AD 1518: Mayans report smallpox spread to Yucatan Peninsula
Mayan writings record that tribal trade expeditions traveling by canoe have spread smallpox to the Yucatan Peninsula from Hispaniola. Spanish invaders, including Hernán Cortés, who will wage war against the Aztecs, will carry the smallpox inland.
- Theme
- Epidemics
- Region
- Caribbean
Image of a Mesoamerican infected with smallpox; illustrated panel from the Florentine Codex, a compendium of information on Aztec people and history by Bernardino de Sahagún, a 16th-century Spanish Franciscan missionary
Courtesy Granger Collection, New York