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Edwil Brylle Bisnar

Humanities 10: Periods 2/3 - Honors By Exhibition
Mrs. Ambrose and Ms. Augustine
14 December 2015
Population Patterns During Colonization of the Americas
One of the most notable events during the Age of Exploration was the exploits and achievements of the
conquistadors sent to the Americas, especially Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizzaro. They eventually
took over the lands they visited, and looted the riches of the empires they defeated. However, they also
made an ultimately important change: they made an upheaval in the lives of the local people in the
Americas, and most of all, permanently affected the population in the Americas, for both the American
natives and European colonists.
Before the arrival of the Europeans, prosperous empires such as the Aztecs, Incans, and Mayans
were home to vast populations greater than that of Europeans developed states. While the Inca empire
itself was the largest empire on earth during its heyday in 1491, the Mexican Plateau alone had a
population of 25.2 million inhabitants. Spain and Portugal, on the other hand, only had a combined
population of less than 10 million. Comparing these numbers, Mexico was the most densely populated
place on earth during its peak, with twice as many people per square mile than China or India (Mann
94). The conquistadors arrival and its effects heavily affected the population; the state of the native
Americans would be massively changed to the point of no return. In the aftermath of their conquest, the
numbers of the Europeans began to spread throughout the Americas, and the Europeans and their
descendants came to replace the native Americans as the dominant group.
Before the arrival of the Europeans, the Americas were teeming with activity, bearing a large
population. During Columbus landing, the Mexican Plateau alone had 25.2 million people in its
population, these numbers courtesy of physiologist Sherburne F. Cook and historian Woodrow W.

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Borah (Mann 94). Later research from anthropologist Henry F. Dobyns lifted the Indian population in
1491 to around 90-112 million (Mann 94).
An example of the prosperity of native Americans before European colonization would be the
Mayans and the cities around their area. One of the areas most powerful kingdoms, Tikal, was able to
grow during the reign of its ruler of the time Chak Tok Ichaak; within eighteen years, the population
grew to ten thousand, and had acquired diplomatic stature (Mann 244). However, Mayan civilizations
began to decline around 900 A.D., as a number of factors contributed to this sudden disappearance. So
far, the canonical theory comes from Sylvanus G. Morley from Harvard, who proposed that the Mayans
collapsed by exceeding their environments carrying capacity; in other words, they exhausted their
resources and slowly starved, eventually abandoning their cities (Mann 246).
One suggested theory to how this resource exhaustion went was how the Mayans cut down their
forests. The lack of tree cover caused erosion and flooding, forcing farmers to try to use more land to
feed their growing population. Later, a dry period from between 800-900 A.D. caused the population to
decline (Mann 246-247). Mayans improved their agriculture in order to support their growing
population. Because they did this by revamping the landscape, making farming terraces on hills, and
building reservoirs, Mayan cities became more vulnerable to erosion and weather (Mann 273).
The city of Kaan was the first Mayan city to fall, marking the beginning of the Maya collapse.
Throughout 800 and 830 A.D., other cities and dynasties in the Maya area caught up with Kaan (Mann
275). Across the next hundred years, the southern area population declined by at least 3 quarters, but
although the central Mayan cities ceased to exist, the population still existed in the millions, although it
is no longer densely populated within cities (Mann 276). To sum up, the Mayan downfall was caused
through the natural processes of overpopulation, drought, and exhaustion of resources.
The turning point in history came with the beginning of Spanish conquest. Unlike with the
Mayans, the population changes during this period were forced upon the natives, and involved a more

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drastic decline. Upon the arrival of Hernan Cortes, the conquistador allied with other indigenous groups
such as the Cempoalans, the Xocotlans, and the Tlaxcalans (Sherwood 231). However, one of the more
significant events before Cortes arrived at Tenochtitlan was his recruiting of indigenous translator
Malintzin, better known as Dona Marina in Spanish. She would bear the son of Cortes, who would be
one of the first people of mixed European and indigenous American descent. Although the Spanish
were at first driven out of the Aztec capital during the Night of Sorrows, Cortes later returned with
immense reinforcements and superior technology, effectively defeating the Aztecs and claiming
Tenochtitlan.
Prior to the siege, the Aztec empire was already crumbling, thanks to European diseases. Before
Cortes arrived in 1518, the Aztec population was 25.2 million, which dropped to 700,000 in 1623; this
is a 97 percent drop (Mann 99). The sharpest decline in population during this period was caused by
smallpox and possibly measles. Even before Cortes had sieged Tenochtitlan, smallpox alone had killed
over half of the Aztec population. Other diseases besides smallpox that the Spaniards brought over to
the new world included measles, mumps, and typhus (Beck 122).
In the case of the Inca empire, when conquistador Francisco Pizarro arrived, he only had a small
army of roughly 200. This is in contrast to Atahualpas own force of about 30,000 (Beck 122).
However, thanks to their steel, horses, and their murder of Atahualpa, Pizarro was able to best the Inca
force. Just like with the Aztecs, smallpox had also taken its toll on the equally, if not more, powerful
Inca empire. Smallpox had killed Wayna Qhapaq, the Inca ruler before Atahualpa. During that time
(1254-5), a smallpox breakout had killed at least 200,000, and spread throughout the empire by taking
advantage of the roads and population movements (Mann 87).
The Inca empire was repeatedly struck with smallpox over the years of 1533, 1535, 1558, and
1565 (Mann 92). Later on, the Inca were hit with typhus in 1546, influenza in 1558, diphtheria in 1614,
and measles in 1558; Dobyns suggested that these epidemics killed 9 out of 10 of the Inca people

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(Mann 92). When these numbers are put with the statistics of Aztec deaths from smallpox, it comes to
show how much of a role diseases played in the population change and demise of the indigenous
American city-states.
Smallpox, which had been introduced by the Europeans, was a new disease for the Americans,
enabling it and other similar diseases to quickly kill off large portions of the population. This state of
pestilence also rendered those populations vulnerable to the Europeans, in multiple ways. Not only did
disease affect the strength of defending cities, but it also killed off important leaders in native American
states. One notable example was the death of Wayna Qhapaq (the Inca leader), which was caused by
smallpox. In the wake of his death, a civil war within the Inca began between his sons, Atahualpa and
Washkar (Mann 88). The civil war also left the empire in a vulnerable state, with Atahualpa unprepared
for the arrival of Francisco Pizarro. Thus, disease is one of the factors responsible for the decline of a
state, whether it be through killing the population or beginning factionalism.
After the conquest of the major civilizations in the Americas, the Europeans began to gradually
replace the native Americans as the dominant group. Because most of the Spanish settlers in the
Americas were men, relationships with these settlers and native women were common, creating a large
Mestizo population (Beck 123). The Mestizos were people of mixed European and indigenous
American descent. As an example, the child that Dona Marina and Hernan Cortes shared, Martin
Cortes, was one of the first Mestizos in Mexico.
Meanwhile, even after the Spanish conquest was complete, the native population continued to
decline. A smallpox epidemic in 15451548 and typhus epidemic in 15761581 had killed up to 75
percent of the Mesoamerican population (New World Encyclopedia). According to the New World
Encyclopedia website, The population before the time of the conquest is estimated at 15 million; by
1550, the estimated population was 4 million and less than 2 million by 1581. However, the Native
Americans still made up a good portion of the population of New Spain, as Sherburne F. Cook and

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Woodrow Borah had calculated that in 1568-70, the population of Mexico was 2,733,412, breaking
down as follows: Europeans, 62,866 (2.3%); Mestizos, 2,417 (0.1%), free blacks and others with
African blood, 22,566 (0.8%); Indians, 2,645,573 (96.8%) (McAlister 130).
The native American territory taken by the Spanish was integrated as New Spain. The site of
Tenochtitlan was turned into what is now known as Mexico City by the Spanish. The Spanish also
regularly mistreated the remaining natives after the completion of their conquest. In a system known as
encomienda, Spanish forced natives to work under landlords; this was done to allow the Spanish to
gain access to the lands resources (Beck 123). Besides natives, Africans were also brought to the
Americas to be slaves, a factor that also contributed to the population increase. This African population
had increased through slave trade to the point where African slavery was more commonly used than
Native American slavery (New World Encyclopedia).
Overall, the Spanish seized advantage of the natives and forced them into their own lifestyle.
This takeover from the Spanish established them as the dominant group in their territory in the
Americas, leading to great change of the environment. As said by Dr. Sharon Gocke, a Program
Coordinator of AA Humanities and Philosophy at Napa Valley College, Europeans were able to
confiscate the best land relegating the worst land to Native Americans. Europeans prospered, not the
Native Americans. Europeans took advantage of the Native Americans, who didn't understand
ownership of land or signed contracts. The Europeans also abandoned the agriculture system of the
native Americans used, affecting the environment. An example of this was in South America, where
endive and spinach from colonial gardens had overgrown into the natural environment, becoming
invasive species (Mann 314). With the native Americans and their landscape modification gone, the
Europeans had inadvertently disrupted the environment of the Americas. As Gocke said, Europeans
believed that humans had control of nature, raping and abusing her at every turn.
The period where Europe begins its colonization of the Americas made an important change in

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history overall. The arrival of conquistadors like Cortes and Pizarro led to the collapse of the powerful
empires that bore large populations, and European diseases brought from overseas drastically reduced
the population of the indigenous Americans over time. During the beginning, the Americas had a
massive population in the millions, with empires like the Aztecs and Incas being larger, denser, and
more thriving than European nations. Sadly, as a result of the Europeans Age of Exploration, this
native population sharply declined into the thousands, while the Europeans gradually replaced the
indigenous people of the Americas, taking up their stolen territory, and creating a new mixed ethnic
group, the Mestizos. The natives who were left over were also turned into laborers by their conquerors,
making the Europeans the dominant group of people. The main cause of this drastic change in
population for the natives was diseases brought over from Europe, which were responsible for killing
many people in various epidemics. In the end, the Europeans ended the prosperity of the native
Americans across South and Central America, and established their own territory that spread across
their former territory. This ultimately changed history forever, with Europeans spreading all over the
Americas, and the environment of that area heavily affected with the decline of its indigenous
Americans.

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Works Cited
"Aztec Civilization." New World Encyclopedia. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.
Beck, Roger B. Modern World History: Patterns of Interaction. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2005.
Print.
"European Colonization of the Americas." New World Encyclopedia. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.
Mann, Charles C. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. New York: Knopf, 2005.
Print.
McAlister, Lyle N. Spain and Portugal in the New World, 1492-1700. Vol. 3. Minneapolis: U of
Minnesota, 1984. Print.
Sherwood, Frances. Night of Sorrows: A Novel. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. Print.