Although the Columbian Exchange allowed for the beneficial exchange of cultures, ideas, foods, and animals around the world during the period 1450-1750, it also had a dark side. A harmful result of the Columbian exchange would be the spread of smallpox from Europe to the New World. The great explorations and subsequent migrations of Europeans to the Americas in the 15th-18th centuries opened those entire continents to the fatal impact of infectious diseases. of Europe. The European conquests owed much of their success to the effects of disease on indigenous populations, particularly smallpox in the Americas. Before the Spanish conquest of the New World, there were no diseases or major health problems that the natives were forced to face. Everything changed, however, when European explorers, particularly the Spanish conquistadors, unknowingly brought the deadly disease smallpox to Latin America. A recollection of the days before the Spanish by a Yucatan Indian, taken from the book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel, shows how the natives were free from disease before the arrival of the Spaniards: “There was no disease then; they had no aching bones; they didn't have a high fever then; they didn't have smallpox then; then they did not have burning breasts; they had no abdominal pain then; then they had no consumption; they didn't have a headache then. At that time the course of humanity was orderly. Foreigners did it differently when they got here.” Then, after the Spanish arrived in the New World and spread smallpox among the natives, over 95% of them were killed. The Taino population of Hispaniola, once estimated at 8 million, virtually became extinct. The population of central Mexico rose from 15 million in 1519 to 1.5 million a century later. ...... middle of paper ...... Food and ideas." Journal of Economic Perspectives 2nd ser. 24 (2010): 163-88. Scholar.harvard.edu. Harvard College. Web. 14 October 2013 . Sale, Kirkpatrick. The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Heritage 1st ed. Courses open at Yale. Yale College, February 3, 2010. Web. October 14, 2013. .Steffano-Davis, Stephanie S. “A Great Desolation: Yellow Fever, Smallpox, and Influenza in American History.” Thesis. Humboldt University, 2006. A Great Desolation: Yellow Fever, Smallpox, and Influenza in American History October 14. 2013. .