Question 25 of 27
Although scholars debate the exact numbers, in Alvin Josephy’s estimate, the Indian population fell from between 15 and 20 million when the white man first arrived to a fraction of that 150 years later. Undoubtedly, the Indians perished in great numbers. Yet although European enslavement of Indians and the Spanish forced labor system extracted a heavy toll in lives, the vast majority of Indian casualties occurred not as a result of hard labor or deliberate destruction.
–from “The Crimes of Christopher Columbus,” Dinesh D'Souza, 1995
Use the passage to answer the question.
Which of the following statements about the effects of the Columbian Exchange can be supported by evidence in this article?
A. Contagious diseases spread to both Europe and the Americas.
B. Europeans deliberately killed between 15 and 20 million Indians.
C. Tuberculosis was responsible for most Indian deaths.
D. Europeans committed genocide against Native Americans.