Germs: the Key to Ruling the World

Say it with me now, “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” We’ve all heard this rhyme before and we all know what happens next: Columbus ‘finds’ North America, Spain colonizes the land, the natives are all but wiped out, and the great kingdom of Christianity expands boundlessly. The Spanish accomplished this feat through their advanced technology, wonderful guns, and a their own secret weapon: germs.

Figure 1: Columbus' famous journey

Figure 2: the first encounter between the Spanish and the Natives (watch out for germs!!!)

Some historians approximate that almost 95% of the native population was killed by European germs. The most deadly among them was smallpox. So let’s dive in and find out how smallpox handed the Western Hemisphere to them gosh darn Spaniards.

 Smallpox is a virus, woohoo our favorite!!! A virus is a little blip that is genetic information all bundled up in a little cocoon of protein. Smallpox has its genetic information stored in its beautifully stable DNA double helix. It’s been so effective at killing its hosts in the last thousand years that it barely has to mutate to survive. One study found that in 10 years the only mutations in the genome were three single nucleotides. Anyhoooo, so the smallpox virus enters the human host through the nose or mouth, moves to the lungs, multiplies, and spreads through the lymphatic system. It causes lots of little pustules to form throughout the skin that are filled with smallpox DNA. When these pustules *pop* they spread smallpox DNA to whomever is around. Infected persons tend to die with 12 days. :((((sad.

Figure 3: the smallpox virus!!!

But wait!!! Not all the Europeans died from smallpox. Smallpox became transmitted to humans from farm animals. As Europeans farmed and lived with their animals, they became exposed to the big S. But some people became immune. Stick with me here, it’s going to get a wee bit confusing. When a pathogen (a little baddy guy) enters the body, we got some ways to fight em. Certain cells will eat the bad guy, chop it up real small, and then display it for the rest of the immune system to see. The cell essentially briefs the other cells and says, “Look at this guy. I. Just. Ate. Him. If you see anything that might possibly even resemble this, KILL IT on sight.” In response to this, the B cells produce antibodies that essentially neutralize the threat of those goshdarn smallpox viruses. Through this immunity, Europeans were able to have tiny smallpox virus in their bodies that didn't cause them harm but could be introduced to other populations. BUm bUM bUm!!!

Back to the story!!! When those silly Spaniards arrived on Hispaniola they brought with them smallpox.The virus moved from the immune European population to the native population that had never seen this disease. The cells in the native people's bodies could not create antibodies in time so the disease spread like wildfire. The virus spread faster than the Spanish who had to lug around all their conquistador stuff. Many times the Spanish would arrive at a village to conquer it and find it had already been conquered by the best ally ever: SMALLPOX.

And that's how it's done. Moral of the story: if you want to conquer a place inhabited by people already all you have to bring with you are a couple germs that those people haven't seen before.

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Photos from: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6