Population history of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas

Population figures for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas prior to European colonization have been difficult to establish. Estimates have varied widely from as low as 8 million to as many as 100 million, though many scholars gravitated toward an estimate of around 50 million by the end of the 20th century.^[1]^[2]

The monarchs of the nascent Spanish Empire decided to fund Christopher Columbus' voyage in 1492, leading to the establishment of colonies and marking the beginning of the migration of millions of Europeans and Africans to the Americas. While the population of European settlers, primarily from Spain, Portugal, France, England, and the Netherlands, along with African slaves, grew steadily, the Indigenous population plummeted. There are numerous reasons for the population decline, including exposure to Eurasian diseases such as influenza, pneumonic plagues, and smallpox; direct violence by settlers and their allies through war and forced removal; and the general disruption of societies.^[3]^[4] Scholarly disputes remain over the degree to which each factor contributed or should be emphasized; some modern scholars have categorized it as a genocide, claiming that deliberate, systematic actions by Europeans were the primary cause.^[5]^[6]^[7] Traditional scholars have disputed this characterization, maintaining that incidental disease exposure was the primary cause.^[6]^[8]^[9]

^ Taylor, Alan (2002). American colonies; Volume 1 of The Penguin history of the United States, History of the United States Series. Penguin. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-14-200210-0. Retrieved 7 October 2013.
^ David E. Stannard (1993). American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World. Oxford University Press. p. 151. ISBN 978-0-19-508557-0.
^ Ostler, Jeffrey (29 April 2020). "Disease Has Never Been Just Disease for Native Americans". The Atlantic. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ David E. Stannard (1993). American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World. Oxford University Press. p. 146. ISBN 978-0-19-508557-0.
^ ^a ^b Ostler, Jeffrey (2019). Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas. Yale University Press. pp. 11–17, 381. ISBN 978-0-300-24526-4. Since 1992, the argument for a total, relentless, and pervasive genocide in the Americas has become accepted in some areas of Indigenous studies and genocide studies. For the most part, however, this argument has had little impact on mainstream scholarship in U.S. history or American Indian history. Scholars are more inclined than they once were to gesture to particular actions, events, impulses, and effects as genocidal, but genocide has not become a key concept in scholarship in these fields.
^ Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne (2014). An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States. Beacon Press. ISBN 978-0-8070-0041-0.
^ Alvarez, Alex (2015). "Gary Clayton Anderson. Ethnic Cleansing and the Indian: The Crime That Should Haunt America". The American Historical Review. 120 (2): 605–606. doi:10.1093/ahr/120.2.605. ISSN 1937-5239.
^ Feinstein, Stephen (2006). "God, Greed, and Genocide: The Holocaust Through the Centuries, by Arthur Grenke". Canadian Journal of History. 41 (1): 197–199. doi:10.3138/cjh.41.1.197. ISSN 0008-4107. For the most part, however, the diseases that decimated the Natives were caused by natural contact. These Native peoples were greatly weakened, and as a result, they were less able to resist the Europeans. However, diseases themselves were rarely the sources of the genocides nor were they the sources of the deaths which were caused by genocidal means. The genocides were caused by the aggressive actions of one group towards another.

[1] Taylor, Alan (2002). American colonies; Volume 1 of The Penguin history of the United States, History of the United States Series. Penguin. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-14-200210-0. Retrieved 7 October 2013.

[2] David E. Stannard (1993). American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World. Oxford University Press. p. 151. ISBN 978-0-19-508557-0.

[3] Ostler, Jeffrey (29 April 2020). "Disease Has Never Been Just Disease for Native Americans". The Atlantic. Retrieved 12 April 2022.

[:3-4] Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[5] David E. Stannard (1993). American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World. Oxford University Press. p. 146. ISBN 978-0-19-508557-0.

[:0-6] Ostler, Jeffrey (2019). Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas. Yale University Press. pp. 11–17, 381. ISBN 978-0-300-24526-4. Since 1992, the argument for a total, relentless, and pervasive genocide in the Americas has become accepted in some areas of Indigenous studies and genocide studies. For the most part, however, this argument has had little impact on mainstream scholarship in U.S. history or American Indian history. Scholars are more inclined than they once were to gesture to particular actions, events, impulses, and effects as genocidal, but genocide has not become a key concept in scholarship in these fields.

[7] Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne (2014). An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States. Beacon Press. ISBN 978-0-8070-0041-0.

[8] Alvarez, Alex (2015). "Gary Clayton Anderson. Ethnic Cleansing and the Indian: The Crime That Should Haunt America". The American Historical Review. 120 (2): 605–606. doi:10.1093/ahr/120.2.605. ISSN 1937-5239.

[9] Feinstein, Stephen (2006). "God, Greed, and Genocide: The Holocaust Through the Centuries, by Arthur Grenke". Canadian Journal of History. 41 (1): 197–199. doi:10.3138/cjh.41.1.197. ISSN 0008-4107. For the most part, however, the diseases that decimated the Natives were caused by natural contact. These Native peoples were greatly weakened, and as a result, they were less able to resist the Europeans. However, diseases themselves were rarely the sources of the genocides nor were they the sources of the deaths which were caused by genocidal means. The genocides were caused by the aggressive actions of one group towards another.

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