Cocoliztli Epidemic of 1545–1548

Date

1545–1548

Category

Social & demographic

Region

Mexico (New Spain), Mesoamerica

Era

Early Modern

Significance

The cocoliztli epidemic of 1545–1548 was a catastrophic outbreak of disease that swept through the Indigenous populations of New Spain, emerging in the central and southern Mexican Highlands near present-day Puebla and spreading from Sinaloa in the north to Chiapas and Guatemala in the south.

Named from the Nahuatl word for "pest" or "sickness," the disease produced high fevers, black tongue, dark urine, and profuse bleeding, killing victims within days. Estimates of the death toll range from roughly 5 to 15 million people, eliminating as much as 80 percent of the native population and ranking among the worst demographic catastrophes in human history, comparable to the Black Death in Europe. The outbreak coincided with one of the most severe megadroughts in North America in 500 years, identified through tree-ring data, which may have intensified the epidemic by concentrating rodent populations and stressing already weakened communities. A 2018 ancient-DNA study led by Johannes Krause recovered Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Paratyphi C from sixteenth-century burials in Oaxaca, suggesting paratyphoid fever as a likely agent, though the precise cause remains debated. The demographic collapse accelerated the breakdown of Indigenous society and enabled Spanish colonial authorities to reorganise labour systems such as the repartimiento.

Empires active in 1545–1548

• Songhai Empire
  1464 CE – 1591 CE
• Ming Dynasty
  1368 CE – 1644 CE
• Ottoman Empire
  1299 CE – 1922 CE
• Solomonic dynasty
  1270 CE – 1974 CE
• Mughal Empire
  1526 CE – 1857 CE
• Portuguese Empire
  1415 CE – 1999 CE

Related social & demographic events

• The Haitian Revolution begins in Saint-Domingue
  22 August 1791
• Destruction of Palmares and the death of Zumbi
  1694–1695
• The Columbian Exchange and the demographic collapse of Indigenous America
  From 1493 (16th century)
• The Black Death sweeps Europe, North Africa and the Middle East
  1347–1351 CE
• The Great Irish Famine
  1845–1852
• Emancipation of the serfs in Russia
  3 March 1861 (19 February O.S.)

Further reading

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

The wider story

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari

Global best-seller on how our species, its populations and societies remade the world.

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