This refers to the significant reduction in the population of Native Americans post-European contact, primarily due to diseases brought by Europeans such as smallpox, measles, and influenza.
Imagine you're playing a game with your friends where everyone starts with 100 points. Suddenly, a new player joins who has a special power that takes away 50-90% of everyone else's points without them having any defense against it. That's similar to how European diseases affected Native American populations - they had no immunity or defense against these foreign diseases.
Epidemic: A widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.
Immunity: The ability of an organism to resist a particular infection or toxin by the action of specific antibodies or sensitized white blood cells.
Smallpox: An acute contagious viral disease, with fever and pustules usually leaving permanent scars. It was effectively eradicated through vaccination by 1979.
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