The Earth and Its Peoples - Chapter 18
CHAPTER 18 The Diversity of American Colonial Societies, 1530?1770 I?? seq NLA \r 0 \h . The Columbian Exchange A?? seq NL1 \r 0 \h . Demographic Changes 1?? seq NL_a \r 0 \h . The peoples of the New World lacked immunity to diseases from the Old World. Smallpox, measles, diphtheria, typhus, influenza, malaria, yellow fever and maybe pulmonary plague caused severe declines in the population of native peoples in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies. Syphilis was the only significant disease thought to have been transferred from the Americas to Europe.