Globalization and disease Eurasian diseases to the Americas was that many more native peoples were killed by disease and germs than by the colonists' use of guns or other weapons. Scholars estimate that over a period of four centuries, epidemic diseases wiped out as much as 90 percent of the American indigenous populations. In Europe during the age of exploration, diseases such as smallpox, measles and tuberculosis (TB) had already been introduced centuries before through trade with Asia and Africa. People had developed some antibodies to these and other diseases from the Eurasian continent. When the Europeans traveled to new lands, they carried
Caeté people Caeté people The Caetés (Kaeté) were an indigenous people of Brazil, linguistically belonging to the Tupi people. The Tupi people were a large group of indigenous people who populated Brazil's coast, and they were among the first natives that the Portuguese encountered when they arrived at South America. The Tupi were divided into several tribes such as the: Tupiniquim, Tupinambá, Potiguara, Tabajara, Temiminó, Tamoios, and the Caeté. This tribe was estimated to contain approximately 300-2,000 people in the early 1500s, but their population eventually diminished greatly due to European diseases and slavery once the Portuguese began to settle in Brazil.