When Europeans started settling in the Caribbean, it was only a matter of time before the viruses and bacteria that had evolved in the Old World in the wake of the Neolithic Revolution made the jump across the Atlantic. The Taíno had never before been exposed to these pathogens and so hadn’t developed resistance. They were obliterated by wave after wave of virgin soil epidemics.[13] First came illnesses like common colds and stomach bugs that had relatively mild symptoms for Europeans but were devastating for the immunologically naive indigenous inhabitants of Hispaniola. Then smallpox hit in
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