Why are the early settlers blamed for intentially infecting Indians with blankets?

Question

I'm just wondering why I read this so often in history books. They didn't even know how disease was spread. So I'm thinking that yes it probably spread disease but not in some malicious genocide attempt.

Answer 1

American natives didn't have immunity to most of the common diseases that the Europeans brought over with them.. Things that only made settlers sick, quickly killed the Indians.  

I remember that one specific time the Army gave the Indians a bunch of blankets that were infected with small pox.  I forget which tribe it was but it was almost completely wiped out.  Did they do it on purpose?  I'd like to think No but I'll bet someone at the top knew exactly what they were doing.    

Answer 2

Umm no.  People werent completely clueless in the old days.  People have known how disease was spread for centuries.   Its proven by the fact that when armies would lay siege to a fortified city, they would catapult dead and rotting animal or human carcasses over the walls and into the city so the people would get sick and start dieing.  They knew stuff like that spread disease.   And yes, when the european settlers came to the new world, the brought with them many diseases that the indians had no natural body immunites to.  the new settlers were already killing the native people, the diseases just happened to help them out.  And, then the event about the blankets that you are talking about, is true.  When the native americans were causing trouble, the U.S. government put small pox on the blankets and then shipped the blankets to the indians along with other supplies.  This was to kill  them off so the u.s. could take their land.  Dont say that the people in the old days didnt know what they were doing.  This type of biological warfare has been seen for hundreds and hundreds of years throughout history.

Answer 3

I think it was Spanish Conquistador Cortez who gave small pox infected blankets to the Aztecs, which subsiquently killed of the majority of them and then Cortez destroyed their empire.

Answer 4

No it wasn't deliberate, you are right they didn't know how those diseases were spread, and they certainly didn't have any biological weapons at that time. It was accidental but the diseases were spread and kill large percentages of native population all over the world.  

Answer 5

      Yes, I'm both ashamed and and amazed that most don't know this. The U.S. Army, knowing that these blankets came from small pox ridden families would kill the indians due to there low tolerances would be a way to get rid of them without firing a shot.