Practice question · Multiple choice
Why did Eurasian populations carry epidemic diseases that American populations did not?
Hints
- Smallpox, measles, influenza, what do these have in common in origin?
- Which continent had large domesticable herd animals?
Show the answer
C. Millennia of living beside domesticated herd animals
Why
They are zoonoses: the price Eurasia paid for cattle, pigs, and horses was millennia of livestock disease crossing over, and the immunity that came with surviving it. The Americas had almost no herd domesticates and therefore no exposure.
Practise Big History and Environmental History
The app has 4 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. History I is free to start.
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