Contact and the Columbian Exchange

1492 CE — Caribbean, Indigenous Americas / Spain

Today: The Caribbean (and the whole Atlantic world)

When Columbus's ships reached the Caribbean, they linked two halves of the world that had been separate for 12,000 years — and unleashed a biological catastrophe. Old World diseases like smallpox, to which Native Americans had no immunity, killed perhaps 90% of the hemisphere's population within a century, the deadliest demographic collapse in recorded history. It was disease, more than steel, that emptied the Americas for conquest — a reminder that pathogens, not just armies, decide the fate of worlds.

Worth knowing: So many tens of millions died so fast that farmland reverted to forest across two continents, pulling enough carbon from the air that it may have measurably cooled the entire planet.

Pattern: Demographic shock & recovery — A sudden collapse in population (plague, famine, mass violence) creates labor scarcity that reorders economy and society.

Entry 153 of 240 in Precedent, a walk through the whole human story in order.