The largest part of a more general process of biological globalization that followed the transoceanic voyaging of the 15th and 16th centuries.
The impact was most severe in the Caribbean, where by 1600 Native American populations on most islands had plummeted by more than 99 percent. Across the Americas, populations fell by 50 percent to 95 percent by 1650. The disease component of the Columbian Exchange was decidedly one-sided.