WHAT HAPPENED TO THE NATIVE PEOPLE OF THE AMAZON?

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Before the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in the 15th century, an estimated 7-10 million Amerindians (the term for American indigenous peoples) lived in American rainforests, half of them in Brazil. Great cities existed in the Andes and the Amazon supported agricultural societies.

The arrival of Europeans brought the end of the native civilizations in Central and South America. Europeans carried diseases that killed millions of Amerindians and within 100 years of the arrival of these outsiders, Amerindian population was reduced by 90%. Most of the surviving native people lived in the interior of the forest: either pushed there by the Europeans, or traditionally living there in smaller groups.