Demography and the “Great Dying”

How many students are in your school: 500? 1,000? 3,000? Are those numbers growing or shrinking? When administrators make decisions about adding a classroom or hiring staff, they use that kind of data about the school population size. It’s called demographic analysis. Historians also use this statistical tool. It helps them figure out when, where, and why the size of populations have changed. A historical period of particular interest is around the year 1500. A decline in population occurred among the indigenous people of the Americas after the arrival of Europeans in the late 1400s. It is referred to as the “Great Dying.”

Demographic changes in the Americas

Columbus and his crew arrived in the Americas in 1492. Historians continue to piece together what happened to the indigenous population afterward. The Spaniards brought diseases such as measles, smallpox, and influenza. Most Europeans had some resistance to these deadly illnesses. However, they were new to the Americas. These germs proved a deadly new threat to indigenous Americans. Once brought to the Americas, these diseases spread quickly.

Historians are still trying to determine how many indigenous people died as a result. Research shows a 50 to 90 percent decline in population. The major question is how many people lived in the Americas before 1492. Historians have estimated that it might have been as high as 112 million. It might have been as low as 8 million. Pretty big difference, right? It raises a lot of questions about how much the arrival of Europeans affected indigenous peoples and their cultures.

The debate persists. We do not have a clear understanding of indigenous population sizes before 1492. Researchers have relied on the records Europeans created after colonization began. They have also studied archaeological evidence about populations of indigenous settlements.

The influx of Europeans and Africans after 1492 also led to the creation of new kinds of societies. For some Europeans, the migration was temporary. They weren’t looking for a new place to live. They just wanted to make quick money and carry their wealth back home. Many other Europeans had no choice. Some were sent to the Americas as punishment for crimes and forced to work as indentured servants. In addition, millions of African men and women were enslaved and transported unwillingly across the Atlantic. The population of the Americas continued to change as Europeans, Africans, and indigenous peoples had children together. The Spanish colonial government called people of mixed heritage “mestizo” and “mulatto”.

Demographic changes in Africa

The Atlantic slaving system caused demographic changes in Africa. It violently removed millions of young people from African communities. Related wars resulted in many more deaths. But, the effects were not felt in the same way in all parts of Africa. Africans captured and enslaved in their homelands were often moved to other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Populations in some of these regions actually grew. New crops from the Americas may have contributed to higher birth rates in West Africa. Some parts of Africa were not heavily affected by the slaving networks. Still, this system of enslavement did lasting harm to many cultures across the African continent.

Sugarcane and the “Plantation Complex”

Millions of enslaved Africans were brought to the Americas as enslaved labor. This system is known as the plantation complex. It consisted of large farms Europeans created for commercial farming in the Americas. The idea for these plantations came from the Madeira Islands off the North African coast in the 1420s. Portuguese settlers got rich exporting sugar from the islands to Europe. It became a profitable business model. Spanish and Portuguese producers brought the idea of the plantation complex to their colonies in the Americas. It soon changed the physical environment, populations, and cultures. Dramatically.

By the fifteenth century, sugar was one of the most desired products in Europe. So much so that when Christopher Columbus set sail in 1492 to search for a new route to Asia, he took sugarcane plants. Though he failed to reach Asia, he did start his own sugar plantation in the Caribbean. Columbus’s sugar plantation was the first of many established by Europeans. Everyone wanted in on this trade. The success of American plantations, however, came to depend on enslaved labor. The system, therefore, required a steady supply of enslaved people from Africa.

The effects of forced labor on sugar plantations

The lives of enslaved peoples on sugar plantations were often cruel and short. Plantations owners used brutal punishments on them. The working and living conditions on the plantations were horrible. Many enslaved workers died young due to injury and illness. Uncounted numbers of them were worked to death. The increased death rate meant more enslaved people were needed. It caused a steady demand for enslaved people to be brought from Africa.

The plantation complex drove demographic changes in both the Americas and Africa. Ultimately these changes proved disastrous for native peoples. European empires were built on the suffering and deaths of indigenous Americans and enslaved Africans. The global interactions would have lasting consequences for everyone involved.