Roughly what was the total native population of the Americas on the eve of European arrival?

70 million. The natives on the eve of the arrival of the Europeans totalled roughly 70 million, a figure that collapsed catastrophically within 150 years.Read more: WorldHist0061 — Colonies, Disease and the Slave Trade in the Americas

Colonies, Disease and the Slave Trade in the Americas

The Americas had 70 million native people before Europeans arrived. A century and a half later, only 3.5 million remained.

This article covers the demographic collapse of native Americans, Portuguese Brazil, and the start of the Atlantic slave trade.

A Brazilian sugar mill (engenho), painted around 1664 by Frans Post, a Dutch artist who documented colonial Brazil firsthand. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

📑 Contents

1The Demographic Collapse
2Disease: The “Invisible Bullets”
3Cabral’s Accidental Discovery of Brazil
4Sugar, Slavery and Brazil
5The Scale of the African Slave Trade
6Jesuit Criticism of Slavery
7What Europe Gained
8The Slavery Debate: Equiano and Eric Williams
9Epilogue: Latin America Today
10Exam Wisdom: Slavery’s Two Sources

🏛️ Must Know

The Demographic Collapse

Pre-ConquestBefore Europeans arrived, the Americas’ native population totalled around 70 million people.
Regional EstimatesPre-conquest Mexico alone held 30 to 37.5 million people, with a similar number in the Andes and 10 to 13 million in Central America.
Catastrophic FallA century and a half later, this population had collapsed to just 3.5 million.
The CausesWarfare and disease were primarily responsible for this collapse.

Disease: The “Invisible Bullets”

SmallpoxOld World diseases, especially smallpox, devastated the Arawaks, who had no immunity and died in huge numbers.
Invisible BulletsLocal people imagined these diseases were caused by “invisible bullets” fired by the Spanish.
Total LossThe extinction of the Arawaks and their entire way of life is a stark reminder of this tragic encounter.

Cabral’s Accidental Discovery of Brazil

By AccidentThe Portuguese occupation of Brazil happened by accident, when Pedro Alvares Cabral’s fleet, bound for India, looped wide around West Africa in 1500.
Papal LineSince this stretch of South America fell within Portugal’s assigned share of the Pope’s dividing line, Portugal claimed it outright.
BrazilwoodPortugal’s early interest was timber: the brazilwood tree, which gave the region its name and produced a valuable red dye.

Sugar, Slavery and Brazil

CaptainciesIn 1534, Portugal’s king divided Brazil’s coast into fourteen hereditary “captaincies,” granting settlers land and the right to enslave locals.
Sugar PlantationsIn the 1540s, the Portuguese began growing sugarcane on large plantations, depending on native labour to run the mills.
Turn to AfricaAs natives fled into the forests to escape enslavement, plantation owners turned instead to importing slaves from West Africa.

📘 Good to Know

The Scale of the African Slave Trade

3.6 MillionBetween the 1550s and 1880s, over 3,600,000 African slaves were imported into Brazil alone.
Nearly HalfThis was almost half of the total number of African slaves imported into the entire Americas.
Concentrated OwnershipBy 1750, some individual owners in Brazil held as many as a thousand slaves.
Spanish Colonies DifferedThe Spanish colonies did not need to import as many African slaves, since conquered Aztec and Inca populations already provided forced labour.

Jesuit Criticism of Slavery

Jesuits ArriveFrom 1549, Jesuit missionaries went out to Brazil, arguing for humane treatment of native people and living in forest villages.
Unpopular StanceEuropean settlers disliked the Jesuits, since they strongly criticised slavery itself.
Vieira’s WordsJesuit priest Antonio Vieira wrote in the 1640s that anyone able to restore another’s freedom, but failing to, “is condemned.”

What Europe Gained

Silver FlowsBetween 1560 and 1600, a hundred ships a year carried South American silver back to Spain.
Others BenefitedSpain and Portugal did not reinvest this wealth well. It was England, France, Belgium and Holland who built merchant navies and trading companies instead.
New CropsEurope gained new foods from the Americas too, including potatoes, chillies, tobacco, cane-sugar, cacao and rubber.

🌟 Great to Know

The Slavery Debate: Equiano and Eric Williams

Africans InvolvedSome 1780s debates noted that slavery predated Europeans in Africa, and that African traders helped capture people for sale.
Equiano’s ReplyFreed slave Olaudah Equiano’s 1789 autobiography countered this, arguing that slaves in Africa were treated as part of the family.
Eric WilliamsIn the 1940s, historian Eric Williams’s Capitalism and Slavery was among the first modern works to reassess African slaves’ suffering.
New Staple CropsIn return for captives, African traders received New World crops like maize, manioc and cassava, which became local staples.

Epilogue: Latin America Today

IndependenceIn the early nineteenth century, European settlers in South America rebelled against Spain and Portugal, echoing the 1776 US rebellion against Britain.
“Latin America”South America is called “Latin America” because Spanish and Portuguese both belong to the Latin family of languages.
Mixed HeritageToday’s inhabitants are mostly Creole, European and African in origin, with a culture blending native and European traditions.

Exam Point of View

Exam Wisdom: Slavery’s Two Sources

WhyNo previous-year question on Brazil’s slave trade specifically has appeared in the papers indexed on this site yet. This card offers general exam wisdom instead of a specific citation.
Watch ForDon’t confuse the Spanish and Portuguese colonial labour patterns: Spain relied mainly on conquered native populations, while Portuguese Brazil turned to African slaves.
Key ContrastThis site’s existing article on colonial economics covers the broader Triangular Trade system that this chapter’s Brazil-specific facts feed into.

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