Abstract

MARTINEZ-MARTIN, Abel-Fernando  and  OTALORA-CASCANTE, Andrés-Ricardo. The Plague that Left Homes Depopulated and Cities Deserted in the New Kingdom of Granada, 1633. Historelo.rev.hist.reg.local [online]. 2023, vol.15, n.34, pp.205-239.  Epub Mar 14, 2024. ISSN 2145-132X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/historelo.v15n34.102425.

Based on primary sources, this research article addresses the forgotten General Plague in the New Kingdom of Granada in 1633 which contrasts with classical sources of the history of medicine and historical demography. It was a confluence of two epidemics. A smallpox epidemic that affected the child population, and another epidemic on Virgin soil of exanthematic typhus or tabardillo transmitted by lice, which were frequent in the highlands of the plateau. It first affected the rural population of the indigenous towns, especially adults, and then the population of Santafé and Tunja causing a health, social, and economic crisis that marked the definitive collapse of the Indigenous population, affecting mines, agriculture, and commerce. This was accompanied by a political crisis between the President of the Real Audiencia and the archbishop, seen as divine punishment. The Virgin of Chiquinquirá was employed for the second time in Tunja and Santafé against the epidemic. The sources demonstrate that drought, depopulation, and famine accompanied the epidemic, and among its consequences were the arrival of Juan de Dios' brothers to manage the hospitals and the first medical professorship in the New Kingdom of Granada.

Keywords : depopulation; epidemics; exanthematic typhus; smallpox; New Kingdom of Granada; 1633.

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