When Europeans First Came to North America, One of the Most

When Europeans first came to North America, one of the most disastrous impacts on native populations was the introduction of ʺOld World diseases.ʺ These diseases, such as smallpox, influenza, and plague, devastated the Native American population as the number of settlers grew steadily. One author has called this ʺthe greatest human catastrophe in history, far exceeding . . . the Black Death of Medieval Europe.ʺ Based on this scenario and what you know about the immune system, what can you conclude about the Native American and European populations?

A) The Europeans had been vaccinated against all of these diseases.
B) Native Americans were genetically vulnerable to these diseases, which are not caused by microbes.
C) Native American immune systems had not evolved in the presence of these novel microbes and were at a great disadvantage when exposed to them over a relatively short period of time.
D) Native American immune systems were inherently inferior to those of the Europeans and were not capable of developing immunity to the same microbes.