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 peoples of the Americas was the general rule in the rest of North America, the history of the colony of New Spain was one of racial intermingling ("mestizaje"). "Mestizos", which in Mexico designate people who do not identify culturally with any indigenous grouping, quickly came to account for a majority of the colony's population; but 6% of the Mexican population identify as speakers of one of the indigenous languages. The CDI identifies 62 indigenous groups in Mexico, each with a unique language. In the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca and in the interior of the Yucatán Peninsula the majority of the population is indigenous.