Population history of American indigenous peoples

There were millions of people living in the Americas when Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492. Columbus's voyage to what Europeans called the "New World" set the stage for the later European colonization of the Americas, with millions of emigrants (willing and unwilling) from the "Old World" eventually resettling in the Americas. While the population of Old World peoples in the Americas steadily grew in the centuries after Columbus, the population of the American indigenous peoples plummeted. The extent and causes of this population decline have long been the subject of controversy and debate, and became particularly widespread in 1992 during the 500th anniversary of Columbus's famous voyage, with a number of people claiming that the natives of the Americas have been the victims of genocide.

Related Topics:
The Americas - Christopher Columbus - 1492 - European - New World - European colonization of the Americas - Old World - 1992 - Genocide

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