6. Smallpox epidemics 1520 in Mexico
Death toll 6.5 million (estimated 5 to 8 million)
Year: 1520 – 1521
Hernan Cortes landed in Mexico in 1519 on the Yucatan peninsula. He quickly proceeded to conquer the entire Aztec empire in about two years. While pillaging, raping and killing, Cortes and his men managed to do something even more sinister to the Aztecs, albeit unintentionally. They gave them smallpox. The virus, unleashed on a virgin soil, wreaked havoc among Aztecs, who lack any immune response to the disease. Between 5 and 8 million of them died in the first smallpox epidemics in the New World. But that wasn’t the worst thing that would happen to them in the 16th Century.
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