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
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies been accused by many scholars about making exaggerated claims in terms of the death toll and mistreatment of the indigenous people. Today, it is known that Old World diseases and the lack of immunity caused a large number of indigenous deaths. The reason why De Las Casas did not mention the number of indigenous deaths caused by old world diseases is not a political one. During the 1400s, people did not know what caused disease or how it spread. The discovery of germs wasn't until the 1500s, and their association with diseases was not even accepted by the medical profession