Indigenous peoples of the Americas Smallpox killed from one third to half of the native population of Hispaniola in 1518. By killing the Incan ruler Huayna Capac, smallpox caused the Inca Civil War of 1529–1532. Smallpox was only the first epidemic. Typhus (probably) in 1546, influenza and smallpox together in 1558, smallpox again in 1589, diphtheria in 1614, measles in 1618—all ravaged the remains of Inca culture. Smallpox killed millions of native inhabitants of Mexico. Unintentionally introduced at Veracruz with the arrival of Pánfilo de Narváez on April 23, 1520, smallpox ravaged Mexico in the 1520s, possibly killing over 150,000 in Tenochtitlán (the heartland of
Indigenous people of Oaxaca warmer by the coast and in the Papaloapan region, which is part of the Gulf of Mexico coastal plain. Oaxaca is the historic home of the Zapotec and Mixtec peoples among others, and contains more speakers of indigenous languages than any other Mexican state. Excavations have shown that the region has had a settled population for at least 4,000 years. In the pre-Columbian period, the Zapotec developed an advanced civilization centered in Monte Alban in the central valley, which lasted between 300 BC and 700 AD. The state was expansionist, and extended its authority to the north, west, and southwest.