Mysterious Disease Almost Eliminated All Of The Aztecs Revealed

We’ve been questioning what type of disease nearly wiped out the Aztecs in the middle of the 16^th century for years, with the most believed theory being smallpox brought onto with Spanish conquistadors. However, recent DNA analysis has revealed latest proof on what actually killed 80% of them.

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DNA from Aztec teeth presented a strand of Salmonella, and study on climate change in Mexico at that time specifies that droughts possibly caused the disease to spread in a sudden and unexpected way.
The problem remains unsolved is whether future studies might be able to clarify how the tremendous epidemic devastated the Aztecs, and whether the population was introduced something fatal by the invasion of the Spanish conquistadors.

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In 2018, researchers found that a number of Aztecs contracted with diseases from a strain of Salmonella named Paratyphi C, presenting itself as typhoid fever, able to spread through food or water. Meanwhile, some assumed it was because the Aztecs were forced into poor working conditions, in closer proximity to rodents, which they believe to be the disease vector.
Scientists conducted DNA analysis on Aztec teeth from 29 skeletons in Mexico to find out Paratyphi C’s direct role in wiping out a portion of Aztecs population. The new screening technique, Megan Alignment Tool, enabled them to find the traces of the Salmonella sequences.

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However, there is still more DNA testing needs doing, because the samples were just from 29 out of millions of Aztecs deceased. More burial sites need to be tested prior to giving any conclusion. Furthermore, although a number of scientists believe that the Aztecs vanished due to a blood-borne illness, in fact, Salmonella infection doesn’t explain the facial bleeding.
Symptoms of the disease contracted with the aspect included fever, headaches, vertigo, dark urine, black tongue, large nodules on the neck and face, neurological problems, and, most notably, bleeding from the eyes, nose, and mouth, which were all provided in documents by King Philip II’s physician, Francisco Hernández

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Though these symptoms have yet to match one disease specifically, modern experts approve of Hernández’s description, due to him being the most qualified in terms of medical knowledge at that time.
From 1545 to 1550, nearly 15 million Aztecs died. When compared with other diseases, 20 million people died from the bubonic plague in nearly 10 years. Note that 15 million Aztecs died were concentrated in Mexico, while the Black Death spread all over Europe. Named ‘cocoliztli’, the terrible epidemic killed one person in a couple of days.

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The disease was even worsened by climate change, according to new findings, which stated that a “megadrought” occurred between 1545 and 1576, spanning the entire continent, considered the worst drought in Mexico for over 6 centuries.
Reseachers used tree ring analysis to calculate the amount of rain during those years, only to find a connection between the drought and the massive number of deaths related to cocoliztli, which was remarkably absent from warmer, wetter areas like the Gulf of Mexico.

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However, cocoliztli and smallpox weren’t the only things that annihilated the Aztecs, as many of them were massacred as the practice of human sacrifice. The exact number of human sacrifices is still unknown, yet there is an estimation of about 20,000 people annually. Furthermore, archaeologists recently unearthed a tower of 650 skulls in the formerly Tenochtitlan in 2017.
Human sacrifices, combined with the loss of 25% of the population to smallpox, greatly weakened the Aztecs when facing the Spanish. Together with the mysterious bleeding epidemic, the Aztecs stood no chance against the Conquistadors.

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It is the Spanish explorers who were to blame for carrying with them diseases including smallpox and even possibly Salmonella. Scientists conducted DNA analysis with human remains buried before the Spanish came, finding that they contain no proof of the fatal bacteria.
Notably, only 5 skeletons were tested, though the bacteria haven't otherwise been found in Mexico, but has been found in other places in Europe. Astonishingly, the Aztecs weren’t the only native population to suffer from widespread disease, regardless of what exactly wiped out 80% of them, whether it was Salmonella or a rat-borne illness associated with climate change.

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While European explorers are to blame for introducing diseases like smallpox to native populations, it looks like they also carry the blame for Salmonella. Scientists tested skeletons that had been buried prior to the arrival of the Spanish, and those remains showed no evidence of the fatal bacteria.
Regardless of what exactly wiped out 80% of the Aztecs, whether it was Salmonella or a rat-borne illness related to climate change, they were not the only native population to suffer devastating consequences at the hand of disease.

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In fact, all of North America was almost free of diseases, especially aggressive ones like smallpox, prior to the arrival of Europeans. But in many cases, the explorers found completely empty villages by the time they ventured further into the New World.
For many years, it was thought North America simply wasn't heavily populated; in reality, the Native Americans had already been killed off by diseases to which they had no immunity.