Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject History - America, grade: A+, Johns Hopkins University, course: The Rise and Fall of Empires, language: English, abstract: In this paper, I will examine both the theory of "e;virgin soil"e; epidemics, as well as those that complicate it. In doing so I will look at a broad range of scholarship spanning multiple geographical sites, numerous Amerindian tribes, as well as various colonial powers - England, France, and Spain. Although a concentration of attention will be placed on the Spanish conquests, the aim is to extract a generalized "e;macro view"e; of the germ-centered narrative of European conquest, rather than to examine any one battle, tribe or oppressor. As a result of my investigation, I will dissent from the growing popularity of the theory of "e;germ-dominated colonization"e; and offer a broader, more complex, understanding of how widespread depopulation of America s aboriginals, and the ensuing European hegemony, might have more realistically unfolded. Ultimately, the reason behind the success of European colonialism is likely not to be the neat dramatic stuff of a "e;major PBS television special"e; but rather, in Livi-Bacci s words, "e;The unsettling normality of conquest"e;.

Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject History - America, grade: A+, Johns Hopkins University, course: The Rise and Fall of Empires, language: English, abstract: In this paper, I will examine both the theory of "e;virgin soil"e; epidemics, as well as those that complicate it. In doing so I will look at a broad range of scholarship spanning multiple geographical sites, numerous Amerindian tribes, as well as various colonial powers - England, France, and Spain. Although a concentration of attention will be placed on the Spanish conquests, the aim is to extract a generalized "e;macro view"e; of the germ-centered narrative of European conquest, rather than to examine any one battle, tribe or oppressor. As a result of my investigation, I will dissent from the growing popularity of the theory of "e;germ-dominated colonization"e; and offer a broader, more complex, understanding of how widespread depopulation of America s aboriginals, and the ensuing European hegemony, might have more realistically unfolded. Ultimately, the reason behind the success of European colonialism is likely not to be the neat dramatic stuff of a "e;major PBS television special"e; but rather, in Livi-Bacci s words, "e;The unsettling normality of conquest"e;.

Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject History - America, grade: A+, Johns Hopkins University, course: The Rise and Fall of Empires, language: English, abstract: In this paper, I will examine both the theory of "e;virgin soil"e; epidemics, as well as those that complicate it. In doing so I will look at a broad range of scholarship spanning multiple geographical sites, numerous Amerindian tribes, as well as various colonial powers - England, France, and Spain. Although a concentration of attention will be placed on the Spanish conquests, the aim is to extract a generalized "e;macro view"e; of the germ-centered narrative of European conquest, rather than to examine any one battle, tribe or oppressor. As a result of my investigation, I will dissent from the growing popularity of the theory of "e;germ-dominated colonization"e; and offer a broader, more complex, understanding of how widespread depopulation of America s aboriginals, and the ensuing European hegemony, might have more realistically unfolded. Ultimately, the reason behind the success of European colonialism is likely not to be the neat dramatic stuff of a "e;major PBS television special"e; but rather, in Livi-Bacci s words, "e;The unsettling normality of conquest"e;.