The biological mingling of the Old and New Worlds began with the first voyage of Columbus. Amerindians had never before experienced the deadly Eurasian sickness... » 

The biological mingling of the Old and New Worlds began with the first voyage of Columbus. Amerindians had never before experienced the deadly Eurasian sicknesses brought by the foreigners in wave after wave, and it was this, the author argues, that conquered the indigenous peoples of the Americas. «