How Disease Made South America Christian

We in the U.S., especially those of us of European ancestry, like to think of ourselves as successful. Our ancestors came from Europe and defeated the natives to settle the Americas.

While it is true our long history of travel and warfare gave us an advantage over natives on these continents and allowed our culture and Christianity to prevail, another factor not discussed very much is disease. It was simply fortuitous the natives had no immunity to our diseases. If our ancestors acquired diseases here they had no immunity the tables would be reversed and today this may not be a "Christian nation."

A new article about the invasion of Mexico by Cortes highlights the role of small pox in his success. The white Spaniards had immunity but the Aztecs did not. The population of Aztec people dropped dramatically. They lost the will to fight the Cortes army and the country became Christian.

A priest accompanying Cortes wrote that there were so many Aztec deaths many corpses were left in their homes and the homes demolished. In North America also there is testimony diseased blankets were given Indians and death followed.

If there is a lessen in this history, it would have to be that Christianity did not prevail because it is "the truth." It prevailed because of the warring history of its advocates, the cruel practices of Christians and simply good luck. Current trends do not seem to favor Christianity as past ones did.

Maybe good fortune in religion is somewhat haphazard and will fall to some other belief system in time.

https://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2019/02/20/how_smallpox_helped_spain_conquer_the_aztecs_110893.html

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