Life among the big cities of Europe was much different then we know them as today. In 1492 there was an epidemic outbreak of many diseases, such as plague and smallpox, which accompanied the common measles, influenza, diphtheria, typhus, and typhoid fever, that claimed the lives of 20 percent of the population. European pesthouse cities, at the time, were so poor that they relied heavily on in-migration from the countryside to preserve the cities existence. Famine was very common in the sixteenth-century. "The rich ate, and ate to excess, watched by a thousand hungry eyes as they consumed their gargantuan meals. The rest of the population starved." This became the norm of this era. As a result from the outbreak of disease and the threat of famine this "in-migration" occurred. A failure to migrate out of this area resulted in a mass death repeatedly in the fifteenth century. People had no other choice, either they stayed in their disease and famine stricken cities or they move to the pesthouse cities of Europe, neither which was too enticing. .
While the poor people were struggling to survive each day, the rich were left to live their lives of luxury. As I had stated before the rich ate in excess, while a famine had brought on mass death repeatedly in the fifteenth century. As a result of this, the poor were surrounded by a repulsive stench that was born deep in the large and open pits in which laid the bodies of the poor. Most poor people never bathed, not even once in a lifetime. Therefore, you can imagine the vile aroma that was given off by the living as well. The combination of the two must have been utterly repulsive, much to the contrary of the lives of luxury the rich were living. .
I would use the words genocide and holocaust to describe what the Spanish did to the native people they encountered. Columbus seized and kidnapped these Indian men, women, and children, similar to how the Nazi's did to the Jew's during the holocaust.
