Virgin Soil-Epidemics or Black

Legend?Is it time for a more

balanced explanation for the causes of the Great Dying in the Americas?

The Black Legend• Bartolomé de las Casas

(1484-1566): Spanish cruelties caused the depopulation of the Amerindians

• Lewis Cass (1782-1866): European influences were to blame, albeit in an indirect manner

Virgin Soil-theory• After 1966: Crosby,

McNeill and Diamond• Indians lacked

natural resistance to European diseases Virgin Soil

• European cruelties played their part, but disease caused most of the decline

Problems with Virgin Soil• Risk of suggesting the

biological inferiority of Indians Francis Jennings

• Risk of denying European responsibility for the depopulation

• Massimo Livi-Bacci: European influences should not be overlooked

The Return of the Black Legend?

• Richard H. Steckel: Indians did not live in a disease-free society

• Massimo Livi-Bacci: The Indians would have gotten immune after the first disease-waves

• The Spanish participated in policies which caused the Indian populations to decrease

Conclusion• Disease and ill-treatment walked

hand-in-hand in the depopulation of the Americas

• An initial wave of diseases caused the initial depopulation, which were worsened by the European treatment of the Indians afterwards

• Both the Black Legend and the Virgin Soil-theory should be nuanced