The Latin West and the Americas
A Milestone Documents E-text
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The Latin West and the Americas
https://doi.org/10.3735/9781961844605.book.part.002

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Abstract

Columbus’s arrival in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492, marked the beginning of centuries of interaction between the Iberian states (Spain and Portugal) and the Americas. These interactions transformed not only the Native American societies of the New World but also the societies of the Old World. Although the consequences of the Columbian contact was more dramatic for indigenous Americans, whose total population may have dropped as a result of disease and violence from around fifty million in 1492 to roughly nine million by 1650, it was nonetheless significant for the Spanish and Portuguese.

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