people of North America,”The rapid expansion of European settlement was facilitated by the vulnerability of NativeAmerican populations to European diseases. Having long been isolated from the rest of theworld, Native Americans had no immunity to diseases such as measles and smallpox.Transmitted by Europeans and Africans who had built up immunity to them, these diseaseskilled up to 90 percent of Native Americans within the first 100 years of contact.Roughly 18 million Native Americans lived in North America in 1492. By1542, after just a few Spanish expeditions, only half that numbersurvived. By 1907, slightly more than 400,000, or a mere 2 percent ofthe 1492 population

people of North America,”The rapid expansion of European settlement was facilitated by the vulnerability of NativeAmerican populations to European diseases. Having long been isolated from the rest of theworld, Native Americans had no immunity to diseases such as measles and smallpox.Transmitted by Europeans and Africans who had built up immunity to them, these diseaseskilled up to 90 percent of Native Americans within the first 100 years of contact.Roughly 18 million Native Americans lived in North America in 1492. By1542, after just a few Spanish expeditions, only half that numbersurvived. By 1907, slightly more than 400,000, or a mere 2 percent ofthe 1492 population

remained.”