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Between 1775 and 1782, a
smallpoxSmallpox is an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning spotted, or varus, meaning "pimple"...
epidemicDefining an epidemic can be subjective, depending in part on what is "expected". An epidemic may be restricted to one locale , more general or even global...
raged across much of North America, killing more than 130,000 people. It rampaged the town of
BostonBoston is the capital and largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is considered the economic and cultural center of the region and is sometimes regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England"...
during the British occupation and the American
siege of 1775The Siege of Boston was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War, in which New England militiamen—who later became part of the Continental Army—surrounded the town of Boston, Massachusetts, to prevent movement by the British Army garrisoned within...
. It was present during the American
invasion of QuebecThe Invasion of Canada in 1775 was the first major military initiative by the newly-formed Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. The objective of the campaign was to gain military control of the British Province of Quebec, and convince the French-speaking Canadiens to join the...
in 1775. Smallpox ravaged the populations of escaped slaves who fled to the British lines in the South during the
American Revolutionary WarThe American Revolutionary War , also sometimes known as the American War of Independence, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen united former British colonies in North America, and concluded in a global war between several European great powers...
. New Orleans experienced great bouts of it from 1778 to 1779. Tens of thousands of people died throughout Mexico from smallpox beginning in 1779.
Smallpox then swept through the Pueblos of
New MexicoNew Mexico is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. Inhabited by Native American populations for many centuries, it has also been part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S. territory. Among U.S...
beginning in 1780. It showed up in the interior trading posts of the
Hudson's Bay CompanyThe Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and is one of the oldest in the world...
in 1782, and then it devastated the people of the
Great PlainsThe Plains Indians are the Indigenous peoples who live on the plains and rolling hills of the Great Plains of North America.-Plains Indians:...
during the
1837-38 smallpox epidemicThe smallpox epidemic that ravaged the people of the Great Plains in 1837 and 1838 was believed to have begun in spring of 1837 when a deckhand became ill aboard an American Fur Company steamboat named S.S. St. Peter. The steamboat traveling up the Missouri River to Fort Union from St...
.