Globalization and disease Spanish soldiers introduced smallpox by contact with natives of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan. A devastating epidemic broke out among the indigenous people, killing thousands. In 1617, smallpox reached Massachusetts, probably brought by earlier explorers to Nova Scotia, Canada.” By 1638 the disease had broken out among people in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1721 people fled the city after an outbreak, but the residents spread the disease to others throughout the thirteen colonies. Smallpox broke out in six separate epidemics in the United States through 1968. The smallpox vaccine was developed in 1798 by Edward Jenner. By 1979 the disease had been
Indigenous people of Oaxaca remained largely an agriculture-based economy with little development throughout the colonial period, following Mexican independence in 1821 and following the revolution of 1910. By the 1980s and 1990s, Oaxaca was one of Mexico's poorest states. The state, and the indigenous people in particular, had some of the nation's highest rates of illiteracy, malnutrition, and infant mortality. The Oto-Manguean languages are a large family comprising several families of Native American languages, which has not been positively related to any other group of languages. The Oto-Manguean family has existed in southern Mexico at least since 4000 BCE and probably before. The highest