Columbian Exchange · 1518-1620

The great dying: epidemics in the Americas

Smallpox, measles and other diseases from Europe and Africa met people in the Americas who had never faced them. Together with war and forced labour, they caused one of the largest population collapses in history. Students explore how and why, with care.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
12–15
On the map
3 steps, AD 1518 to AD 1620
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Smallpox, measles and other diseases from Europe and Africa met people in the Americas who had never faced them. Together with war and forced labour, they caused one of the largest population collapses in history. Students explore how and why, with care.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain why diseases from Europe and Africa were so deadly in the Americas.
  • Trace how smallpox spread from the Caribbean to Mexico and the Andes.
  • Explain why historians link the death toll to war, forced labour and hunger as well as disease.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1518

First recorded outbreak

Open the map in 1518 over the Caribbean. Smallpox was first recorded in the Americas on Hispaniola in December 1518. Look at the short sea crossings to Cuba and the mainland. How could a disease travel by ship?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1525

Ahead of the conquerors

Zoom out to the whole of the Americas. Smallpox reached Mexico in 1520 and probably the Andes by the late 1520s, before Pizarro arrived. How could a disease move faster than the Spaniards themselves?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1620

Before the Pilgrims

Move to New England in 1620. An epidemic in 1616-1619 had killed many of the Wampanoag and their neighbours. Find Plymouth Bay: the Pilgrims settled where a village had been emptied. How would that shape the meeting of the two peoples?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. People in the Americas had never met smallpox or measles before. Why did that make the diseases so deadly?
  2. Disease struck at the same time as war, forced labour and hunger. How could each make the others worse?
  3. Historians estimate the population of the Americas in 1492 at anywhere from about 8 million to over 100 million. Why are the estimates so far apart?
  4. Many historians think the Indigenous population fell by about 90 percent within a century. How would such a loss change a society's memory, leaders and skills?
  5. Why do we have few records written by the people who lived through these epidemics, and where can we still find their voices?
4

Game round

10 min

Play Rule History as Moctezuma II. After his death in 1520, his successor Cuitláhuac ruled for only about 80 days before dying of smallpox. Discuss: how can a ruler lead a city when a new disease is killing a large share of its people, including its leaders?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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