: "Guns, Germs and Steel"). That could have been very boring, but instead it is a very informative and easy-to-read book that makes a good argument against racism.

Diamond mentions two other causes for the decimation of Native American cultures by disease. European society had access to far more domesticateable animals, and their germs. The cities of Western Europe were also very dense, making a very effective breeding ground for disease. As as result the European explorers carried more and deadlier pathogens with them than did the Native Americans.